30 September 2010

Six Engineering teams awarded NRF grants to take their inventions to prototype stage

HIS work on next-generation Li-ion battery for electric vehicle applications has garnered the National Research Foundation (NRF) Proof-of-Concept grant. The project led by Dr Palani Balaya, Department of Mechanical Engineering, with five other teams from the NUS Faculty of Engineering, is among 16 projects to receive up to $250,000 each in the 4th Proof-of-Concept grant call. “Li-on battery powered by renewable energy sources like solar energy will play a key role in operating light and heavy electric vehicles, thereby reducing the carbon footprint,” said Dr Palani. Also in the area of batteries, Prof Lu Li is researching Lithium batteries which have ultrafast charge velocity for a diverse collection of high performance applications. Currently, most Lithium batteries are not able to produce fast

charge rates, resulting in incomplete charges. Dealing with the problem of the proliferation of aquatic invasive species in ballast water of ships, Prof Ng Kim Choon, Department of Mechanical Engineering, is developing a solution using ozone microbubbles. “These non-native species can now be eliminated before being discharged at destination ports. Ship owners can yield substantial savings from this cost-effective treatment system for ballast water. More importantly, microbubble ozonation can significantly improve the protection of local coastal waters and reduce probable damage to the ecological environment,” said Prof Ng.

Dr Chen Nanguang, Division of Bioenengineering, is looking into medical imaging of thick tissues. “In-vivo imaging of thick biological issues such as human eyes and skin provides information that is critical for the diagnosis of diseases related to these organs. This project aims to develop an advanced optical imaging method called line-scan focal modulation microscope,” said Dr Chen. The end product would feature millisecond time resolution, making it capable of capturing intrinsic optical signals in retina photoreceptors in the eyes and other neuronal tissues. Over at the Department of Chemcial and Biomolecular Engineering, Dr Saif A Khan, is coming out with manufacturing platforms for

nanoparticles for the healthcare sector. Currently, the lack of large-scale, economically-viable manufacturing processes hinders the translation of new nanotechnologies to the market.

“To overcome these challenges, our project aims to develop manufacturing platforms that are automated, scalable and continuous based on flowing foams in small channels,” said Dr Khan. Also in the area of health care, Assoc Prof Liu Bin’s research aims to produce water-soluble conjugated polymers to replace dye and quantum dots systems as diagnostics tools and treatment. The current organic dye-based systems used for in-vitro diagnostics require complex instruments to support. Besides being costly, quantum dot based fluorescent probes are high in toxicity. “We hope to develop polymers that can replace the quantum dot systems. Our polymers, besides having the same scientific properties, will have adjustable excitation and emission wavelength, high brightness, high resistance to photo bleaching and low toxicity to cells,” said Assoc Prof Liu.

Dr Palani Balaya: Li ion battery poweredby solar energy.

Prof Lu Li: Developing ultra rapid chargeable batteries.

Dr Chen Nanguang Prof Ng Kim Choon

Dr Saif A Khan

Assoc Prof Liu Bin