To our readers: Welcome to our blog!

We are three Nanyang JC students who went on a research shadowing programme in NTU School of Materials Science and Engineering, where we get to follow researchers in their daily researching life and also learn more about this field of science. This blog tells you how fun our experiences were. Check out the archive on the right for our content, and have fun reading our writing!

Day 9: Highlights of the Extruder

Today is the second last day. Besides trying to dig out something from our brains for the innovation challenge, we get to see a very interesting twin-screw extruder, a machine which can combine different materials into homogeneous pellets.

Kelvin touched upon this in his first blog post, but here is the diagram again:

The inside of the twin-screw extruder

This is an amazing machine which can combine anything which it can melt. It was fascinating to be able to see it up close.

Combined material come out of the machine in these semi-soft strands.

It is actually viscous and can be bent like this!

Afterwards, it was back to work on the innovation challenge. Stay tuned for our final thoughts on our whole two weeks in here!

Extra: The Daily Life of a Research Shadower

In this special report, we tell you how a typical day is like for us participants of the research shadowing programme.

We would wake up in the morning at 6:30 am, because we live in Admiralty, Hougang and Yio Chu Kang - not very friendly considering NTU is in Boon Lay. After the usually 90 minutes journey on train and shuttle bus, we would arrive at the lab. Some days we get to come later since our mentors do not expect us to be there so early. Mayhaps the wake-up time would be pushed to 7:00 am. (yup. Yay)

Then, the fun would begin in the lab, where we are free to ask any question, no matter how ridiculous it sounds like. We would learn the real science things such as electrospinning and twin screw extrusion.

Typical activities

Watching mentors operating various laboratory equipment, while trying to learn science

Looking at some laboratory equipment (when it is not dangerous)

Having access to the graduate students' office to relax (or update this blog)

Fun, isn't it? No, seriously it is actually fun. As JC students you do not even know that man can make such advanced equipment just to do one purpose.

Day 8: A Tour of NTU

Dr Anil's morning today was very busy. He regrets not being able to accompany us, but to compensate, we are taken to see some lab equipment which can measure the properties of any material. This is what we learned:

A gas permeability testing machine, which tests the extent a gas can go through a material

The contact angle measurement device. The most fascinating is that droplet of water.

Even more interestingly, in the afternoon, we get to go around NTU with Dr Anil and a friend of his, a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate. We learned how NTU has a Hive which is used for studying, and marveled at more lab equipment at the Aerospace Engineering Lab.

Nicknamed the Dim Sum Building, the Hive is a building made only for studying.

A view from the top floor. All of those levels contain tables, classrooms, anything you need to study.

School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

A look from the outside

This is an Aerospace Engineering Lab, where sample aviation materials are tested.

A machine. Used to test materials as well.

Day 6: assembly of batteries

My mentor first place prepare a carbon film for the making of the batteries later on placed them in a petri dish and placed them into a glove box which is filled with argon, an inert gas. This is because the sample is very sensitive to temperature and humidity, thus the box provide an environment where moisture and oxygen is kept less than 1 percent.

After that, he begin to assemble the batteries inside the glove box. This process is very hard as assembling those tiny parts with those hard and bulky gloves require skills mastered through years of experience. Putting those delicate parts into the right place is very hard for him as he was using just a pair of tweezers. Not assembling them correctly may lead to a short circuit.

Me trying out the glove box

After a tiring process of assembling, we took the batteries out of the glove box to test it.

Day 7: The Coating

Today, we watched Dr. Anil making a basic concrete coating using only commercial materials. Which means the things inside the coating are all unrefined and does not contain any research results. This diverts our attention to the machines instead, which are immensely fascinating compared to commercial everyday materials. We managed to see many sophisticated equipment last week, but today we get to see completely new things.

The coating being poured from a beaker into another beaker. Looks just like milk.

We stir the coating using this stirrer. Imagine if you can have this machine to stir your coffee everyday.

The process to make the coating is actually rather simple: combine an intumescent material with a basic commercial coating. Any other material can be combined into the solution as well to add different properties.

Day 6: The New Project - Into Materials Engineering

With a new week, comes a new mentor. We are very excited to have met Dr. Anil Suri, a staff scientist at the School of Materials Science. His areas of research are more practical, falling around engineering instead of science. That means there is less scientific mumbo-jumbo in his work, and more straightforward things. Kelvin will shine this week, as we will mostly be posting his writings from last week.

Kelvin has already explained on day one about the project we are observing. To refresh your memories, the aim of Dr. Anil's project is to create a new type of coating for high-strength concrete which will protect it against high temperatures. High-strength concrete, currently used in buildings where the walls have to be strong, is different from its cousin normal concrete. One of the more obvious differences is that it has high strength compared to normal concrete (we think we deserve a pat in the back for realising this). Less obvious differences include low resistance against high temperatures compared to normal concrete, which the project is trying to solve.

Normal concrete can burn for hours without exhibiting noticeable changes, but high-strength concrete will crumble within minutes due to its porous structure. It has been said that the World Trade Centre back in 2001 collapsed due to this particular property of high-strength concrete.

So, this week, we will follow Dr. Anil in continuing his research to fabricate the perfect coating which can prevent buildings from collapsing during fires.

Dr Anil shows us the effect of covering a slab of concrete using his coating