http://sites.ias.edu/sig/rise/amsen
7-02-2011
AMSEN: African Materials Science and Engineering
Network
About AMSEN
This network is based largely on the premise that increased skills in materials science and engineering are
needed in southern Africa to develop and add value to the extensive mineral deposits of the region. AMSEN
benefits from existing collaborations, including the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials
established at Wits in 2004 and the Wits-Namibia Engineering Curriculum Development Program in
nanotechnology, sponsored by Norway’s SANTED Programme. To reduce the brain drain in this field from
academia to industry, AMSEN uses a retention strategy that includes supplementation from industry, allowing
staff to consult for and be seconded to industry, and providing incentives for publishing in academic journals.
Leaders and their Institutions
Academic Director
Prof. L.A. Cornish, Director of Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials (CoE-SM)
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
Secretariat
Prof. F.P.L. Kavishe, Founding Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
University of Namibia
Prof. George Rading, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
University of Nairobi, Kenya
Prof. J. O. Borode, Faculty
Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria
Prof. P. K. Jain, Physics Department
University of Botswana
Blogs about AMSEN
New Uses for Hot African Sun (2/10)
Can Kenya Build a Real Steel Industry? (2/10)
Sweet Buildings (2/10)
Growing Pains (12/09)
After Two Decades, a Chance at a PhD (5/09)
Why is Namibia So Excited About Science? (4/09)
From Refugee to RISE Participant (4/09)
A Visit with Lloyd Nyemba (4/09)
AMSEN Mentions
New Funding Frameworks for African Partnerships, Who Benefits? by Fazela Haniff, Director of Wits
International Office. September 18, 2009.
Selected AMSEN Publications and Workshops
Prof. P. K. Jain, "Entrepreneurship Education for Scientists and Engineers in Africa," Science with Africa
conference, hosted by UNECA, Addis Ababa. June 24, 2010.
SEM and EDX Analysis: Demonstration and Practice. Workshop at University of Botswana. April 19-23, 2010.
Presentations on Materials Science Research, Tutorials on Phase diagrams, and EDX analysis. Workshop at
University of Botswana. April 13-16, 2010.
O. Olaniran, “Development of nano-structured parts by spin –casting method”;
D.O. Folorunso, “Determination of a suitable core mix using Igbara-Odo (Nigeria) potter’s clay and some
additives for core making”;
F.O. Aramide, “Formulation of refractory lining for solid fuel fired cupola from locally sourced kaolin and potter’s
clays”;
Adenike Olaseinde, "The Effect of Minor Ru Additions on the Phase Properties in Selected Duplex Stainless
Steels"
at the 5th International Conference of the African Materials Research Society. Abuja, Nigeria. December 14-18,
2009.
S.H. Coetzee, “Progress on the Liquidus Surface Diagram for the Ni-Ru-V System”, Microscopy Society of
Southern Africa Conference. Durban, South Africa. December 8-11, 2009.
Ayodeja Apata, Lesley Cornish and Michael Whitcomb, "An Investigation of As-cast V-C-Ni Alloys",
Proceedings of the Microscopy Society of Southern Africa Conference, Vol. 29, p. 60. Durban, South Africa.
December 8-11, 2009.
-Bernard Odera, Lesley Cornish, Rainer Suss and George Rading, "A Study of Phases in Selected Alloys fromi
the Pt-Al-V System in the Pt-rich Corner", Proceedings of the MIcroscopy Society of Southern Africa
Conference, Vol. 39, p. 61. Durban, South Africa. December 8-11, 2009.
George Rading and Lesley Cornish, "AMSEN: A Carnegie-IAS RISE Project", African Universities Day,
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. November 12, 2009.
Frank Kavishe, "African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN): Organization and Challenges",
MacArthur Workshop. Abuja, Nigeria. November 11, 2009.
Lesley Cornish, "DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials and AMSEN: Experiences of an African
Network", TWAS 11th General Conference. Durban, South Africa. October 20-23, 2009.
Lesley Cornish and Frank Kavishe, "Genesis of a New Network: African Materials Science and Engineering
Network (AMSEN)". Presented at the Regional and Interregional Cooperation to Strengthen Basic Sciences in
Developing Countries Conference. United Nations Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. September 12-4,
2009.
Bernard Odera and Adenike Olaseinde. Presentations at the Advanced Metals Initiative Student Seminar.
Mintek, Randburg, South Africa. July 9, 2009.
Updates
January 2011: Lloyd Nyemba submitted his MSc dissertation for examination in December 2010.
Isaac Popoola submitted his MSc dissertation to be banked. He has applied to the Faculty of Science at the
University of Witwatersrand to convert his MSc to a PhD.
Isaac Popoola will be attending the Nanoscience Conference 2011 to be held in Egypt during February.
December 2010: At the University of Botswana, Stephan Coetzee and Liberty Chipise are well into analysing
their second batch of samples. Students from FUTA have returned home after their 6 week sojourn at the
Tshwane University of Technology and Wits. Unfortunately, they did not give presentations at Wits, but will do
so on a return visit.
November 2010: Adenike Olaseinde attended a metal Dusting Serminar given by Dr J. Zhang who was
presenting at Mintek, Randburg. Isaac Popoola is having his draft MSc looked at.
At UB, they have broken part of the equipment in their SEM, but have managed to get their XRD up and
running, and will soon be learning how to use it.
Other than that, we are all working towards the next reports, and people are starting to go on their holidays!
Late October 2010: Graham Bathgate and his co-authors have had a journal publication accepted:
Title: "Continuous Synthesis of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes from Xylene Using the Swirled Floating
Catalyst Chemical Vapour Deposition Technique"
Authors: Yah, Clarence Suh; Iyuke, Sunny E.; Unuabonah, Emmanuel I.; Bathgate, Graham; Simate, Geoffrey
S; Matthews, George; Cluett, John D.
has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Materials Research.
Jane Morris (from SABINA) is going to be a co-supervisor for I.O. Oladele at FUTA, so that there is some
botanical input there. So there is a a cross-RISE Network collaboration! FUTA have been severely leant on to
take on more external supervisors....and we are hoping to get a Wits staff member involved there. The FUTA
students are still around in South Africa.
Some of the AMSEN students are off to the Microscopy Conference next week. Bernard’s name is on a paper
being presented at another conference next week as well. So the publications are starting!
We have some interesting results from both A. Apata and B. Odera, and now understand more of those
systems.
We have run two lots of samples for the AMSEN UB students here at Wits.... XRD and DSC.
October 2010: After being awarded the TATA Women in Science Fellowship on 13th August, Adenike
Olaseinde has had a baby girl, born on 14th September. However, she came to the RISE conference in
October!
All of the AMSEN students that submitted abstracts to the Microscopy Society of Southern Africa Conference,
to be held later in October in Bela Bela, South Africa, have had their abstracts accepted, and so they will be
presenting. These are: Ayodeja Apata, Bernard Odera and Adenike Olaseinde from Wits, with Stephan
Coetzee and Liberty Chipese from the University of Botswana. Last year, there were three AMSEN abstract at
this conference, and this year, there are now five.
Kenneth Njoroge (University of Nairobi) will be staying at Wits after the RISE conference to undertake some
practical transmission electron microscopy work there. Mintek has kindly provided some of the samples for him.
Four FUTA students will be staying on after the RISE Conference in Pretoria to undertake practical work at
Tswhane University of Technology, where Dr Peter Olubambi is currently working. The optical microscope will
be soon be arriving at FUTA!
The University of Botswana has received its copies of the Ternary Diagram Handbooks. This is an important
resource for both AMSEN and other students.
At the University of Namibia, the mechanical testing equipment, mainly funded by the University itself, will soon
be arriving.
August 2010: Adenike Olaseinde, our only female student in AMSEN, is a finalist for a Woman in Science
Award and will be attending the Gala Dinner on the 13th August 2010 where the awards will be made. She is in
the Fellowships for Women Scientist category.
Selected AMSEN students from Wits and the University of Botswana attended an X-ray course from 26th –
30th July 2010, which was presented by Dr Dave Billing from the School of Chemistry, Wits to Chemistry and
Physics postgraduate students. It is planned to give this course in FUTA, Nigeria, in the near future as part of
the AMSEN package.
At least 5 abstracts from AMSEN have been sent to the Microscopy Society of Southern Africa conference in
October, a paper was submitted to the Light Metals Conference Student Day (October), and a paper on
AMSEN was sent to the 14th Annual International Education Association of South Africa Conference,
University of the Witwatersrand.
July 2010: Last year, three AMSEN students presented at the 47th Annual Conference of the Microscopy
Society of South Africa, from Wits and UB. This year, we have five AMSEN students who have submitted
abstracts for the 48th Annual Conference of the Microscopy Society of South Africa, again from Wits and UB.
The conference will be at Warmbaths, South Africa. Once again, the students made the deadline! Most of the
research work is going well, and some interesting results are being found.
Profs. Cornish, Kavishe and Jain are about to submit a paper to the 14th Annual International Education
Association of South Africa Conference University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 28th August – 1st
September 2010 on AMSEN.
Prof Cornish will present her Inaugural Lecture on the 13th July, and the title is “Developing Novel Alloys Using
Phase Diagrams.”
April 2010: The University of Botswana node of the African Materials Science and Engineering Network
(AMSEN), a Carnegie-IAS RISE network, hosted two consecutive research training Workshops for staff and
graduate students from member universities including UB. The Workshops were organized in pursuance of the
AMSEN objective of training, human resource development and capacity building in materials science and
engineering in the member universities.
The first Workshop on Materials Research, Phase Diagrams and SEM/ EDX from 13 to 16 April 2010 dealt with
the theoretical aspects of the phase diagram research and the use of SEM and EDX. The workshop was
attended by 10 delegates from the Universities of Botswana, Namibia, Nairobi, Wits, and the Federal University
of Technology, Akure, Nigeria that included academics as well as MPhil/ PhD students. On the first day of the
Workshop, delegates presented their research work. The remaining days were devoted to tutorials and lectures
in phase diagrams of binary and ternary alloy systems and the use of SEM/ EDX as tools of research. The
lectures and tutorials were presented by Prof. P K Jain (UB), Prof. L A Cornish (Wits) and Mr. S. H. Coetzee
(UB).
The second Workshop on SEM and EDX Demonstration and Practice from 19 – 23 April, 2010 was facilitated
by Mr. S. H. Coetzee. This involved operation, use and application of SEM and EDX techniques in materials
research. Participation was restricted to 8 trainees because of the space limitation in the EM laboratory.
Electron microscopy is an indispensible tool in materials research to study the microstructure and microanalysis
of samples by almost all materials researchers. The Workshops were self supporting. The cost was covered
from the delegate’s registration fees. The registration of the UB participants was sponsored by AMSEN-UB.
March 2010: Two workshops are being arranged at the University of Botswana in April 2010: one on Phase
Diagrams and one on Using the Scanning Electron Microscope. The first is open to all, and the latter will only
have one participant from each Node because of the need to spend time on the instrument. Profs. Jain and
Cornish will be presenting the first workshop, whereas Mr S. Coetzee will be presenting most of the second
workshop. All of the students will be making a presentation of their research work on the first day of the first
Workshop.
Prof Jain, AMSEN Node coordinator for University of Botswana, will be presenting his inaugural lecture on
March 31.
All the AMSEN students are busily finishing off their extended abstracts for the proceedings of the 1st AMSEN
Workshop held in Namibia in January 2010.
February 2010: Nearly all AMSEN members met in Windhoek at the end of January. It was opened by
dignitaries from the University of Namibia and also His Excellency the High Commisioner of Nigeria. All the
node presenters made a presentation, and I also did an overview. Then all the students gave presentations,
and at the end we gave 3 prizes for the best presentations. Most of the talks were of a high standard and it was
good to hear from the other nodes about what they were doing.
We also had a node co-ordinators meeting, and it came out that we needed more networking - not just using
Wits as a central node. But that is also up to the other people! There are students who do not have a Wits
supervisors. We all felt the Wokshop was a success, and would like to plan for another.
Prof. Cornish is in Uppsala to meet with the people from ISP there, who are supported by SIDA. Next week,
Bernard Odera and another student advised by Prof. Cornish (non-AMSEN but from Ghana) will be going to the
University of Botswana for a week to learn and do some scanning electron microscopy.
January 2010: Three AMSEN students presented at the Microscopy Society of Southern Africa Conference in
Durban, South Africa, 8th – 11th December 2009:
• B.O. Odera (Wits), “A Study of Phases in Selected Alloys from the Pt-Al-V System in the Pt-rich Corner”,
• A.O. Apata (Wits), “An Investigation of As-cast V-C-Ni Alloys”,
• and S.H. Coetzee (U. Botswana) “Progress on the Liquidus Surface Diagram for the Ni-Ru-V System”,
actually from his MPhil research.
Four students presented at the 5th African Materials Research Society, Abuja, Nigeria, 14 - 18 December,
2009:
• O. Olaniran (FUTA), “Development of nano-structured parts by spin –casting method”,
• D.O. Folorunso (FUTA), “Determination of a suitable core mix using Igbara-Odo (Nigeria) potter’s clay and
some additives for core making”,
• F.O. Aramide (FUTA), “Formulation of refractory lining for solid fuel fired cupola from locally sourced kaolin
and potter’s clays”,
• and O.A. Olaseinde (Wits), “The Effect of Minor Ru Additions on the Phase Properties in Selected Duplex
Stainless Steels”.
After the conference, Profs Cornish and Kavishe visited FUTA for a short visit. Despite the lack of power, the
students gave a short introduction on their work, and Profs Cornish and Kavishe spoke about the aims and
running of AMSEN, and also visited the Vice-Chancellor of FUTA, where they were very cordially received, and
discussions took place on the sustainability of AMSEN. On the second day, the Engineering Materials
Development Institute at Akure was visited. This is where the FUTA students undertake much of their
experimental work, and it is very well equipped, and has a back-up electricity supply.
December 2009: AMSEN students go back in time
The AMSEN students were invited to the combined DST/NRF
Centre of Excellence combined End-of-Year-Function and Team
Building events. This was held at Cooper’s Cave, which in the
Cradle on Mankind near Johannesburg. We drove out in a bus,
walked about 1.5 k to the site, had a muffin instead of breakfast,
and then went on the site tour. The caves are interesting
because they are in dolomite and have collected debris,
including hominid and animal bones. Some of the caves are now
exposed, so they are easy to excavate, except the debris has
formed really hard breccia.
After the tour, we then had our first competition. We were put in
teams, and each team was given a replica of an artefact and we
had to say what we knew. As it was not much, we made it up,
and the stories were very entertaining, if wildly inaccurate! After
a picnic lunch, under the lovely wild olive tree, we had our
second event, making stone tools. This was much more difficult
than anyone anticipated, and the culmination was using the
tools to cut bone. We were not very good at this, except for one
person, who dropped the biggest rock he could find on the
bones!
November 2009:
At the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering Poster Day
held on the 5th November 2009, AMSEN student Ayodeja Apata won
the prize for the second best Postgraduate Poster. All the other
AMSEN students participated and all their posters were also of a
high standard. Here he is with his poster and his prize.
Lloyd Nyemba, Ayodeja Apata , Adenike Olasiende, Bernard Odera
and Graham Bathgate also had good posters and (except for
Graham), they are shown here. The event is held every year, and is a
show case for the School.
October 2009: UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA AMSEN NODE
LAUNCHED (see article here)
October 2009:
After the RISE meeting in Nairobi in September 2009, Profs.
Cornish and Kavishe visited the University of Nairobi, where
they discussed project progress with the students enrolled
there.
Prof Cornish also interviewed Rodney Genga who is applying to
Wits for postgraduate studies, although not currently within
AMSEN.
Eliakim Niva Akhusama is a new AMSEN student who will start his studies, initially by coursework, on 12th
October 2009. His research will start later and will be a study of the heat affected zone in aluminium alloys. He
is shown here with his two supervisors, Prof George Rading (U. Nairobi) and Prof. Frank Kavishe (U. Namibia).
John Mwero has been working on his project since 1st April 2009.
His project concerns the addition of ash from sugar cane to
concrete. The rationale is that if the cost of cement can be lowered,
then so can the construction cost, and this work is targeted at
housing. He has derived the chemical compositions of the concrete
with the ash, and will soon be testing the mechanical properties. He
will present his work at the Institution of Engineers of Kenya
Conference in 2010. His supervisors are Dr. S.O. Abuodha, Prof.
G.O. Rading, Dr S. Muenya and Prof. F. Kavishe. John is shown
here between Prof. G.O. Rading and Prof. F. Kavishe.
Kenneth Njoroge is just starting on his PhD. He will be extending the
topic of his MSc to undertake more work on the plasticity of bcc
structures, and refine his model, to be a truly mechanistic model. As
well as Prof. G.O. Rading (U. Nairobi), his supervisors include Profs.
M.J. Witcomb and L.A. Cornish from Wits. Here he is with Prof. G.O.
Rading (U. Nairobi) and Prof. L.A. Cornish.
Meanwhile, at least four AMSEN abstracts have been accepted for the African Materials Research Society in
Abuja, Nigeria. The deadline for the full papers is very soon, so we are all trying to finish the work!
September 2, 2009: "Genesis of a new Network: African Materials Science and Engineering Network
(AMSEN)" presentation by Prof. Lesley Cornish at the Regional and Interregional Cooperation to Strengthen
Basic Sciences in Developing Countries conference in Addis Ababa.
September 2009:
All our students at Wits (including those from UNam) are progressing well, except for one
who had to go home to Nigeria last month to see her sick child. Two students, Bernard
Odera and Ayodeji Apata have annealed their samples for a month after studying them in the
as-cast condition.
This is from Graham Bathgate’s report on his work for his MSc Eng topic: "Continuous production of
single-walled carbon nanotubes by means of a swirled-fluid chemical vapour deposition reactor." To
date, he has collected and read numerous journal articles and publications for his topic, and has
begun his experiments. Currently, he is still in the first stages of experimentation whereby, by batch
experimentation, he hopes to find the optimum conditions to produce single-walled nanotubes, before
attempting to make the process continuous.
Through Wits, there has been e-mail contact with Prof. Chris Chama at the University of Zambia, who is keen
to join the AMSEN scheme and send some students to Wits to undertake the research part of their degrees.
We are now looking at some alternative sources of funding which will allow this. Chris Chama and Lesley
Cornish met in 2003 at the African MRS Meeting in Johannesburg.
Both Profs Lesley Cornish and Frank Kavishe attended the Regional and Interregional
Cooperation to Strengthen Basic Sciences in Developing Countries, September 1–4,
2009, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the former gave a presentation “Genesis of a
Network: African Materials Science and Engineering Network (AMSEN)”. The conference
was very useful, and now we have more contacts to try and get funding to expand
AMSEN. Also, now there is interest from the University of Addis Ababa to collaborate, which resulted from the
conference and the visit to the University after the conference.
August 2009:
The following is the progression made by AMSEN students at University of Nairobi
Node:
STUDENT
SUPERVISORS
DEGREE
LEVEL
PROGRESS
John N. Mwero
Prof. G. O. Rading (UoN)
Dr. S. O. Abuodha (UoN)
Dr. S. Ekolu (Wits)
Prof. F. Kavishe (UNam)
PhD
Registered April 2009.
Submitted proposal at UoN
Done preliminary
experiments. Continuing
with experiments
Kenneth D.
Njoroge
Prof. G. O. Rading (UoN)
Prof. J. M. Kihiu (JKUATattached to UON Node)
Prof. M. J. Witcomb
(Wits)
PhD
Registered August 2009.
Working on final proposal
Eliakim Niva
Akhusama
Prof. G. O. Rading (UoN)
Others to be decided
MSc
To Start coursework at UoN
in October 2009.
Other news is that now 3 students (2 at Wits and 1 at U Botswana) have sent off their proposals
to the Microscopy Society of Southern Africa Conference (in December in Durban, SA) and one
has gone off to the African Materials Research Society conference in Abuja, Nigeria also in
December.
Dr. Cornish is attending the Regional and Interregional Cooperation to Strengthen Basic
Sciences in Developing Countries conference in Addis at the beginning of September and
making a presentation regarding AMSEN. Dr. Kavishe attending too. The AMSEN workshop is
now in January, still in Namibia.
July 2009: Elizabeth Shigwedha, the Administrative Assistant from the U. Namibia Secretariat, is currently
spending a week at the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence on Strong Materials (CoE-SM) at Wits, where she is
being trained on her Secretariat duties, mainly by the CoE-SM Secretariat: Tanya (CoE-SM Administrative
Manager), Moira (CoE-SM Secretary) and Marina (CoE-SM Book-keeper). She is being given advice and
guidance on a number of issues, such as running the AMSEN Workshop. Unfortunately,
the latter has been moved until next year – we did not realise that the African MRS (Materials
Research Society) conference was this year, and there was a problem with the hotel.
Two AMSEN students, B. Odera and A. Apata, are preparing abstracts for the Microscopy
Society of Southern Africa Conference in Durban in December 2009.
A. O. Olasiende will be presenting her work in Nigeria at the African MRS the following week. It is
planned that Profs Cornish and Kavishe will attend the conference in Nigeria too, and will also visit
FUTA afterwards.
Prof Cornish will also be presenting at the Regional and Interregional Cooperation to Strengthen Basic
Sciences in Developing Countries Conference, September 1–4, 2009, in United Nations Conference Centre,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, mainly on AMSEN.
June 2009:
A visit to Zambia was made by Odilon Ilunga and Profs Cornish and Kavishe to a
copper mine, and they looked at the all the processes from bringing up the ores to
refining. This is necessary for the basis of Odilon's project.
Experimental work has started in earnest for the other students, and a local conference in
December has been targeted for them. On 9th July, two AMSEN students, Bernard Odera
and Adenike Olaseinde, will be presenting their first results at the Advanced Materials
Initiative seminar at Mintek.
May 2009: Most of the students have submitted drafts of their research proposals, and these will soon be
submitted to the Faculty. The first reports to be written by the students are due at the end of May, and already
at least two have been submitted. Most of the students have already given a presentation of their proposed
projects. Two students has already started their experimental work, on the characterization of the samples.
Some of the students have been attending extra courses, for example, on writing at the University of the
Witwatersrand. A thermodynamics and phase diagram course will be held at the University of the
Witwatersrand from 1st – 5th June.
April 2009: Three of the four Wits students have started their projects and are currently working on their
project proposals. Similarly, three of the UNAM students who are registered at Wits while UNAM builds their
programme are also at Wits. There is still difficulty with the remaining three students at Botswana, but one is
safely identified and has already started on his project, although his registration is not yet completed. The
status is unchanged for the U Nairobi and FUTA students.
A provisional date has been identified for the first AMSEN workshop: 2-4 September 2009 in Namibia. All
students and supervisors are expected to attend, and the students will present their work to date. There will
also be presentations from each node coordinator. The workshop is designed so that the students can meet
each other and that the academics and managers can also meet to increase understanding and efficiency of
running the program.
March 2009: Three students have already started at the University of Witwatersrand and they are working on
their literature surveys. The first experimental samples are being planned. Four students have been identified
at the University of Namibia; two of these have been working in industry and want to return to the university.
Two students are working on nanotechnology. There are plans for visits of copper smelters in South Africa,
Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, probably in June. Two students, who are members of staff,
have already started at the University of Nairobi, and a third student will start later. One staff member at the
University of Nairobi is undertaking his PhD at Wits. The Federal University of Technology, Akure in Nigeria
has identified four students, together with their projects and supervisors. Stephan Coetzee is a member of the
staff at University of Botswana who will soon be undertaking his PhD under AMSEN. He will also head the
electron microscopy team