Nanyang ERI and SPMS

The study tour group arrived at NTU in the morning for another day of presentations.
We were greeted by Prof. Choo Fook Hoong who was a part of the energy research institute at NTU.
He gave us an introduction about the institute and how it was the cross-link which works with school of materials science and engineering which we visited yesterday. We were given another six specialist lectures by graduates and research fellows. The topics were solar energy, fuel cells, and energy storage. More specifically Perovskite solar cells, Novel materials for high efficiency Perovskite based solar cells, as the solar energy. The role of electronic properties of platinum and platinum alloys for enhanced reformate electro-oxidation in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, and electrical properties of Gadolinium doped Ceria, as fuel cell research. Finally then it was, Fundamental studies on Vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) cathodes for Lithium ion batteries, and carbon based electrodes for Vanadium redox flow.
Following those presentations we went to some project displays where they showed us some of the technology they have researched and are currently using. This included running cold water through pipes in the roof to cool rooms hence saving power, heat transfer stations and highly efficient evaporative air-conditioning techniques, DC power grids for homes, and building-wide monitoring.
We then had lunch put on for us, a complementary lunch is always nice. Soon after we took a bus over to the school of physical and mathematical sciences (SPMS)

The presentations we were then given were better presented so I was able to listen easier. The first was an introduction to SPMS with information about their scholarships. Soon the post-docs gave their presentations which started off with “Transformation optics/thermal cooling”. This presentation was essentially about bending light around objects to make them invisible using meta materials and using metal in a specific way to be able to hide thermal anomalies as heat camouflage. The second was “Laser cooling”, counterintuitive but self explanatory. Next was about The Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies (CDPT) and cognitive photons. The last for that day was about Milikelvin (really cold) system for cold atoms and superconductors.

We then broke for coffee where we could speak with the presenters. Which was followed by visits to the SPMS laboratories which had lots of lasers. One laboratory was isolating and cooling atoms to a point where their wave function merged as they became one object. They were testing its properties.