Author: Admin

Mar 06

Educational Training on Clean Energy Technologies for School Students in Jaffna District

The programme was organized in collaboration with the Provincial Department of Education, Northern Province. From 6-14 March 2018, an educational training on CETs for 2684 school students from 56 schools in the Jaffna District was conducted. A total of 10 sessions, each of 2.5 hours duration, were organized at 6 different schools. Two sessions were conducted at Vembadi Girls’ High School (Jaffna), Victoria College (Chullipuram), Mahajana College (Tellippalai) and Methodist Girls’ high School (Point Pedro), whereas one session was carried out at Chavakachcheri Hindu College and Velanai Central College.

Target group: Grades 8-11 and G.C.E (A/L) (2019 & 2020 batches of Science and Technology streams)

Main features of the programme:

  • Power point (PPT) presentations about Clean Energy Technologies (wind energy, hydro energy, bio energy and solar energy)
  • Video presentations on Clean Energy Technologies
  • Guided the students to do demonstration of working models such as solar fan cap, solar car, solar phone charger, solar garden night lamp (with senor), Solar fan, solar table lamp, Solar controller
  • Hands on experience in building smaller size solar panels using solar cells (Short video coverage of the event)
  • Written quiz examination on CETs. Find the list of students selected for further training at the university of Jaffna
  • Summary of students’ evaluation of the programme

65 students, who scored above 80 % in the written quiz examination on CETs, were selected for a one-day workshop and final round of quiz competition on CETs to be held in April 2018.

Resource persons:

  • Professors: P. Ravirajan, A. Atputharajah and Meena Senthilnanthanan
  • Senior Lecturers: Dr. B. Ketheesan, Dr. A. Thevakaran, Dr. A. Anbruvel and Dr. R. Shivatharsiny
  • Lecturer: Ms.S.Vinothini
  • Postgraduate students and Technical officers of University of Jaffna
  • Science graduates trained at the Training of Trainer (TOT) prorammes conducted in November 2017

Detailed report of the ten sessions conducted in Jaffna District

Feb 05

Staff Mobility: Research stay of Dr. Raja Manickam, Gandhigram Rural University, India

Dr. N. Rajamanickam, Gandhigram Rural University, India had been worked as a visiting researcher  at Department of Physics, University of Jaffna from 05 February 2018 to 04 March 2018 under Higher Education and Research collaboration on Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Technologies project (HRNCET). He worked on materials development towards Nanostructured titanium dioxide based dye sensitized solar cells as well as methylammonium lead iodide based perovskite solar cells. Based on the research conducted here, he achieved new ideas about the doping effect in different materials. During his stay, he trained a few final year physics hours student and a MPhil student for fabricating solar cells and is planning to co-author a paper. He has a plan to continue the collaboration and make future visit to the department. On the request made by the Physics Society of our university, he made an excellent presentation titled Effect of doping on Binary Oxide Nanomaterials. Faculty staff, final year Physics and Chemistry student attended his presentation.

Brief profile of speaker
Dr. N. Rajamanickam obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Alagappa University, India and his masters and PhD from the Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India. Now, he is working as SERB – National Postdoctoral Fellow at Gandhigram Rural University, Dindigul, India sponsored by Department of Science, Ministry of Science and Technology India. In 2014, he has selected as a Bhaskara Advanced Solar energy fellowship from IUSSTF, USA and visited center for renewable energy research center, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA for 6 month. He has published over 18 papers in scientific reputed international journals, 9 AIP proceedings and 1 book chapter. He has also presented more than 36 oral and posters at international and national conferences.

Jan 26

Staff Mobility: Research stay of Mr.Venkat Raman, Coimbatore Institute of Technology, India

Venkat Raman, India had been worked as a visiting researcher at Department of Physics, University of Jaffna from January 26, 2018  to February 05, 2018 to under Higher Education and Research collaboration on Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Technologies project (HRNCET). During his stay, he trained a few undergraduate students on fabrication and characterization of Dye Sensitized Solar cells. He made a presentation on “Enhanced performance of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells using Metal Oxide based nanomaterials”.

Dec 06

International Symposium on NANOMATERIALS FOR CLEAN ENERGY AND HEALTH APPLICATIONS

From 6th of December to 8th of December, an international symposium was arranged in India under the UTFORSK, INCP and NORPART projects. Both students and staff from HVL, UiB, UoA, UoJ, UoP were involved in this symposium and meetings along with our partners from CIT. Eight academics from Universities of Jaffna, Peradeniya and Eastern were actively participated by presenting papers at the symposium under this project.

Nov 21

Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai

Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai,
Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Head of the research group, Advanced Nano materials for Clean Energy Applications (ANCEA) at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), Campus Bergen, Norway

Dhayalan Velauthapillai is Professor in Physics and Technology at Western Norway of Applied Sciences, Campus Bergen. He received his PhD degree from University of Bergen in the field of electromagnetic modeling in 1996 and has had a Post Doc at University of Neuchatel, Switzerland and at University of Bergen. He has received external funding for his research projects including personal PhD and Post Doc research funding from the Research Council of Norway (RCN). He is also the primary investigator of a number of international collaborative research projects on clean energy technologies funded through INCP, UTFORSK and NORPART programs run by Norwegian Center for International Cooperation in Education. Velauthapillai in association with international partners has organized a number of international conferences on clean energy technologies with the funding from RCN and other international funding agencies.

Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai has versatile research activities in the field of physics and nanotechnology. The ANCEA research group of Dhayalan Velauthapillai focuses on mathematical modeling, computer simulation, synthesis, characterization of advanced nano materials with particular emphasis on third and fourth generation solar cells and fuel cells. The research group has the vision to develop low weight, flexible and low cost solar cell technologies based on metal oxides, dyes, polymers and perovskite materials.concentrates on computational and experimental studies on advanced nanomaterials for clean energy and health applications. He has also research activities in electromagnetic modeling, crystal optics, diffractive optics, microlenses and focusing and propagation of electromagnetic waves in isotropic and isotropic medium. Velauthapillai leads also a project on energy policy and management with external funding. He has been supervisor for several master and PhD candidates in the field of computational modelling and clean energy technologies. He is currently supervising 13 PhD candidates from HVL and collaborating international institutions from India, Sri Lanka, South Korea and UK. He has also served on the evaluation committee for several PhD theses. He has over 125 research and conference articles with peer-review to his credit, and serves as a reviewer for several international journals on nanomaterials, optics and clean energy technologies. He has also guest edited a special issue on third generation solar cells for the Solar Energy journal.

Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai has won several awards and recognition including ‘Excellence in teaching award’, ‘Top 10’ award and ‘Best Professor’ awards. He has also served as an expert member in Norwegian advisory committees for higher education and integration of immigrants.

Brief CV

Oct 17

Visit to a Research Institutes in Norway

Professors and research students from HVL, University of Jaffna,University of Peradeniya and Coimbatore Institute of Technology visited Christian Michaelsen Research and Prototech on the 17th of October. President of Prototech, Dr. Bernt Skeie presented the research work carried out in the field of fuel cells. The delegation had also presentations on the activities carried out under the NORPART project. Delegates held discussions on possible research collaborations. The day was concluded with a visit to the laboratories driven by Prototech.

Oct 16

Sri Lankan researchers at the HVL

Professor V. Dhayalan invited Senior Professor Gamini Rajapakshe (University of Peradeniya), Professor G. R. A. Kumara (National Institute of Fundamental Studies) and Professor P. Ravirajan (University of Jaffna) to have research stays at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) commencing from 16th to 26th of October. During their stay the visiting professors will be attending seminars, meetings with both institutions and industries who are working on clean energy technologies. They will also present their respective research at various seminars arranged by HVL. They will also be involved in discussions with the research students from Univ. of Jaffna and Univ. of Peradeniya currently having their research stay at Prof. Dhayalan’s research group at HVL.  

Sep 18

Research Stay of UOJ staff at HVL

Professor V. Dhayalan invited Dr. (Ms.) Shivatharsiny Rasalingam to have research stays at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) for a period of three weeks from September 18th to October 7th, 2017. She mainly involved in executing the experimental work of the research students from UoJ, UoP, and CIT. She assisted the students with setting up their labs and to start their experimental work. She has also visited several departments in Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) and University of Bergen, where Prof. Dhayalan’s collaborations going on. In addition, she attended seminars and had meetings with professors from HVL and UiB, who are working on clean energy sectors and chemical engineering.

 

Sep 14

Western Norway University PhD student at University of Jaffna

One of Professor Dhayalan’s PhD scholars, Murugesan Rasukkannu is on short term visit for sharing his expertise knowledge on computer modelling of Nanomaterials.  He is going to deliver a talk on Computation modelling of Nanomaterials for the Solar cell applications at the department of Physics, UoJ  on 15.09.2017. Abstract of his talk as follows:

Abstract: Computation modelling of nanomaterials is computationally challenging, we use appropriate mathematical and computational methods to solve the problem effectively. For this task, we use the density-functional method, fully self-consistent in the generalised gradient approximation for exchange and correlation corrections and hybrid function. Our results suggest that these nanomaterials are promising host for the development of third-generation solar cells. We present here the numerical results of these nanomaterials findings a significant effect in understanding these materials and use to improve the photovoltaic properties.