October 25, 2018
We took the opportunity to interview Xiong Xiao to find out more about IET.
“This competition has offered me priceless chances of networking with the other industrial people and young professionals” said Xiong Xiao.
Xiong Xiao went on to explain what this competition means for him “I have gained presentation skills, competition experience, and most importantly, the ability to translate cutting-edge technical research results into simple and straightforward content for everyone to understand. I will continue to improve these important science communication skills for the competition in Melbourne and for my career development. I would not be successful without the support from my research supervisors, Professor Eric May, Dr Darren Rowland, and Dr Saif Al Ghafri.”
Tell Us More about Your Presentation and Your PhD
“I presented on Modelling Improvements in Viscosity Predictions for Natural Gas Industry. Improved modelling will reduce the uncertainties of methane viscosity prediction in dilute gas condition. This could potentially improve the accuracy of experimental measurements and non-dilute gas viscosity models. More precise viscosity predictions will reduce the over-design of gas pipelines, save money and reduce safety concerns. The results will help industry increase reliability of energy supply and reduce costs.
My PhD is in Heat Capacity Calorimetric Studies and Improvement of Thermophysical Models. It has two parts:
The experimental part is using the differential scanning calorimeter to measure the heat capacity. I have been doing two industry projects on that: one from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the refrigerants to help design the refrigeration cycle, and the other is from Gas Processors Association for the hydrocarbon mixtures at high pressures to help design the LNG heat exchanger.
The modelling part focuses on the Equation of State work that predicts thermodynamic properties with small uncertainties and the dilute gas transport properties work to reduce the uncertainties in dilute gas viscosity and thermal conductivity.”
The IET PATW competition encourages students and young engineering to practice their public speaking and presentation skills by showcasing their work or research. The competition is open to all university students enrolled in STEM related courses and young professionals, between the ages of 18 and 30.
The student with the best presentation performance wins the competition and moves onto the National Final. The Final for this year’s competition is in Melbourne early next year. The winner from the National Final will represent Australia in the Asia Pacific competition, and the regional winner will then represent the Asia Pacific region in the global Final in London.
The IET is one of the world’s largest engineering institutions with over 168,000 members in 150 countries.