Dyes are widely used in industries such as Textiles, Dying factories, Rubber, Plastic, Painting etc for coloring their products. As a result a considerable amount of coloured waste water is generated. There are more than 10,000 commercial available dyes and 7 million tons of dye stuff are used annually all over the world. Among various industries, textiles industry rank first in use of dye for colouring of fabrics. Total dye consumption of textile industry worldwide is in excess of 10 million Kg per year. Consequently more than 10,000 tons or more dyes are discharged into the waste stream annually. Textile dying industry is one of the major industries in Bangladesh. Most of these industries do not have Effluent Treatment Process (ETP). Rice husk is a significant agricultural waste in Bangladesh. We have developed a method for preparing low cost activated charcoal from rice husk which has been used to remove colouring materials from waste water and purify the water. The experiment was carried out both with prepared and real samples. We are now trying to liaison with some textile industry to apply the method in their ETPs.

Abstract

One can find many examples where individuals with brilliant ideas have stepped out of their usual comfort zones to become successful entrepreneurs, introducing ground breaking technology and services to the greater benefit of mankind. Unfortunately at the opposite end of the spectrum some brilliant ideas that originate from individuals either gather dust on shelves or are lost in the digital space for years, before someone with an entrepreneurial mind-set would re-discover them. Sadly, most ideas are lost for ever, not being written anywhere, thus never to be picked up by a right person, at the right time. In this talk Prof Edirisinghe will discuss how to spot an idea with commercial potential, what should be done to maximise such potential, how to protect ideas from being stolen, ways to generate stakeholder interest and promote investor bye-inn, using staged development and exploitation of the idea, etc. Identifying the fact that ideas with great commercial potential can originate from students, academics, professionals and even general public, the talk will focus on the challenges these different communities will meet and will have to overcome, in order to be successful. In particular Prof Edirisinghe will make use of a number of relevant case studies to take the audience through different pathways to commercial exploitation. This talk will be particularly useful to students, academics, professionals and general public, with a flair for enterprise.

Biodata

Prof Edirisinghe is the Associate Dean for Enterprise of the School of Science, Loughborough University, one of the top 10 research universities in the UK. He is an experienced academic who has commercialised a number of his academic research ideas through the involvement of third party industry partners. He was the recipient of the prestigious, Loughborough University, Enterprise Award for knowledge transfer in 2013 and 2014, awarded in recognition of the contributions he made to Apical Ltd a leading UK based technology provider to the world’s top mobile and camera manufacturers and broadband service providers. Prof Edirisinghe has been instrumental in establishing a significant amount of industry investment to commercialise ideas that originated from staff and students of the School of Science, Loughborough University, comprising of five different academic departments. These have been in the form of licensing, enterprise funding, consultancy and a spin out. He presently acts as an adviser to a number of graduate and external entrepreneur start-ups, located at the recently commissioned Loughborough University Science & Enterprise Park, a 20 acre expansion to Loughborough University campus.

Chu Kiong Loo obtained his PhD (University Sains Malaysia), B.Eng (First class Hons in Mechanical Engineering from University Malaya). Dr. Loo joined the Engineering (FET) faculty at Multimedia Universityin 2001 as a lecturer, and was promoted to Senior lecturer, Associate Professor ranks in 2004 and 2009, respectively. He then joined University of Malaya in 2011 and was promoted as full Professor. He served as director of the Advanced Robotics Lab (2011-now), is Deputy Director of UM Commercialization and Innovation Centre 2012-Now. Loo’s early research focused on the study of quantum inspired and biological inspired vision system. While continuing research in this field, his work expanded in the early 2011s to explore the topic of artificial mirror neuron system and human-robot empathic interaction. The research has greatly contributed to the Active Ageing Project of UM Grand Challenge and Trusting Humanoid Robots Undertake Social Tasks (thrust) project funded under US air force. He owns 7 patents from his research and spin-off company, UMCH Technology Sdn. Bhd.

Brunei Darussalam occupies a central position within a broad zone of lithospheric deformation, on the boundary between the northeastern part of Sundaland to the south, the Sulu Sea and Celebes Sea regions to the east and the South China Sea to the northwest. This Northwest Borneo active margin consists of Lower Cretaceous to Tertiary formations, overlying oceanic crust. The structural style of the subsurface of Brunei Darussalam is to a large extent controlled by an intricate relationship between deltaic growth faulting superimposed on "basement"-rooted structures, creating a complex system whose secrets are still to not have been fully revealed. Tertiary and younger formations of onshore and offshore Brunei Darussalam consist of a thick sand - shale sequence, deposited in a relatively short time of approximately 15 million years, with very few time-significant fossils. The sedimentary basins in Brunei Darussalam host significant amounts of petroleum and the geological evolution of both are closely connected. A brief history of the Seria Field and Filed development exercises will be presented during the seminar. The prospects of Geologists in the Petroleum industry will be discussed, too.

Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSC) are promising alternative to traditional inorganic semiconductor-based solar cells due to favourable ecological and economical features.1 In these cells, sunlight is absorbed by a dye located at the junction between a nanostructured electron transporting (n-type) and hole transporting redox mediator. The former is a wide band gap semiconductor oxide based on mesoscopic TiO2 nanoparticles and the latter is typically the triiodide/iodide (I3–/I–) redox electrolyte. Upon photo-excitation, the anchored dye injects an electron into the TiO2 and I– reduce the oxidized sensitizer. The electrons then travel through the nanostructure to be collected as current at the external contact, while the holes are transported to the cathode by the redox shuttle. An optimal sensitizer for DSC should absorb all photons below a threshold wavelength of about 920 nm. This limit is derived from thermodynamic considerations showing that the conversion efficiency of any single-junction photovoltaic solar converter peaks at approximately 33 percent near a threshold energy of 1.4 eV. In this respect the dye-sensitized solar cells are however not ideal, which under optimized conditions yields only 11% efficiency. The general losses in the dye-sensitized solar cells are due to lack of sensitizer absorption in the near IR region, and the loss-in-potential from the optical band gap to the open-circuit voltage. Therefore the development of novel sensitizers with reduced mismatch between sensitizer absorption and the solar emission spectra, and between the oxidation potential of the redox electrolyte and the sensitizer oxidation potential is paramount to enhancing photocurrent and open circuit potential, respectively. In this talk I will discuss strategies for design and development of new sensitizers and redox mediators that yield a very high short circuit current and open-circuit voltage, ~1000 mV resulting power conversion efficiency of above 13% and their commercial prospects.2,3

METHYLAMMONIUM LEAD TRIIODIDE PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS have emerged as credible contenders to conventional p-n junction photovoltaic devices. Perovskite material involves low cost precursors, capable of being processed via a variety of scalable methods and deliver high power conversion efficiencies in solar cells, comparable to thin film and crystalline silicon solar cells.

Exotic trees from the genus Acacia are well-documented as invasive species in many ecosystems globally, but studies of their invasiveness in Borneo are limited. We assessed the effects of Acacia mangium and Acacia auriculiformis on native tree diversity, as well as soil and litter characteristics in tropical heath forests of Brunei Darussalam, Northwest Borneo. A total of 20 plots were set up: 10 plots on fire-affected heath forest patches with established Acacia populations, and 10 plots in unburnt heath forests. Within the plots, we surveyed all trees greater than 1 cm diameter at breast height, and sampled soils and leaf litter for nutrient analysis. Our results show a marked reduction in native tree diversity, as well as significant differences in the community structure of plots with established Acacia trees compared to plots in unburnt heath forests. We also recorded lower acidity levels in the subsoil layer of Acacia invaded plots as well as reductions in nutrient concentrations. Our findings serve as preliminary evidence that both of these Acacia species are invasive in Brunei Darussalam’s heath forests as they negatively impact upon native tree diversity as well as soil and litter properties in these forests. We suggest that control or eradication strategies need to be considered to reduce further spread of Acacias, particularly in these fire-affected ecosystems.

Dyes are widely used in industries such as Textiles, Dying factories, Rubber, Plastic, Painting etc for coloring their products. As a result a considerable amount of coloured waste water is generated. There are more than 10,000 commercial available dyes and 7 million tons of dye stuff are used annually all over the world. Among various industries, textiles industry rank first in use of dye for colouring of fabrics. Total dye consumption of textile industry worldwide is in excess of 10 million Kg per year. Consequently more than 10,000 tons or more dyes are discharged into the waste stream annually. Textile dying industry is one of the major industries in Bangladesh. Most of these industries do not have Effluent Treatment Process (ETP). Rice husk is a significant agricultural waste in Bangladesh. We have developed a method for preparing low cost activated charcoal from rice husk which has been used to remove colouring materials from waste water and purify the water. The experiment was carried out both with prepared and real samples. We are now trying to liaison with some textile industry to apply the method in their ETPs.

With the worsening trends of drug resistance, there is a need for newer and more powerful anti-parasitic agents and/or identify novel targets for therapeutic interventions. Our research is focused on two thematic areas: (1) search for new compounds originating from natural resources. We hypothesized that animals living in polluted environments are potential source of novel anti-parasitic molecules. In support, our studies identified potent antimicrobial properties in the lysates of cockroaches, locusts, Black cobra, crocodile that intrigued the scientific community. We hope that the discovery of antimicrobial activity in the tissue lysates of animals living in polluted environments will stimulate research in finding antimicrobial agents from unusual sources, and has potential for the development of novel strategies in the control of infectious diseases. (2) Using genomics and proteomics tools, research in my laboratory has been focused on pathogen virulence determinants and host factors that contribute to microbial infections, with an eye to identify potential targets for therapeutic interventions. Using novel model of the human blood-brain barrier and human cornea, we are studying molecular mechanisms of neuropathogenic Escherichia coli K1 meningitis and Acanthamoeba keratitis.

Medical ultrasound (US) imaging is an established and powerful tool for diagnostic imaging. Often limited by poor contrast between tissues, the introduction of contrast enhancing agents called microbubbles, has improved its imaging performance. In addition, these agents are a promising tool for molecular imaging and targeted drug delivery and therapeutics. Microbubbles (MBs) consist of small (2-3 µm in diameter), inert gas cores stabilised by a lipid monolayer or protein and suspended in aqueous dispersion. These non-targeted blood perfusion agents were found to persist in circulation, sticking to sites of inflammation or injury in the vasculature. This non-targeted MB retention in the vasculature is not fully understood and this project investigates the role of surface charge on MB-cellular adhesive behaviour. We hypothesised that surface charge plays a role in this interaction. MB surface charge was characterised with laser Doppler electrophoresis (LDE), the most widely-used method for determining particle surface charge. However, MB buoyancy compromised the reliability of this method and hence a micro-electrophoretic technique to determine MB surface charge was developed. MB electrophoretic movement was tracked using an in-house algorithm which was able to determine MB surface charge with at least a 10-fold improvement in relative standard deviations when compared to the LDE method. Following the characterisation of surface charge, we investigated whether there was preferential MB binding to diseased cells compared to healthy cells. We measured the adhesion of current clinical MBs, SonoVue™, Definity™, Optison™, and an experimental agent, BR38, with healthy and diseased vascular phantoms was observed in vitro. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were used to mimic the healthy vasculature and TNFα-activated HUVECs mimicked the diseased vasculature. Some degree of preferential binding for the TNFα-activated versus non-activated HUVECs was observed, indicating a surface component to this interaction. Our findings suggest an electrostatic role in MB adhesion to TNFα-activated HUVECs for phospholipid-stabilised MBs but not for protein-stabilised MBs. In conclusion, while surface charge may play a role in MB adhesion, there may be other unknown factors which can contribute to MB-cellular interaction.