Research About Compact Hyperspectral Cameras to Be Launched Into Space Gets €01.2 Million Funding From the Academy of Finland

 

 

|| Sunday: November 15: 2020 || ά. The Academy of Finland has granted €01.2 million in funding for Finnish space research, focused on developing hyperspectral imaging solutions to be used in space. The project is a partnership of the University of Helsinki, the University of Jyväskylä, the Finnish Geo-spatial Research Institute under the National Land Survey of Finland and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

The space industry is currently undergoing a major transformation, with compact spaceborne hyperspectral imagers playing a major role. Hyperspectral imagers capture the image in a number of separate wavelengths of light, from visible to infrared light. This establishes a spectrum for each individual pixel seen in the image, providing information, that can be used to characterise an object’s properties, such as, its scope within the image or its composition. In space, such devices can be used in observing Earth or other solar system bodies.

“Finland, especially, VTT, has been pioneering the development of compact hyperspectral imaging technology.” says Docent Mr Tomas Kohout, the Co-ordinator and Principal Investigator of the research consortium from the University of Helsinki. The researchers of the new consortium are now developing a new generation of miniaturised hyperspectral imagers and advanced methods for processing the data they collect, with the aim of developing techniques, that make Earth and planetary observations increasingly autonomous.

“In this project, we are developing both hardware and software for nano-satellites. The aim is to reduce the costs of new-era space operations.” Mr Kohout says. In the three-year project ‘Smart hyperspectral imaging solutions for a new era in Earth and planetary observations’:Smart-HSI, the University of Helsinki is focusing on planetary missions, the Finnish Geo-spatial Research Institute on Earth observation, VTT on hyperspectral imaging hardware development and the University of Jyväskylä on the optimisation of hyperspectral data processing.

The overall budget for the Smart-HSI project, which will be launched in January 2021, is €01.7 million.

Further information: Tomas Kohout, docent, University of Helsinki, tomas.kohout @helsinki.fi, +358 2941 51008: Eija Honkavaara, professor, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, eija.honkavaara @nls.fi, +358 2953 14716: Ilkka Pölönen, docent, University of Jyväskylä, Faculty of Information Technology, ilkka.polonen @jyu.fi, +358 40 024 8140: Harri Ojanen, senior scientist, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, harri.ojanen @vtt.fi, +358 50 482 1354

Caption: A first-generation compact hyperspectral camera designed by VTT and the Fabry-Perot interferometer used in it: Image: Leevi Annala

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Female Engineers Are Encouraged to Shape the World For This Year’s International Women in Engineering Day: June 23

 

 

|| Saturday: March 07: 2020 || ά. The International Women in Engineering Day 2020 launches with the theme ‘Shape the World’.  This annual event, now in its seventh year, is an awareness campaign, which aims to raise the profile of women in engineering across the globe, focusing attention on the amazing career opportunities available to girls in this industry.

The International Women in Engineering Day brings together engineers and their supporters from across the world; joining to raise awareness of the opportunities available in the sector and the achievements of women engineers, already working in various fields and specialisms of engineering. For the past four years the Campaign has been celebrated in many countries, including, Panama, Canada, Rwanda, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Pakistan.

A regular event, celebrating the International Women in Engineering Day in the UK, there is the Top 50 Women in Engineering Awards, which are co-ordinated by the Women’s Engineering Society:WES. The Awards recognise the Top 50 Women in a specific category. The 2020 Awards celebrate the Top 50 Women in Sustainability. Nominations open for the WE50 on March 08 with the winners announced in The Guardian newspaper supplement on June 23.

The International Women in Engineering Day was, originally, established as a national celebration in Great Britain by WES in 2015. Within a short time, the day grew in popularity and its appeal spread across the globe and in 2016 the Event was awarded UNESCO patronage for the first time. The International Women in Engineering Day is celebrated by a diverse range of people, including, schools, organisations, STEM campaigners, universities and politicians.

Events are collated and published on the International Women in Engineering Day website and this year’s event has, already, secured a number of high-profile sponsors for the day, including, Boeing, Dialog Semiconductor, ECITB, GCHQ, Institute of Refrigeration, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, OPITO, Royal Air Force and Wiley.

Speaking of the importance of on the International Women in Engineering Day, Ms Elizabeth Donnelly, the Chief Executive Officer of the Women’s Engineering Society, said, “INWED20 is an amazing campaign, that recognises the careers available to women in engineering. The 2020 theme ties in with the challenges facing us in an uncertain future and invites engineers to share how they are tackling such topics as the climate emergency. We are, also, delighted to be celebrating the Top 50 Women in Sustainability for engineering and allied disciplines, as an inspiration to those, who want to Shape The World."

Ms Sally Sudworth, the Chair of Judges for the Top 50 Women in Engineering 2020, said, “Engineers have a key role to play in providing sustainable solutions in addressing the climate emergency and net zero carbon challenge. That’s why we are celebrating the top WE50 women engineers working in this field in 2020.” 

The International Women in Engineering Day can only continue to be successful through the participation of the countless people, who celebrate the day and the generous organisations, that sponsor it. To find out how you or your organisation can take part in the International Women in Engineering Day or to support it through sponsorship and for more ideas and inspiration visit the the International Women in Engineering Day website at www.inwed.org.uk.

International Women in Engineering Day: It is an annual event developed and co-ordinated by the Women’s Engineering Society to celebrate the achievements of women in engineering and inspire younger generations. It takes place on 23 June 23 every year.  inwed.org.uk

The Women’s Engineering Society:WES: Founded in 1919, the Women’s Engineering Society:WES, is a professional, not-for-profit network of women engineers, scientists and technologists, offering inspiration, support and professional development. Although, the world has changed since a group of women decided to band together to create an organisation to support women in engineering after the First World War, the need is still there. WES envisions a nation in which women are as likely as men to study and work in engineering and one in which there are enough engineers to meet a growing demand. wes.org.uk.

The Top 50 Women in Engineering 2020: The WE50 campaign is coordinated by the Women’s Engineering Society each year having originated in 2016. The Awards recognise the top 50 women within specific categories each year. The Awards nomination portal will be launched on March 08 and the winners will be published in The Guardian newspaper supplement on June 23. inwed.org.uk/we50.

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What’s the Plan Bee: Young Learners Seeking Ways to Help the Bees Not Get Stung by Extinction

 

 

|| Wednesday: March 04: 2020 || ά. A group of students from Stafford have made it through to the finals of a national science and engineering competition with their Project, Plan Bee. Whether or not Einstein said, “If, the bee disappeared off the surface off the globe, then,  human would have only four years of life left’, it’s a fact that one third of the UK’s bee population have disappeared over the past decade and 24% of Europe’s bumblebees are being threatened with extinction. The young learners have decided that it is time to do something about it because they must have believed that there was always something we can do to make things better. If, not, we better give and up into a brickened-up state.

This group of Year 11 girls from Stafford in the West Midlands, is using their skills in science, technology, engineering and maths:STEM to try and help the bees. The team, made up of Ms Isobel Wenlock, Ms Saskia Conoghan, Ms Taiah Hay from Walton High School, worked on a project, Plan Bee, which has seen them through to the finals of the Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Competition.

The Project’s aim was to find out which plants bees were most attracted to and were the best for them to pollinate, so that they could inform and encourage the public on what they should be planting in their gardens. To do this, the young researches fully dissolved a sample of honey and analysed the solution through a microscope, being able to see where pollen grains had originated from. They, then, created an informative leaflet that will be sent to houses in the area, explaining why it is important to support the bees and what people can do to help.

The Research Team points out, “The concept for our Project originated from our school’s beehives. Production of honey had been low this year, so we really wanted to find a way to boost their production. We were aware that to help our bees we needed to establish what their favourite flowers were and how we could help provide more food for them. We chose to do this Project as we feel that people are misinformed and don’t understand the true importance bees have in our everyday lives.”

 Ms Hilary Leevers, the Chief Executive, Engineering UK said, “Plan Bee is a brilliant example of how young people today are working on how they can make a positive difference to the future and we’re excited to see how they will do at UK finals at The Fair.

Going into its twelfth year in 2020, the Big Bang Fair continues to be a great source of STEM inspiration for young people, representing an amazing opportunity for young visitors, their teachers and parents to get hands-on with a wide range of activities, workshops and shows, and engage in meaningful career conversations with professionals, all designed to bring classroom learning to life and inspire the next generation."

The Group will attend the competition finals, which is taking place at the Big Bang Fair at Birmingham’s NEC in March 2020. Here, they will vie for top prizes, which include the coveted title of GSK UK Young Engineer and GSK UK Young Scientist of the Year.

About the Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair: The Big Bang UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people in the UK. Taking place from March 11-14 at The NEC in Birmingham. The Big Bang Fair is an award-winning combination of exciting theatre shows, interactive workshops and exhibits and careers information from STEM professionals. Having grown from 6,500 visitors in its first year, 2009 to 80,000 in 2019, the Big Bang Fair is made possible through the collaborative efforts of over 200 organisations. thebigbangfair.co.uk/competition

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Could the Fischer-Tropsch Reaction Offer a Way to Converting Synthesis Gas Into Synthetic Fuels to Get Humanity Out of the Strangle-Hold of the Fossil Fuels: The Dutch Company Syngaschem BV Is Working Hard On It

 

 

|| Thursday: February 20: 2020 || ά. The adoption of sustainable and renewable energy sources to, permanently, move beyond the dependence from fossil fuels constitutes one of the great challenges of our time. One, that is made more urgent by the effects of climate change we witness on a daily basis. Electrification, such as we see in the development of electric vehicles, seems a promising strategy but, it can not be the solution for all applications. In many cases, liquid fuels are still considered the best and most efficient option. Is there a way to produce liquid fuels in an efficient and sustainable manner, one, that does not rely on fossil sources?

The research company Syngaschem BV believes that synthetic fuels can be the key for developing non-fossil fuels for industrial use. A team of researchers from Syngaschem BV and the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research:DIFFER came to MAX IV at HIPPIE beamline to elucidate some aspects of a complex reaction, called, Fischer-Tropsch, used to produce synthetic fuels. They discovered insights on how important intermediates are stabilised during the reaction and the Study has now been published in Nature Communications.

Syngaschem BV, based in The Netherlands, is specialised in fundamental research in catalysis and surface chemistry. They focus on synthetic fuels, considered a promising alternative, that can, potentially, replace traditional liquid fossil fuels while retaining the efficiency and energy density, needed in industrial applications.

The production of synthetic fuels is based on syngas or synthesis gas as the main intermediate. Syngas is a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, produced from different sources, including, natural gas, coal, biomass, and renewable energies. Starting from syngas and other intermediates, synthetic fuels can be produced through the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. During the reaction, syngas is used to produce long hydrocarbon chains, that represent the base of the liquid synthetic fuel.

“The mechanism of the Fischer-Tropsch reaction, in which synthesis gas is converted into long chain hydrocarbons is very complex and continues to be debated.’’ says Dr Kees-Jan Weststrate, the Senior Research Scientist at Syngaschem BV. “By studying how hydrocarbons react on a model catalyst surface we aim to better understand which reactions are happening on the catalyst and elucidate the reaction mechanism.”

Indeed, observing the Fischer-Tropsch reaction is a considerably difficult effort and it is, basically, impossible to identify the reaction intermediates. Experimental information is, almost, entirely indirect and the proposed reaction mechanism, often, relies on theoretical models. A better understanding of how the reaction unfolds could, hopefully, help improving its efficiency.

Using a simplified model catalyst, a single crystal surface of cobalt, Dr Weststrate and his team performed XPS, X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy, measurements, that allowed them to identify the reactants, involved in the formation of new C-C bonds and measure the kinetics of this reaction.

The researchers proved that a high concentration of carbon monoxide:CO during the reaction plays a crucial role. “The CO molecule does not react itself in the C-C bond forming reaction but has an important stabilising effect on the intermediate, that is required for the reaction. This makes it likely that the intermediates observed in our model system, also, participate in the reaction, that produces long chains in applied catalysis.”

Synthesis gas or syngas can be produced from a variety of sources and is a versatile intermediate for production of chemicals and fuels. Gas to Liquids:GTL, Coal to Liquids:CTL, Biomass to Liquids:BTL all rely on the catalytic conversion of syngas.

At MAX IV using the HIPPIE beamline, the research team performed Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy:APXPS experiments and were pleased with the technology they found at the beamline. “We needed to switch quickly between APXPS, Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and UHV, ultra-high vacuum, conditions.” says Dr Weststrate. “The speed at which we could take the spectra was impressive owing to the high flux from the beamline. This allowed us to do time-resolved measurements at a speed that was fast enough to capture the chemistry we were interested in.”

The research team proved that the reaction intermediates are stable on the cobalt model’s surface. “Our experiments show that the intermediates we see are reactive for the formation of C-C bonds. The HIPPIE experiments show that they are, also, very stable in the sense that they do not leave the surface easily. The combination of the two makes them suitable intermediates for the growth of long chains.”

These fundamental insights open new avenues in understanding the Fischer-Tropsch reaction and improve its efficiency. An improved reaction, coupled with the use of syngas, produced from renewable sources will, hopefully, help turn synthetic fuels into a practical replacement of fossil ones, encouraging the move beyond fossil fuels and towards sustainable and renewable sources of energy.

The Paper: Mechanistic insight into carbon-carbon bond formation on cobalt under simulated Fischer-Tropsch synthesis conditions: Weststrate, C.J., Sharma, D., Garcia Rodriguez, D. et al: Published in Nature Communications 11, 750 2020

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The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation Is to Grant £400,000 Funding For Advancing Training and Research in Allergy at the University of Southampton

 

 

|| Wednesday: February 12: 2020: University of Southampton News || ά. Half of all children and a third of adults in the UK have an allergy. To care for them, more specialist clinical teams and research are urgently needed but provision for essential clinical training to NHS staff and research is currently underfunded. These challenges are being taken on by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, which is donating funding of £400,000 to the University of Southampton for advancing allergy research and training.

This is the first donation to the University from the Foundation, which was set up by Mr Nadim and Mr Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, the parents of Natasha, who died tragically, aged 15, after suffering an allergic reaction to a baguette, containing sesame seeds. These funds will be invested in training more doctors, nurses and dietitians from across the UK, who will now be able to access world-leading allergy training to develop their skills in caring for patients, living with allergies and improving their clinical service.

Natasha’s Foundation will donate £100,000 to the University over the next four years to fund bursaries to support students to study modules at the University’s internationally recognised Masters degree course in Allergy. It will, also, donate £300,000 to fund three PhD students at the University’s world leading allergy research centre.

The MSc Allergy bursaries will be available to health professionals at any stage of their career and will help make knowledge about managing patients with allergies more widespread across the NHS. The MSc Allergy is one of only two such courses in the world and the bursaries will be available to people, looking to enrol on the full masters Course, postgraduate qualifications or to study individual modules. The Course not only gives students the skills to improve patient care, it, also, prepares them to be the allergy leaders of the future.

Professor Judith Holloway, who leads the Course, said, “The number of people suffering from allergic diseases is increasing globally but, the necessary investment for training is not available in a resource-constrained NHS. This significant donation from Natasha’s Foundation will make a huge difference to the accessibility of our learning; we will be able to train more health professionals, who would not otherwise be able to improve their understanding of this important subject.”

Mr Nadim and Mrs Tanya agreed, “We are delighted to announce the first significant donation from Natasha's Foundation in our mission to support people with allergies and to find a cure. NHS funding in allergy is frankly insufficient at a time when we are facing a growing tsunami of young people, being diagnosed and hospitalised with severe allergic reactions. This requires a twin-track approach. We need more clinicians and we need more clinics right across the country to treat patients."

The PhD students will work with the allergy experts at the University, which is one of just two centres in the UK to be recognised as a World Allergy Organisation Centre of Excellence for allergy research, clinical service and education.

Over more than three decades, researchers at the University have been at the forefront of investigation into allergic disease. They identified the human mast cell as the principle cause of acute asthma attacks on exposure to allergens and, subsequently, showed that activation of the cell was responsible for acute allergic symptoms at other sites in the patient, including, Anaphylaxis. Today University researchers conduct studies, such as, identifying genetic and environmental risk factors for allergy, studying of the natural history of allergic disease in populations, developing new treatments for allergic disease and trialling new strategies to prevent allergic disease developing in the first place.

Professor John Holloway, of Allergy and Respiratory Genetics at the University of Southampton, said, “It is vital that we keep developing the next generation of experts to make sure our research to help people suffering from allergies can continue. We are really excited about being able to bring more students to our team, helping us to improve the day to day life of patients with allergies and developing effective treatments.”

More information on the bursaries for the MSc Allergy, including, how to apply, can be found here.

The PhD studentships will be advertised later this year at FindAPhD.com.

 The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation

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Two Million Funding for New Research to See What Can Not Be Seen

 

 

|| Monday: December 16: 2019: University of Southampton News || ά. A Physicist, Dr Pierre Thibault, has been awarded a €02.2 million Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council to develop his advanced research into X-ray imaging and tomography. Using advanced methods to combat the current limitations of X-ray imaging, Dr Thibault’s research could revolutionise what we can see or, rather, what we can not see made visible.

Being able to diagnose breast cancer earlier, the ability to read ancient scrolls, that were damaged when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD and enabling aeroplanes to be fully carbon fibred are just some of the breakthroughs his research could lead to. Dr Thibault, Associate Professor of Physics, said, “X-rays are hard to focus and hard to manipulate. The techniques I am developing solve this problem by removing the need for lenses or complicated optics.

One of them is called ptychography and is a technique, that has been in use in X-rays for about 10 years. It’s a method, that provides high contrast and high resolution, down to the nano-metre scale. I am working on making it more efficient, to take ptychography to the next generation.”

Ptychography enables scientists to see the tiniest details, that are invisible to the naked eye, such as, the scales on a butterfly’s wings. Dr Thibault is combining ptychography with tomography, a technique that turns a two-D image into three-D.

His research will develop new theoretical and experiment tools to look at the nanoscopic structure of carbon fibre to determine fibre orientation. “To know how the fibres are put together is vital, from a safety point of view, when it comes to things like constructing aircraft.” said Dr Thibault.

“You need to know, if, there are any kinks or waves. Parts of aircrafts are, already, constructed, using carbon fibre but, more powerful characterisation methods could enable the material to be more widely used.” Dr Thibault plans to look at fragile heritage documents, that can not be analysed by other methods, such as, the papyri scrolls, that were damaged by the Vesuvius eruption. 

Early tumour detection is, also, on Dr Thibault’s agenda, specifically, for breast cancer. “Breast cancer tumours are difficult to pick up early with mammograms but, the methods we develop could allow medical doctors to detect tumours earlier on.” he said.

His ERC Consolidator Grant of €02.2 million is spread over five years. He will be employing two post-doctoral researchers and three post-graduates to work on the project, which will start in September 2020.

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The ME Association Makes Grant Funding for Research in ME