Category: News

The Norwegian climate festival Varmere, Våtere, Villere took place in Bergen from 9 – 11 March 2022. This climate festival was an arena for students, researchers, business leaders, politicians, and entrepreneurs to meet, discuss, share, debate and engage in knowledge, opinions, challenges and ideas related to climate crisis. The event featured presentations, debates, podcasts, discussions, exhibitions and concerts on topics related to global issues and also the everyday actions needed to combat climate crisis.
The technology grand prix highlighting future technological breakthroughs took place on 10 March 2022 at the Cultural House in Bergen. A number of researchers presented diverse technologies as possible future alternative options for dealing with climate changes. Dhayalan Velauthapillai, Professor – HVL, Hans Kleivdal, Executive Vice President – NORCE, and Fride Vullum-Bruer –Researcher, SINTEF introduced different technologies followed by a discussion around those technologies facilitated by Hilde Holdhus, Partner-Sarsia Seeds.

                       

On 11 March 2022, Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai also presented a talk on the myths and facts about the otential of solar energy. Also, on this day the students of the ANCEHA research group displayed their experimental works on emerging solar cells, hydrogen production through water splitting, and energy storage devices and explained their works to the visitors and guests. Nanthini Nagarajah of the ANCEHA presented a résumé on her research work highlighting the relevance of the so far underappreciated diaspora informal networks for sustainability transitions, in particular their relevance for developing countries.

   

Two Indian students have been undergoing research training at HVL. Swathi Srinivasan and Balaji Varadharajan from the Department of Physics, Alagappa University, Karaikudi arrived on 11 th of March 2022. They are conducting research at HVL under Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai in the field of Water splitting and Supercapacitor.

On 02 February 2022, Sveinung Rotevatn, Member of the Norwegian Parliament visited Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL) and the Advanced Nanomaterials for Clean Energy and Health Applications (ANCEHA) research lab. Sveinung Rotevatn was also the former Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway.

 

Three Sri Lankan students have been undergoing research training at HVL. Thivakarasarma Thuraisamykurukkal, Gnanasampanthan Abiram and Velu Aeneas Jerron from the Department of Physics, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka arrived on 30 th of January 2022. They are conducting research at HVL under Professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai.

External collaborators of the ANCEHA research group visited the research lab at HVL to meet with the researchers from Norway and Sri Lanka. Prof. Børge Hamre from the Department of Physics, University of Bergen visited on 13 December 2021. Karin Landmark, Director – Business Development and Strategy, Chair of the Board, Greenstat Asia and Oda Marie Ellenfsen, R&D Coordinator, Project Manager Hydrogen, Greenstat Asia visited on 31 January 2022. They held discussions with the ANCEHA researchers from Norway and Sri Lanka on their working projects on materials and technologies and the researchers seized these opportunities to demonstrate their ongoing research on hydrogen production through water splitting, perovskite solar cell and super capacitor, luminescent solar concentrator, dye-sensitized solar cells and stimulation.

Charlotte Gannefors Krafft, Senior Advisor and General Manager of the Knowledge Cluster Energy Change VEST (EOV) from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Bergen visited the HVL research lab on 1 December 2021 and met with the ANCEHA researchers from Sri Lanka and India working on different materials and technologies. The students demonstrated their ongoing research on organic solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells and luminescent solar concentrator, energy storage through super capacitors and photo-capacitors, and hydrogen production through water splitting. They further shared with the Senior Advisor the opportunities and challenges they have experienced in developing these materials.

 

 

The Faculty of Engineering and Science of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences held its annual faculty gathering on 25-26 November 2021, adhering to the guidelines specified by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Parallel sessions with presentations, panel discussions and workshops by the different departments on their ongoing activities and research were the highlights of the end of year gathering. The academic session on 25 November 2021 included a research pitch where 10 PhD students from the faculty were challenged to pitch their PhD research in 3 minutes to the general audience. Three PhDs attached to the ANCEHA research group also participated in this research pitch and they included Fatemeh Heidari Gourji, Håkon Eidsvåg and Nanthini Nagarajah.

 

 

We, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL), are delighted to announce that we are awarded a new NORPART project funding by Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-Dir) for another five years from 2022 to 2026 with our partners, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. University of Bergen, University of Peradeniya (SL), National Insititute of Fundemental Studies (NIFS, SL) and industrial partners from Norway and Sri Lanka are active collaborators in this project on Advanced Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Technologies. This is the second NORPART project awarded to us by HK-Dir. Aim of the project is to develop efficient and affordable clean energy solutions for all.

The funding will be primarily used for joint research, industrial collaboration and mobility of students/staff between the partner institutions. Large number of Master and PhD students from Norway and Sri Lanka will have research stays at Universities in both countries. Number of students from SL will also be awarded full-degree Master scholarships at HVL and UiB in Norway through this project. This project will help the partners to enhance the research and higher education collaboration to new hights! Thanks to HKDir and all the partners! Special thanks go also to the Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka for providing funding for another capacity building project since 2017.

Får millioner til å videreføre utdanningssamarbeid på Sri Lanka

‘Research Days 2021’ in Bergen was celebrated from 22nd September to 3rd October 2021 starting with school visits on 22-24 September 2021. This year the researchers from different universities in Bergen visited schools. The ANCEHA researchers based at HVL, Bergen visited Rå Skole and Apeltun Skole, Bergen on 22nd and 24th September 2021 and demonstrated emerging solutions on energy production and energy storage based on their research findings. The demonstration was titled “How should we solve energy crisis?”

On 01 October 2021, the Researcher Grand Prix was held where 10 researchers were given four minutes to pitch their research in front of 200 guests before three were voted through to the final. Håkon Eidsvåg, PhD research fellow at HVL and from the ANCEHA research group participated in this Prix and pitched his research. His research focuses on green hydrogen production which can be used as fuel in cars, ships, buses, planes or replace oil, gas and coal in industry. This method involves using materials which when immersed in water creates hydrogen by using the incoming solar light to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Vanligvis snakker vi om solenergi og mener energi fra solcellepaneler basert på silisum. Av og til snakker vi om solenergi som solvarme.

Men denne gangen snakker vi om solenergi på flere andre måter, Grätzel-celler, eller såkalte dye-sensitized solar cells. Vi får også høre om solfangere med nanopartikler for mindre varmetap, og hydrogenproduksjon der sol-lys produserer hydrogen direkte, med nano-partikler.

HVL har også en solenergilab i Bergen, der man kan hente konkret erfaringsdata for solenergiinnstråling, og produksjon, både til solceller og solfangere.
Dette får du høre om i podcastepisoden med professor Boris Balakin (Institutt for maskin- og marinfag) og professor Dhayalan Velauthapillai (Institutt for datateknologi, elektroteknologi og realfag) ved Høgskulen på Vestlandet, HVL.