Design Project I Part B - Heat and Mass Transfer

After 6 weeks of intensive research and experimentation on drying of potatoes, design teams finally got to present their dryer design on 12 Nov 2008. Groups showed vast difference in confidence from that in the first week of the project. The presentation was a showcase of how design teams has progressed over the past 6 weeks. Groups showcased a variety of styles of presentation. Some teams focused on the business aspects,some towards the marketing aspect and some gearing towards technicality. It was a eye opening encounter this afternoon as various teams displayed very different styles of approaching the project. Dr Erik Birgersson, who is our project supervisor, was generally impressed with the performance by the teams today.

1st BEST Series Talk

On 5th of November, the long awaited 1st BEST Series Talk was held at LT2 at 1600 to 1700 hours.

The main speaker, Dr. Palani Balaya talked about the "Anomalous behavious of nano-materials".

He shared about how nanostructures can play a part to be energy-saving and energy-efficient. 

*UPDATE : 

At 3.50pm most of the participants have been seated. The turnout was an overwhelming crowd of more that 50 people from diverse backgrounds. The audience comprise of people who are interested in how this new discovery can propel their innovative sense to greater heights and  people who are interested in the result itself. 

The audience were a very focused group of people. Nail-biting and pencil-biting are the common evidence that they(the audience) were deep in thought. Those who hail from non-scientific background will probably find the entire lecture too technical, whilst those from the engineering and science background will follow through easily.

The essence of Dr. Palani's talk was to introduce us to the newly discovered property of anomalous behaviour, and in particular, how it had increased the efficiency of energy storage and generation. 

We all know that semiconductors conduct electricity only when electrons 'jump' across the conduction band. The main idea here is that semiconductor materials are fabricated at the nano-level, such that the atoms are so closely packed together, and the size of atoms are that of the conduction band. This results in a drastic improvement in energy efficiency, as there will now be less resistance to current flow.

Overall, the talk received a warm applause from students and they seem to be looking forward to the next BEST series talk, which will be held in Semester 2.

From,
Franco and Jen Sern

Congratulations to Dr Pang!

6 November 2008 might be remembered as a day at which US got the first african american president. However, as for ESPians, it would be remembered as the birth date of the baby girl of our beloved Dr. Pang. As an act of appreciation and blessings, the ESPians from all 3 batches have written a well wishes card for Dr. Pang and ESP Subclub was proud to present a gift to Dr. Pang for a gift of his daugther's borne. 

On behalf of whole Engineering Science Sub Club, once again, we would like to tell Dr. Pang, 'Congratulations and enjoy to be in the beginning of new stage of life with the participation of the little girl and hope Dr. Pang can enjoy teaching us in Engineering Science!'

From,
Franco