It was great to support HEERF PhD Scholarship recipient and Engineering Post-Graduate Shoulong Dong at the end of last week, who presented his research at the University of Auckland as part of HERA’s AGGAT program deliverables.
Shoulong spoke on his work around the Expert Design Tool (EDT) which is being developed to help assess prospective heat resources for Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) application. The EDT structure is based on thermodynamic analysis involving heat transfer and expansion of organic fluids and involves building smart algorithms and user-interfaces that will allow users to select operating conditions and design criteria specific to their own ORC application.
His research is concentrated on the challenge of overcoming the complexity associated with software integration, systematic analysis and multi-objective optimisation, and the results will be used to better inform its users of design options available at a fraction of the effort it would normally take.
Industry Development Manager Boaz Habib said “Shoulong’s work is a classic example of industry driven research as his work addresses a direct need identified by our member companies – so far garnering positive feedback and a good level of interest in its development from them.”
“His work is essential in driving technological advances, where in the long term it is thought this tool will avoid the need for end users to engage with multiple experts because it will be able to assess everything for them – substantially cutting early development costs and providing a clear ‘start point’ to advance ORC technology from for our members who are currently doing R&D in this space.”
Having helped over 20 students since 1997, HERA’s heavy engineering educational research foundation scholarship that Shoulong is supported under, is designed to facilitate and promote the study of ferrous and non-ferrous metals in engineering – with an ultimate goal of driving business opportunities and improvements to HERA’s wider membership at its completion.
HEERF Chairman Noel Davies said “we’re proactively invested in the future of our industry and dedicated to supporting it’s long term success by supporting up and coming students in their quest for a career in the metals industry.”
“But I’d like to remind our industry that as a charitable trust our foundation relies on their generosity to continue this good work. That’s why I encourage members to make living donations now, so they can see first-hand the positive difference their contributions can make.”
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