Our final year undergraduate students, Hammad Ali Faizi (Mechanical Engineering) and San To Chan (Engineering Science), under the supervision of Dr. Anderson Shum, won the prestigious IMechE- Best Student Design Project 2015-2016. The competition was organized by the IMechE Hong Kong Branch to recognize the contribution to the mechanical industry from student design projects in terms of innovation, sustainability and applicability to industrial applications. It was a two-stage competition in which students from Hong Kong and nearby regions, such as Macau, initially submitted written research pieces; after which, shortlisted candidates competed by making oral presentations in front of a judging panel.
Hammad (left) receiving the Best Student Design Project award from the Chairman of IMechE Hong Kong Branch
In the winning project performed as their Integrated Capstone Experience, Hammad and San To, proposed a simple solution to the 10-year old problem that has been bothering the Semi-Conductor processing companies such as ASM Pacific Technology.
In electronic packaging applications, conductive viscoelastic adhesives are often used to bond silicon dies and printed circuit boards (PCB) together. In such functional fluids, the lesser known extensional viscosity plays a major role in stabilizing the liquid bridges. Not only does it increase the break up time of the bridges, it also leads to stringing and generation of satellite droplets resulting in the contamination of the adjacent droplets which may short circuit the electronic circuit boards. In this project, Hammad and San To investigated a novel solution to tackle these fundamental issues. They devised an approach for eliminating stringing and formation of satellite droplets. Through suppressing the effects of high extensional and shear viscosity, typical bridge break-up time was reduced by 10 times, with enhanced quality of the break-up. The validity of their approach was confirmed through extensive experimental studies with both model and industrial viscoelastic fluids. The teams of the research and industrial supervisors are now seeking funding support to translate this promising approach to industrial practice.
Stringing or Tailing issue with Satellite Generation
Apart from winning the award and gaining a great deal of industrial insights, our students fully enjoyed the experience and built valuable friendship. Both Hammad and San To will pursue Ph.D. studies overseas to continue their research careers, which Dr. Anderson Shum, their supervisor, believes will be fruitful and bright.
The group photo of San To Chan, Hammad Ali Faizi and Dr. Anderson Shum