Seminar

ABSTRACT:  Advanced lithium ion battery electrodes experience large volume changes caused by concentration changes within the host particles during charging and discharging. Electrode failure, in the form of fracture or decrepitation, can occur as a result of repeated volume changes. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of our recent work on understanding the evolution of concentration, stress, and strain energy within a spherically- or cylindrically-shaped electrode element under various charging-discharging conditions.

ABSTRACT:  We propose a processing alternative for replacing the traditional and environmentally dangerous solvents (as monoethanolamine, diethanolamine) in the process of CO2 capture. We use a computer aided molecular design (CAMD) methodology for exploring the use of ionic liquids (ILs) as solvents for CO2 capture. The CAMD formulation is solved as a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, the objective is to obtain an optimal molecular structure of an ionic liquid for CO2 capture from a post-combustion (PC) gas stream (GS).

ABSTRACT:  Polymers and other materials that are used in contact with biological fluids such as blood are prone to protein adsorption and cell interactions. A protein layer quickly forms at the surface of the material and can influence the subsequent adhesion of platelets, leukocytes, other cells and microbes. For medical devices this can lead to numerous complications including coagulation, thrombosis (blood clotting) and infection, among others.

ABSTRACT:   Nanotechnology offers highly customizable platforms for producing minimally invasive and programmable strategies to diagnose and treat cancer. Advances in this field have demonstrated that nanoparticles can enhance specificity of anti-cancer agents, respond to tumour-specific cues, and direct the visualization of biological targets in vivo.

ABSTRACT:  The rigidity of our skeleton is due to reinforcement with nano-sized minerals of biological apatite.  Theories of skeletal apatite nucleation include initiation by the organic matrix (collagen and non-collagenous proteins), and increasing the phosphate concentration by hydrolysis of phosphoric acid monoesters.  An enzyme that has been attributed to skeletal mineralization - tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) - is known to increase inorganic phosphate concentration by catalyzing phosphoric acid monoester hydrolysis.  However, the substrate for TNAP in

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING BEST PUBLICATION PRIZE (2013) SEMINAR

“Irreversible Adsorption-Driven Assembly of Nanoparticles at Fluid Interfaces Revealed by a Dynamic Surface Tension Probe” by Navid Bizmark, Marios A. Ioannidis, Dale E. Henneke, Langmuir, Vol. 30, pages 710-717

For:  “A Balanced Theoretical-Practical paper, with a Significant Contribution for the Quantitative Description of Nanoparticle Adsorption at Fluid Interfaces”

ABSTRACT:  Increasing challenges associated with environmental remediation projects has driven the development of new, efficient and effective separation materials, technologies and processes suitable for large scale deployment. This presentation will provide an overview to some of the work being conducted at the University of Melbourne in this area for soil and air pollution control.

Student Motivation for Learning

What motivates student learning? Can instructors influence the motivation levels of their students?

(Please be advised that signing a NDA will be required for attending this seminar)

ABSTRACT:  The Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE) fermentation by anaerobic bacteria from the genus Clostridium was one of the first large-scale industrial bioprocesses, operating globally for the production of acetone during the first half of the 20^th Century. Feedstock and product recovery costs prevented the ABE process from remaining profitable and acetone production was overtaken by the developing petroleum industry.

ABSTRACT:  In this presentation we give an overview of recent applications in Process Systems Engineering of new discrete and continuous optimization techniques. We first provide a brief overview of logic-based optimization methods, emphasizing the theoretical relation of the continuous relaxations between mixed-integer programming and generalized disjunctive programming for nonconvex optimization problems.