5th January 2012
As more students begin to fall victim of rising university fees, the pressure to find appropriate ways to fund their education has increased. The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) honour the achievements of undergraduates, postgraduates and young professionals through its annual Ambition Awards, offering the support and financial aid to help usher these students along their education career.
The 2011 awards saw 24 year old student Mitali Kakran crowned winner of the Present Around the World award; a global competition, part of the wider Ambition Awards. Following a highly competitive final round against four other international finalists, the students were given the opportunity to present a ten-minute technical presentation of their research and innovations at the awards on a worldwide stage. Voted as the best presentation by an audience of esteemed engineers, both young and old, Miss Kakran was awarded £1000 for her paper entitled “Graphene – the new wonder material.”
Mitali has long been fascinated by science and was confident she wanted to study engineering. Graduating with first class honours in Bioengineering in 2008 from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Mitali was particularly drawn to the area of drug delivery. As such she is currently undertaking a PhD on the fabrication of micro and nonoparticules for pharmaceutical applications.
Combining this interest with her PhD research on Graphene, Mitali focused her presentation on the properties and the interesting facts about Graphene and its isolation.
Graphene is a one-atom thick, two-dimensional nanomaterial made of carbon and is one of the strongest, lightest and most conductive materials known to man. Mitali focused specifically on Graphine Oxide, a derivative of graphene oxide, and how when functionalised with hydrophilic and biocompatible carriers this can be a promising new material to help with drug delivery for poorly water-soluble drugs. Presenting a strong and engaging presentation to demonstrate her research, Mitali won the competition and was awarded £1000 from the IET
Mitali now plans to get some experience working in the pharmaceutical industry in order to investigate the ways of actively controlling the beam characteristics so the system is adaptable to a large number of environments.
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