A UQ Hacky Hour success story proves the meetup is not only useful to researchers for solving their research-related IT issues, but also that the networking involved can result in improved projects, new projects, and even new papers.
Initial contact with RCC/QCIF/AIBN eResearch Analyst and high-performance computing specialist Dr Marlies Hankel at a Hacky Hour last December has resulted in a successful collaboration of the experimental group of Prof. George Zhao and the theoretical group of Prof. Debra Bernhardt.
Rohit Gaddam, a PhD student in the group of Prof. George Zhao in the School of Chemical Engineering, was researching a sustainable biomass precursor material — in this case raw mango powder — for the preparation of nitrogen-rich hard carbons.
He found that this hard carbon enriched with nitrogen showed good capacity and stability as a sodium ion battery anode. His group then became interested in theoretical investigations to explain the experimental results.
Rohit first came to UQ’s Hacky Hour last December for help with possible calculations. Dr Hankel helped initiate a collaboration with PhD student Amir Farokh Niaei, who is an expert in calculations on defected carbon materials for sodium ion anode materials in the group of Prof. Debra Bernhardt, AIBN (Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnlogy).
The collaboration produced theoretical results that clearly showed that the increase of the capacity is due to the presence of nitrogen in the material and not due to the defects alone.
The combined study resulted in a paper published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A on 25 September 2017.
UQ’s Hacky Hour occurs most Tuesdays, 3pm–4pm, at Café Nano on the St Lucia campus. It is a free, informal meetup in which UQ researchers (both staff and students) can network and get help from IT experts with their research-related IT issues, such as HPC, Python or R problems.
All are welcome to join Hacky Hour, whether you’re seeking help or keen to help others.
