Imperial College Centenary Symposium addresses challenges of the 21st Century

Academics and students demonstrate their research conducted in London, Singapore and Malaysia - News

Wednesday 19 December 2007
By Naomi Weston

The role of science, engineering and medicine in the 21st Century was the theme of the Imperial College Centenary Symposia held in Kuala Lumpur on Monday 26 November and Singapore on Wednesday 28 November.

Both events brought together world class experts giving attendees an insight into current thinking and research being conducted in the UK and Asia. A group of academics from Imperial, who have students studying at both the College and Singapore or Kuala Lumpur, gave presentations on their research which is tackling the scientific challenges we face.

The Kuala Lumpur symposium was held in association with the Malaysia-Imperial Doctoral Programme, a PhD programme run jointly by Imperial College London and five leading Malaysian universities. It is intended to offer doctoral-level education and research training to academic staff at these and other Malaysian universities, and to further develop links between Imperial and Malaysia. Students spend between 12 and 18 months studying at Imperial.

The Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Higher Education in Kuala Lumpur, Datuk Professor Mohd Yusof bin Kasim opened the symposium in Kuala Lumpur along with the Rector of Imperial College, Sir Richard Sykes. He gave the academics and students an overview of Imperial and highlighted its strong links with institutions across Asia. He stressed the importance of carrying out basic fundamental research to be a successful university making a difference in the world. "At Imperial we concentrate on the three key areas of health, environment and energy. Interdisciplinary work and breaking down barriers is essential if you want to make an impact," he said.

In Singapore, the event was held in association with the A* STAR Imperial Programme (AIP), which offers research students from Singapore a chance to also study at Imperial for 2 months a year throughout their PhD.

To illustrate the varying research being carried out by Imperial and Asian researchers, several academics gave presentations on their work.

Professor Richard Kitney, from Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering gave a presentation on the rise of digital healthcare. He explored the rise in electronic based information systems and web based systems.

In addition, Dr Mike Templeton from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, gave a talk on Water Quality and Public Health and the Civil Engineering challenges for the 21st Century. Looking at the treatment of water, Dr Templeton explained how he is conducting research into pharmaceutical products in water and how we need to come up with new ways of removing these drugs from the water supply.

One solution they are exploring is the use of ultra violet technologies which can kill organisms but don not produce any chemical by-products. They are also revisiting ozone technologies and they are working on optimizing existing treatment processors.

Dr Chiam Keng Hwee, a Senior Research Engineer in the Large-Scale Complex Systems group at A*STAR’s Institute for High Performance Computing in Singapore, gave a lecture on biology and engineering. His research focuses on the mechanical aspects of diseases and developing simulations of the mechanics of the cells and tumours.

Other academics speaking at the two events included: Professor Mary Ritter, Pro-Rector for Postgraduate Affairs, Dr John de Mello, from the Department of Chemistry, Dr Jing Zhang, from the Department of Physics, Professor Hani Gabra, from the Division of Surgery, Oncology, Reproductive Biology and Anaesthetics (SORA), Dr Paul Langford, from the Division of Medicine, Professor Chen-Lung Steve Lin, from SORA, Professor Maria Petrou, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Dr David Larkman, from the Clinical Sciences Centre.

Meet the students from the AIP Programme in Singapore:

Kok Haw Ong, a first year AIP scholar from Singapore, has just returned from his first trip to Imperial. His research focuses on lowering the cost of organic solar cells by looking at materials that absorb more light to ensure greater efficiency.

He said: "The AIP Programme is giving me a glimpse of the research culture in both Singapore and the UK. I really enjoyed spending two months in London, it is a very multi- cultural and diverse city. The best part about the experience was meeting a wide range of researchers who I can learn from."

Fellow first year AIP student is Wenyu Lin who is currently defining her hypothesis for her research into human embryonic stem cells and their immunology properties. She found the laboratory culture different in London compared to Singapore. "Researchers and fellow students contribute to your work more in the UK, they question and listen to your research which helps you develop and improve your work," she said.

In addition, Sing Yang Chiam, is in the fourth year of the AIP Programme and has just submitted his thesis in the field of surface and interface science in particular looking at how materials grow. He is looking forward to going back to Imperial next year for his post- doctorate year when he will join the Department of Physics.

He said, "Looking back over my four years on the AIP Programme I loved spending two months a year in London. As part of the programme, you got three different supervisors, one in London and two back home. This meant I had access to a lot of facilities and could pick three brains."

"The laboratory culture was also quite different, there was much more of a university environment feel to working as I was in a big shared office with other students. The atmosphere is more serious in Singapore but I enjoy the different aspects of both," he added.