Doctor of Philosophy

Academia as second career for industry experts and professionals

Academia has been an alternative viable career path for seasoned experts and professional in industry. The term second-career academic was put forward by LaRocco and Bruns’s (2006) to describe business executive who choose academia as second career. My PhD has focused on the re-entry experience of these second-career academics. However, there is much to be researched on the topic. For example, my research has not uncovered the motivation, perception and inclination towards a career in academia. Further giving that second career academics has been in industry for considerable time, therefore their decision to shift from industry to academia is not likely to be taken lightly. Such decision to shift from industry to academia necessitate executive decision making.

Simon (1976) appears to have initiated an important strand of literature on executive decision making. His study of decision making by business practitioners to become academics in business schools shows that the decision is influenced by the duration of experience in the business world. Simon’s seminal study on business practitioners’ decision to become academics suggests that only those with limited business world experience are likely to be successful and remain as academics. However, since 1976, business education has evolved much particularly on relevant to business (Antunes & Thomas, 2007; Clinebell & Clinebell, 2008; Engwall, 2007; Harrington & Kearney, 2011). This evolution of business education creates the need for academics with professional and industry experiences to join academia (Boyle, Carpenter, & Hermanson 2015; Trapnell, Mero, Williams, & Krull, 2009, pp. 428-429).

For more information please contact Dr. Ong Liap Teck

A sustainable biorefinery approach for wealth and energy generation from lignocellulosic oil palm trunk (OPT) through the production of high-value biofuel and bioproducts.

With the increasing demand worldwide, the palm oil industry flourished over the past decade and by 2017, the oil palm plantation of oil palm already occupies over 17% of the nation’s total area (5.81 million hectares) (MPOB 2018). Malaysia is now one of the global leader in oleochemicals sector benefiting from the constant supply of edible oil from the palm oil sector. As a significant contributor to the nation’s overall socio-economy, the stable expansion in the palm oil industry comes with great opportunities in biomass utilization.

With the oil to biomass ratio of 1:9, the palm oil industry generate enormous amount of biomass in milling activities and in replanting operations. In every 25 years, replanting of the oil palm tree is necessary due to the reducing yield of the fruits and oil productivity. Each replantation cycle generates nearly 75 tonnes per hectare of oil palm trunk that is high in fermentative sugar extracts (Kong et al. 2014). Although most mills utilize the low-value biomass generated from the milling activities in boilers for heat generation and as a mulching materials in the plantation site. These options of waste management is not economically appealing.

To meet the needs of sustainability and maximise the utilisation of resources for industrial application, a more attractive way of utilising oil palm trunk biomass is to convert it into high-value biofuel. This project proposed to employ bioprocess engineering and process optimisation to identify an efficient and feasible solution for the utilisation of OPT from the oil palm industry. The study will focus in the direction of pilot-scale design for conversion technologies to convert biomass to fermentable sugars, which palm oil industry can adopt into their existing facility to generate new source of economic value product.

For more information please contact Dr. Jiuan Jing ChewDr. Jaka Sunarso

The design of the run length distribution of the t-chart with estimated process parameter

In industrial applications, control charts are usually applied in a two-phase procedure. An in-control historical dataset is determined by employing control charts retrospectively in Phase I analysis and then control charts are used to monitor the process to detect the out-of-control signal prospectively in Phase II analysis. Much works on Phase II control charts in the literature were depending on the assumption of known process parameters but in practice, the process parameter is never known and practitioners are desired to use only a small amount of Phase I samples to estimate the process parameters.

This research devotes to the violation of the chart assumption on known process parameter during its Phase I implementation. When designing a control chart, the sole dependence of ARL as a performance measure of control chart’s performance has been subjected to criticisms by many researchers, due to the shape of the run length distributions ranges from highly skewed to the right to nearly symmetric when the process shift increases. Interpretation based on the percentiles of the run length distribution, including the median run length is more intuitive than the average run length and can be used to provide practitioners a clearer insight for the performance of control charts.

Therefore, this study suggests using the percentiles of the run length distribution as the performance measures to access the performance of t chart in the case of parameter estimation. The effect of the estimation of the in-control process parameter on the performance of the t chart is investigated, in terms of the percentiles of the average run length distribution. A new design model for the t chart with estimated process parameter will be developed, so that the chart will have an almost similar sensitivity to the t chart with known process parameter.

For more information please contact Dr Lee Ming Ha

Combined double sampling and variable sampling interval attributes control chart

One of the common features of control charts is that the time between samples is constant with a fixed sample size. However, the static strategies become less adequate of handling attribute quality characteristics because of the low efficiency in detecting process changes. Some alternatives have been proposed lately to improve the performance of control charts, such as variable sampling interval and double sampling schemes, where the design parameters of control chart can be varied depending on what is observed from the data.

The position of the previous sample relative to the threshold limits determines the sampling time and the size of the current sample. With regards to the variable sampling interval scheme, two sampling intervals will be used, in which the long sampling interval will be used if there is no indication of the out-of-control condition, while the short sampling interval will be used if there is an indication of the out-of-control condition. As for the double sampling scheme, there are two stages for the process monitoring, with the process starts with the first stage with a small sample size. The process will move to the second stage with an additional sample size will be collected for the process monitoring if the process indicates that there is a potential of the out-of-control situation.

The position of the previous sample relative to the threshold limits determines the sampling time and the size of the current sample. With regards to the variable sampling interval scheme, two sampling intervals will be used, in which the long sampling interval will be used if there is no indication of the out-of-control condition, while the short sampling interval will be used if there is an indication of the out-of-control condition. As for the double sampling scheme, there are two stages for the process monitoring, with the process starts with the first stage with a small sample size. The process will move to the second stage with an additional sample size will be collected for the process monitoring if the process indicates that there is a potential of the out-of-control situation.

For more information please contact Dr Lee Ming Ha

Characterizations of Mechanical properties of fly ash and sugarcane bagasse fiber reinforced Polymer composites

Currently, most researches conducted on Natural fiber composites (NFCs) are focused on increasing its mechanical properties to replace synthetic fiber composites. And during the past few years researchers have investigated on the utilization of Nano particles as a filler material to reduce porosity in a composite with the aim of increasing the mechanical properties of certain composites. Due to the increasing concerns about the environment and human health as result of industry waste disposal, has led the researchers to pursue investigations to utilize this waste materials and reduce the impact.

Main objective of this research is to develop a polymer composite using the industry waste Fly ash as a filler material. Fly ash is a waste from a coal fired plant and they are collected at the boiler outlet of the PowerStation. In Malaysia, Fly ash is considered an industrial waste and is discharged to landfills. Low usage of such abundant waste material brings bigger problems. Such as groundwater contamination and soil acidity. The annual production of fly ash in Malaysia is considered to be as estimated of 3 million tons per annum. There is abundance of fly ash in Malaysia which is underutilized and hence there is a potential for developing a polymer composite using this industry waste and reducing the impact on the environment.

Together with fly ash as a filler, this research will be based on the natural fiber Sugarcane bagasse as the fiber reinforcement which is obtained as a waste from a sugarcane milling process. In Malaysia, sugarcane bagasse is one of the most used crops. Hence this research will pave a way to make good use of this two highly produced waste in the country. This research will give an in-depth analysis to the factors affecting the mechanical properties and it will be focused to improve these contributing factors. This will be accomplished by mechanical testing samples with varying fiber loadings and fillers as well as by focusing on the pre-treatments.

For more information please contact Dr Elammaran Jayamani & Dr KokHeng Soon

Investigation of dielectric properties in crystalline (HDPE) and amorphous (PI) polymer composites with conductive fillers and natural fibres

Dielectric materials are used as capacitors in circuit boards and other energy storage applications where size and capacity matters. Of recent, there has been growing interest in polymer composites that behave as dielectrics due to their low cost, good flexural strength and the ease of processing. Polymers on their own are however not sufficiently dielectric and hence ceramics have been used. Ceramics have excellent dielectric strength and relatively lower losses compared to other dielectric materials.

A major disadvantage of ceramics as the dielectric filler is the large amount of loadings necessary to induce the dielectric behaviour in polymer composites. This makes the composite brittle. Ceramics also require treatments with toxic chemicals that often seep into the soil at their end of life disposal. Large amounts of energy is necessary to break down the ceramics during addition to the polymer matrix and to make it suitable for recycling. Metal fillers combined with natural fibres have been used more increasingly as their combination exhibits the benefits of ceramics while eliminating the environmental and mechanical disadvantages. Metal fillers and natural fibres are relatively cheaper and easier to process.

There is a shortage of sufficient literature to corroborate the benefits and properties of polymer composites with conductive fillers and natural fibres. The objective of this research project is to develop specimens and measure their complex permittivity, dielectric strength and the dissipation values. The research hopes to investigate the relationship between the loadings of fillers and the microstructure of polymers to their dielectric behaviour. The research hopes to recommend a polymer composite with conductive fillers and natural fibres with desirable dielectric strength and low loss values, in accordance with the ASTM-D-150-10 standard.

For more information please contact Dr Elammaran Jayamani & Dr KokHeng Soon

A study of enzymatic treatment on natural fibres and its effect on the structure-properties behaviour of biocomposites.

Bio-composites is a type of composite materials consisting naturally occurring fibre and polymer matrix. If biodegradable matrix polymer is used as a constituent, the resultant composite is known as ‘green composite’ due to its eco-friendly production.

The major issue of this type of composites is the compatibility between the natural fibre and the matrix polymer. The state of the art technique to enhance the fibre-polymer compatibility is to apply chemical reagents to remove unwanted fibre constituents other than cellulose. This method of treatment usually involves the consumption of reagents which potentially creates side effect to health. On the other hand, fungal or enzymatic treatment has the potential to achieve the same fibre treatment effect.

Currently, there is a gap in the research literature on the fungal or enzymatic fibre treatment technique and the resultant composite properties. Thus, this project is intended to address this gap and it will involve various fungal or enzymatic fibre treatment techniques. The effect of the treatment will be studied using various advanced characterization techniques such as infrared chemical analysis mapping, thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analysis. Furthermore, the resultant performance of the treated composites will be evaluated at the macroscopic scale and the behaviour will be matched with the composite microstructure.

For more information please contact Dr KokHeng Soon & Dr Elammaran Jayamani

Development of PHA-biofibre green composites with grafting modifications

Green composites is a type of composite materials consisting naturally occurring fibre and biodegradable polymer matrix. It is considered as an environmentally friendly material because the raw component such as the biofibre and Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) matrix polymer of the composite are derived from renewable source and products are biodegradable at its end-of-life stage.

The major issue of biobased composites is the compatibility between the biofibre and the matrix polymer. The biofibre is supposed to act as the reinforcement phase of the composites. However, the reinforcing effect is limited due to the mismatch between the hydrophilic fibre and the hydrophobic polymer matrix. One potential solution to this issue is to apply grafting modification to the biofibre.

This project will involve various grafting modifications such as free radical polymerization grafting and grafting by coupling agent. The effect of the grafting modifications will be studied using various advanced characterization techniques such as infrared chemical analysis mapping, thermo gravimetric and differential thermal analysis. Furthermore, the resultant performance of the modified composites will be evaluated at the macroscopic scale and the behaviour will be matched with the composite microstructure.

For more information please contact Dr KokHeng Soon & Dr Elammaran Jayamani

A sustainable biorefinery approach for wealth and energy generation from lignocellulosic oil palm trunk (OPT) through the production of high-value biofuel and bioproducts.

With the increasing demand worldwide, the palm oil industry flourished over the past decade and by 2017, the oil palm plantation of oil palm already occupies over 17% of the nation’s total area (5.81 million hectares) (MPOB 2018). Malaysia is now one of the global leader in oleochemicals sector benefiting from the constant supply of edible oil from the palm oil sector. As a significant contributor to the nation’s overall socio-economy, the stable expansion in the palm oil industry comes with great opportunities in biomass utilization.

With the oil to biomass ratio of 1:9, the palm oil industry generate enormous amount of biomass in milling activities and in replanting operations. In every 25 years, replanting of the oil palm tree is necessary due to the reducing yield of the fruits and oil productivity. Each replantation cycle generates nearly 75 tonnes per hectare of oil palm trunk that is high in fermentative sugar extracts (Kong et al. 2014). Although most mills utilize the low-value biomass generated from the milling activities in boilers for heat generation and as a mulching materials in the plantation site. These options of waste management is not economically appealing.

To meet the needs of sustainability and maximise the utilisation of resources for industrial application, a more attractive way of utilising oil palm trunk biomass is to convert it into high-value biofuel. This project proposed to employ bioprocess engineering and process optimisation to identify an efficient and feasible solution for the utilisation of OPT from the oil palm industry. The study will focus in the direction of pilot-scale design for conversion technologies to convert biomass to fermentable sugars, which palm oil industry can adopt into their existing facility to generate new source of economic value product.

For more information please contact Dr. Jiuan Jing Chew & Dr. Jaka Sunarso

The synthesis of polymeric fluorescent nanoparticles and its utilisation as optical sensing receptors

Optical sensors based on fluorescence are widely used in various applications such as diagnostic kit for health screening or tool for monitoring of the environment. The sensing principle is based on the change in the fluorescence property of the sensing receptor due to the interaction with the analyte of interest. Basically, a sensing receptor is consisting of a fluorophore and a recognition site that can interact with the analyte.

There are various fluorophores that have been explored for the sensing applications such as the used of fluorescent dyes, quantum dots, carbon dots, etc. One of the latest trends is to adopt polymeric fluorescent nanoparticles as the fluorophore in developing as sensing receptor. The reasons are chiefly due to the brighter fluorescence, high photostability, low toxicity, and the option to modify the nanoparticles with specific property to enhance the sensing capability.

This project aims to explore the used of polymeric fluorescent nanoparticles as sensing receptors. The work will mainly involve the investigation on the method to produce nanoparticles from polymeric system, incorporation of a fluorescence origin, optimisations of the methods, property modification and innovation to improve the sensitivity and selectivity, and the testing on the sensing characteristics. The work will also extended to setup an optical sensing components using a mini-spectrometer and fibre optic setup.

For more information please contact Assoc. Prof Dr Ng Sing Muk

The study on the immobilisation of carbon dots as sensing platform

Carbon dots (CDs) are nanoparticles that made mainly of carbon element with some dopant of heteroatoms. CDs have caught the attention of the research community due to their fluorescence property that be utilised in various applications such as for optical sensing and bio-imaging. Particularly for optical sensor application, the CDs act as the signalling tag, where the interaction with a target analyte will cause the change in the fluorescence property. This change can be correlated with the quantity of the analyte and eventually used as a sensor.

However, most of the recent reports are in the form of solution study, meaning the CDs are interacting with the analyte in the solution medium. This possesses some limitations such as the CDs cannot be regenerated for reused, less robust to be used onsite due to liquid medium, lack of consistency due to the fluctuation in the concentration of CDs in solution, etc. One of the alternatives to overcome this is by having the CDs immobilised on a matrix and the interaction will occur on the matrix as the sensing platform. Having this, the interaction can be regenerated by using a washing solution and the matrix can be incorporated directly on a fibre optic for repeated sensing.

This work will focus on the immobilisation study by exploring various different matrices and the immobilisation method. The effectiveness of the immobilisation will be evaluated, while the sensing performance of the CDs will be tested in comparison to those CDs in solution format. The immobilised CDs will be incorporated in a fibre optic system and the sensing characteristic will be evaluated.

For more information please contact Assoc. Prof Dr Ng Sing Muk

The utilisation of mesoporous materials for the synthesis and in situ immobilisation of carbon dots for sensing applications

According to the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), mesoporous material is defined as solid structure that containing pores with diameters between 2 and 50 nm. This class of material can be made from different type of building blocks such as carbon based, metal oxides, metal sulfides, metal nitrides, carbonitriles, metal organic frameworks, and blended materials.

Mesoporous materials can be readily synthesised using wet chemistry such as the well-known sol-gel technique and by controlling carefully on the synthesis parameters can alter the pore sizes, shapes and the cavity property. It has gained much interest for applications such as drug delivery, catalyst, absorbent, and separation. In view on the pores size range, it has huge potential to be used a nano-reactor for the synthesis of carbon dots.

Carbon dots are basically nanoparticles that consist basically carbon element with some doping of heteroatoms such as nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur. It is an interesting material due to the unique fluorescence property and their low toxicity effect toward biological environment. Thus, carbon dots have been widely adopted for optical sensing and bio imaging applications. The mesoporous material can act to accommodate the starting precursor for the carbon dots and the carbonisation can be activated either chemically or thermally. This is expected to cause the formation carbon dots having the shape and size of the mesoporous material.

In this case, the carbon dots will be entrapped in the pores and this serves as the in situ immobilisation step that is crucial for the development of an optical sensing platform. This project envisioned to investigate the synthesis of a suitable mesoporous materials that later use as nano-pocket to synthesis the carbon dots from liquid carbon-rich starting precursors via the thermal carbonisation approach. The as-synthesised carbon dots trapped within the mesoporous material will be tested for sensing application, specifically targeting for metal ions sensing.

For more information please contact Assoc. Prof Dr Ng Sing Muk

The development of gas sensors for the identification and quality control of agricultural products

Agriculture has always been one of the focus areas in the human civilisation process. Human will need foods to survive and the pressure on food demand is expending with the ever growing of the world population. We are expecting to feed around 7.6 billion people now in 2018 and expecting to have 9.8 billion people in 2050. Thus, we need to revolutionise the farming practise by incorporating more advance technology to improve the yield, attract more young generation to involve in this sector and reduce unnecessary wastes. Farming needs to be made more precise and predictable.

One of the potential areas will be the introduction of sensors into the farming sector, which can play an active roles as the indicator to provide accurate decision to farmers. This are such as the decision on the best maturity stage to harvest a particular crop, the best time to fertilise the land, the need to apply pesticides, providing the required amount of light and water required by the plants, etc. In view of this, sensors for detecting physical properties are more readily available from the market as compared to those detecting chemical properties.

Thus, this project is venturing into the development of a chemical sensors that can used for the identification and quality control of a specific agricultural produce. The work will target on the design of gas sensors that can detect volatile organic compounds from the agricultural products. Particularly, the focus will be using metal oxide and infra-red sensors as the detection system for the volatile organic compounds. The work involve the design of the sensor’s flow, optimisation of the sensors design, data analysis and the testing towards some local agricultural products for identification and quality characterisation.

For more information please contact Assoc. Prof Dr Ng Sing Muk & Dr Chua Hong Siang