The Center for Postgraduate Studies and Research congratulates Asst. Prof. Dr. Yvonne Choo Shuen Lann and final year student Grayson Ling Zhi Sheng from XMUM School of Energy and Chemical Engineering for winning prizes at #RSCPoster Twitter Conference 2022.  

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ong Wee Jun has been invited to serve as one of the conference chairs.  

With her work “LEGO® Biochemistry: Fatty Acid β–Oxidation Made Visual”, Dr. Yvonne Choo Shuen Lann won First Prize in #RSCPosterPitch, utilizing LEGO® to visualize the complex steps involved in β–oxidation.  

As she argued in her pitch, textbooks often abbreviate the steps involved in each β–oxidation cycle, making it difficult for students to learn the linkages between the chemical processes and the subsequent ATP calculations. Hence, she introduced this innovative teaching strategy to help students better understand the biochemical processes. She also explained how LEGO could help solve the aforementioned problems when the steps are visually represented. For the full discussion, see the Twitter entry here.

 Dr. Yvonne’s #RSCEdu Poster (Winner of #RSCPosterPitch)

Grayson Ling Zhi Sheng, a final year student under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ong Wee Jun from the Chemical Engineering programme, was awarded the Second Prize in the Energy category (#RSCEnergy). Entitled “Prospective toward Sustainable Fuel Generation: Life Cycle Assessment of Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction to CO and CH₃OH using Graphitic Carbon Nitride”, his work shows the environmental benefit of using the photocatalytic approach to produce methanol as a renewable fuel.  

“There has been a booming of research in the solar to energy conversion technology, but very few have studied the environmental impact of this process. This sparked our interest to carry out this LCA work,” said Grayson Ling Zhi Sheng.

By delivering an insightful outlook to the scientific community regarding the future development of photocatalytic systems toward sustainable and large-scale industry setting goals, this project is vital for reaching higher levels of technology readiness for potential deployment, commented Dr. Ong Wee Jun. For the full discussion, see the Twitter entry here.

 Grayson’s #RSCPoster (Runner-Up of #RSCEnergy)

 The mini cartoon abstract made by the organizer based on Grayson’s study in #RSCPoster 2022

#RSCPoster is a global Twitter poster conference organized by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), held entirely online over the course of 24 hours. The event brings together the global chemistry community to network with colleagues across career stages, share their research, and engage in scientific debate. This year, the #RSCPoster took place during 1-2 March and people from all across the globe participated in this Twitter poster conference, achieving a total of 900 contributions that reached 53 million impressions.