Engineering Now .: Volume 4 - Edition 9 .: July and August 2008

Particle Technology Research Centre holds Annual Mini-Symposium

Friday, July 11, 2008

Western Engineering’s Particle Technology Research Centre (PTRC) held their annual symposium on Friday, July 11, 2008. “Symposium 2008” was held at the West Haven Golf Club in London, and was an opportunity for faculty members, students and post-doctoral fellows to discuss and collaborate on current issues within the PTRC sphere.
Approximately 65 people attended this one-day event. The symposium provided the students and post-doctoral fellows, who are under the supervision of fifteen PTRC-affiliated faculty members, the opportunity to present their research and even compete for some prizes. The three presentations judged to be the best were recognized with awards. In total 23 different researchers participated in the event representing the research work of 11 faculty members who hold membership with the PTRC.

The 23 participants submitted an extended abstract and prepared 10 minute presentations on their research work. The presentations were judged based on the clarity of the presentation and quality of slides, as well as on scientific merit, level of detail and knowledge of the topic.

A great panel of judges was assembled to judge the entries including: David Tweddell, from Research and Development Services at Western, Dr. Don Hewson, Managing Director with The Research Park; Paul Peterson, from 3M Canada, and Dr. Bill Cairns from Trojan Technologies.

The Northern Nanotechnologies sponsored the first place prize of $1,000, which was awarded to Milana Trifkovic, a PhD candidate in the Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, who is supervised by Professor Sohrab Rohani. Her presentation was titled, “Multi-variable Real-Time Optimal Control of Crystallization Process”.

The 3M Canada sponsored the second place prize of $500, which was awarded to Yougui Chen, a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, who is supervised by Professor Andy Sun. His presentation was titled, ”Nitrogen Doping Effects on Carbon Nanotubes as Catalyst Support for Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)”.

The Particle Research Facility sponsored the third place prize of $250, which was awarded to Robert Galloway, a Masters candidate in the Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, who is supervised by Professors Amarjeet Bassi and Prof Jesse Zhu. The title of his presentation was “Extraction and Isolation of the 7S and 11S Soy Proteins Using a Liquid Solid Circulating Fluidized Bed Ion Exchanger”.

The judges and sponsors were impressed with both the quality of the presentations made by the 23 participants of the event, as well as the diversity of research areas and engineering applications represented by the work being presented. Congratulations are due to all who participated and presented their work.

The Particle Technology Research Centre is a University-level recognized research center within the Faculty of Engineering at Western. It is currently comprised of fifteen Western Professors, carrying out various areas of scientific and engineering research. As part of the Centres’ activities, an annual conference has been undertaken in order to enhance communication and collaboration among the researchers at Western and beyond and to serve as a venue to connect bright researchers with each other, faculty and industry.

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.: Becky Blue
Spencer Engineering Building, Room 2074
Telephone: (519) 850-2917 Fax: (519) 661-3808
contactwe@eng.uwo.ca