Guidelines ForME Students v3

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Guidelines for ME students Project Management

The learning objectives of the course are to familiarize with the research process that

would be encountered in the engineering practices, and participate in a research

project to obtain some hands-on experience. To achieve the above objectives, the

students will be asked to be involved in the typical research processes as follows:

1. Identification of research needs (defining phase of the project). A research

proposal (1-2 pages) will be prepared by the student, based on his OWN

understanding of the project. In the research proposal, the student needs to

discuss about the importance of the project, existing work and research gaps,

research approaches, timelines and budget etc.. An example is attached in the

next page. Normally the research projects are available from the lecturer and

naturally the research needs have been identified already. However it is still

very important for the student to organize the ideas and form a complete short

proposal. The library literature review course will help the student to identify

the research needs himself.

2. Creation of a research plan (planning phase of the project). A detailed research

plan will be then created, based on the research proposal. In the research

proposal a rough plan has already been discussed. A more detailed plan that

can be directly implemented needs to be created to guide weekly research

activities. The format should be a Table of Contents for the final thesis with

detailed deadlines (deliverables). An example is attached.

3. Conduct of research work according to the plan (implementing phase of the

project). After the plan has been created the research work can be started. The

plan should be followed and outcomes be handled to the supervisor for review

and comments. Record keeping is essential in this process. It is required that

the student keeps records on what has been attempted, what has been achieved

and what difficulties have been met, etc.. The record will be used as a

reference by the student himself and also an evidence of work. An example is

attached with more details included.

4. Presentation of research results (completing phase of the project). After the

work has been done it is important to present the results to colleagues. The

student will present the results in the annual student conference, and also in

the final thesis. An abstract for the conference will need to be prepared and a

thesis needs to be submitted at the end of the project. It is also required to

submit an interim report after one semester.

To summarize, the table below lists all the requirements for a student to complete the

course with Dr. Bo Feng, in order to help the student achieve the learning objectives

and complete the project smoothly and successfully. Requirements by the other

lecturers may differ.

Please come and discuss with me if you have any difficulties.


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List of requirements

(Please note that you need to read the course profile as well)

No Submissions Deadline Notes

1 Research proposal Week 3,

Friday

1-2 pages

Example attached

2 Research plan (Table of contents

of thesis, focusing on deliverables)

Week 5,

Friday

No page limits, as detailed

as possible

Example attached

3 Chapters (deliverables)

(sample below)

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Literature review

Chapter 3 Experimental

Chapter 4 Results and discussion

Chapter 5 Conclusion and

recommendation

Continuing

?

?

?

?

?

According to your own plan

4 Research journal Weekly Record research activities

and results each time doing

the work

Example attached

5 Interim report End of

Sem1

Summary of what has been

done and what is left

6 Final report End of

Sem2

Final report

Attachments

A research proposal

A research plan

Research record keeping

About meetings

I will be available for consultation every Wednesday afternoon. Please email me the

best time for you if you need to see me (half an hour).

Assessment

Please refer to the attachment for details about the assessment.

Marking criteria for project execution (20%, see attachment)

Standards for the interim report (15%, please see attachment)

Standards for the final report (65%, please see attachment)

Questions & Answers

Q: How much time should I spend on the project each week?


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A: a minimum of 10 hours a week, like a standard #2 course. This is the minimum

time that you have to allocate each week to do the project.

Q: Do I need to spend money on my project?

A: No. You will be fully supported. But you have to spend within the budget of your

project.

Q: What is the procedure of placing an order?

A: For internal purchasing, just fill in an internal requisition form. For external

purchasing, you need to fill in a different form or place an order online.

Q: What if I have a question before the Wednesday meeting?

A: Just send me an email and arrange a time for discussion.

Important:

1. All the students who need to do experiments have to do a safety induction and risk

assessment before entering the laboratory. Now both the safety induction and risk

assessment can be done online (http://www.uq.edu.au/ohs/index.html ). After

completing online inductions you need to do a lab induction with the lab manager,

and a risk assessment for the project you are doing.

http://www.uq.edu.au/ohs/index.html


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A research proposal

(for demonstration only)

This is a proposal by Yit Mun Lai. It is used here as an example to show the elements

of a research proposal, such as significance of the project, aims and objectives of the

project, background information, research approaches, budget and timelines.

____________________________________________________________________

Name: Yit Mun, Lai

Student Number: 40605764

Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Bo Feng

Thermoelectric material for power generation

Aims and objectives of the project:

The aim of the project is to identify the appropriate thermoelectric material for power

generation. The objective is to investigate and evaluate the potential, applications and

types of thermoelectric material for power generation. This project will study the

limitations and appropriate applications of thermoelectric materials in different types

of power generation applications. Then suggestions are made for suitable techniques

and materials that should be further developed for replacing current energy sources.

Background and significance

Thermoelectric material power generation, direct energy conversion from heat to

electrical power, presents several advantages compared to the other energy conversion

technologies. It has proved to be reliable, can operate unattended in hostile

environments, and is also environmentally friendly (Rosi 1968).

However its application has been limited up to now because of the relatively low

conversion efficiency of traditional thermoelectric materials used in the devices.

Traditionally, attempts to improve their economic viability have concentrated

primarily on improving the conversion efficiency by increasing the figure of merit of

thermoelectric materials, with only marginal successes.


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Thermoelectric materials are ranked by a figure of merit, ZT, which is defined as

2ZT S T k where S is the thermopower or Seebeck coefficient, is the electrical

conductivity, k is the thermal conductivity, and T is the absolute temperature. Since

Developing new thermoelectric materials with high figures of merit (ZT) has been a

topic of interest; a ZT larger than 3 will allow thermoelectric coolers to have a

coefficient of performance comparable to that of a kitchen refrigerator. For the past 5

decades, the ZT of the best bulk thermoelectric materials has remained at a value of

about 1(Gao & Rowe 2002). It is not until the recent emergence of nanotechnology

that allows possibility of creating new design of nanostructured materials for

achieving high ZT (4, 5) (Majumbar 2004).

Materials that are currently under research for thermoelectric power generation

include:-

1. Li-doped NiO and (Ba,Sr)PbO3

2. Low thermal conductivity Skutterudite materials

3. Lead telluride

4. Zn-Sb alloys

5. Segmented Bi2Te3 based materials

6. Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 / Be2Te2.4Se0.6

Research plan and timeline

The preliminary stages of the project would be to study fundamental governing

properties of thermoelectric materials. With that knowledge, a study on all types of

research done on thermoelectric materials will be carried out to identify its potential

and applications. With a broad and in depth understanding on the past and current

developments of thermoelectric materials, future developments and research efforts

can then be properly directed into creating a useful advancement in this field.

Therefore studies will be conducted on the basic fundamentals that govern

thermoelectric materials, techniques for optimizing such materials and its potential as

a reliable energy source. The entire theses will be progressively documented

according to the research plan. A brief outline of the research plan is presented on the

flowchart below.


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Budget justification

This project is a theoretical and literature base project, therefore funding will only be

influenced by purchase of printing materials which will cost no more than $150 for

the entire length of the project. Other research materials or facilities used will be

available in University of Queensland that will be free to access.

References

Gao M, & Rowe DM 2002, ‘Recent concepts in thermoelectric power generation’,

Proceedings of the twenty first International of Conference on Thermoelectronics,

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, pp.362-374.

Majumbar, A 2004, ‘Thermoelectricity in semiconductor nanostructures’, Science

Magazine, vol.303, pp.777-778.

Rosi, FD 1968, ‘Thermoelectricity and thermoelectric power generation’, Solid-State

Electronics, vol.11, pp.833-868.

____________________________________________________________________

END OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Semester

1, 2005

Semester

2, 2005


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A research plan (for demonstration only)

This is the table of contents of Jason Tan’s thesis. He is doing a literature review type

of project, therefore, he is able to give detailed content as well as deadlines. The table

of content should be as detailed as possible, and may be changed with the progress of

the project. Please note that the deadlines indicated here are the dates when I am

expecting a chapter in written form.

_____________________________________________________________________

Table of content

1. Introduction ---------------------------------------------------20 June

1.1 Current energy status in the world

1.2 Future energy scenario, H2 energy.

1.3 Outline of the report

2. Hydrogen production ----------------------------------------1 August

2.1 Overview of Hydrogen production technology

2.2 Current development of hydrogen in:

2.2.1 Bio-hydrogen process

2.2.2 Redox process

2.2.3 Hydrogen production from fossil fuel

2.2.4 Hydrogen production from natural gas

2.2.5 Hydrogen production from solar energy

2.2.6 Hydrogen production from photovoltaic process

2.3 Comments on the technology for each hydrogen production process.

2.4 Future possible hydrogen productions.

2.5 References

3. Hydrogen Storage and transportation -------------------------------20 August


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3.1 Introduction of hydrogen storage and transportation

3.2 Different ways of hydrogen Storage

3.2.1 Solid hydrogen Storage

3.2.1.1 Metal hydrides

- Description of the process

- The significance of the storage system

- Current technology and situation

- Examples produced from metal hydrides

3.2.1.2 Chemical Storage Materials





3.2.1.3 Nanostructure materials





3.2.2 Liquid hydrogen Storage


- Types of transportation

- Current technology development for liquid hydrogen

storage

- Examples of liquid hydrogen storage

- The significance of this storage method

3.2.3 Gaseous hydrogen storage


- Types of transportation

- Current technology development for liquid hydrogen

storage

- Examples of gaseous hydrogen storage

- The significance of this storage method

3.3 Future possible storage methods

3.4 References


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4． Utilization of hydrogen ---------------------------------------20 September

4.1 Introduction on the uses of hydrogen

4.1.1 Methanol Production

4.1.2 Hydrochloric acid production

4.1.3 Metallic ore production

4.1.4 Hydro-generation of fats and oil

4.2 Potential uses of hydrogen

4.2.1 Internal combustion engines

4.2.2 Fuel cells to provide clean energy for transportation

4.2.3 Fuel cells to provide electricity

4.2.4 To drives turbine for electricity

4.3 Comparison of technology between turbine and fuel cells for

production of electricity.

4.4 Recommendations

4.5 References

5. Hydrogen energy situation in the world -----------------------20 October

5.1 United States

5.2 Europe

5.2.1 United Kingdom

5.2.2 Russia

5.2.3 Germany

5.2.4 France

5.3 Asia

5.3.1 Japan


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5.3.2 Republic of China

5.3.3 Republic of Korea

5.4 References

6. Conclusion and recommendations ------------------------------- 30 October

6.1 Conclusions

6.1.1 Hydrogen production technology

6.1.2 Hydrogen storage and transportation

6.1.3 Hydrogen Utilization

6.2 Recommendation

6.3 References

END OF RESEARCH PLAN


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A Research Journal (for demonstration only)

The research journal basically records everything that you have done related to your

project. The key elements are the research time period, the research objective for that

period, the research activities in that period, results, and your scheduled next activity.

It does not need to be lengthy, but the major points should be there.

Date: July 23, 2004

Time: 10-2 pm

Research objective today: Find out the literature on the manufacture of catalysts. (or

carry out an experiment looking at the rate of CO2 adsorption on a metal oxide

(CaO)).

Research method: The following databases were searched: SciDirect and Web of Science. The following

keywords were used: manufacture of catalyst, nanoscale catalyst, catalyst for fluidized

bed.

Google was also used to search the literature on the Internet. The following keywords

were used: manufacture of catalyst, nanoscale catalyst, catalyst for fluidized bed.

(The thermogravimetric analyzer in Lab 445 was used. The experimental procedure

is as follows. First of all, …. Secondly, …. The experimental data were saved in the

computer and copied out.)

Results:

Scientific database searching results: totally 200 papers were found. Among them 35

papers were found to be closely related to the topic, and have been saved.

Google seaching results: 1200 links were found. About 15 were found to be very

useful, and they have been saved for further reading.

(The experimental results have been saved. The results will be plotted soon.)

Next research schedule:

Next Wednesday (from 10-12) I will search more databases such as Stetewise. (I will

carry out another experiment on next Wednesday. I have discussed with the students

in the lab that the equipment will be available to me at that time.)

The end of document

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Guidelines ForME Students v3

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