9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ

Item 1: Gopu Nair
The Role of Agricultural Engineers

A discussion will be presented on the current and future situations of agriculture engineers and agricultural engineering and its various branches. The importance of agricultural engineers in a world of growing population and declining land resources will be discussed.

Gopu Raveendran Nair is from India and is currently pursuing his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Raghavan.


Item 2: Palaniappan Thyagarajan
TUTICORIN – A Pearl of a City

Through this presentation the details of my hometown, which is famous for its pearls, will be explained as well as the origin of its name, our people, festivals and the foods that we eat. The economy and the attractions of Tuticorin will also be presented.

Palaniappan Thyagarajan was born in India where he pursued a Bachelor of Technology in Biotechnology at Tamilnadu Agricultural University. Currently he is completing a Master’s degree in Bioresource Engineering under the supervision of Dr. Valerie Orsat.


Item 3: Inneke Victor
The Aren Tree: a multipurpose palm

The Aren tree (Arenga pinnata Merr) is a palm tree that grows in tropical forests such as those in Indonesia. Places like Tomohon, North Sulawesi, Indonesia use most parts of the tree for a number of purposes. The Aren tree provides many important products that have great market value and are of economical importance to the native population. Among other uses, the sweet sap is also consumed by the local people as a sweetener and is the basis for Aren sugar.

Inneke Victor was born and grew up in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. She graduated from the Industrial Engineering Department at ITM, Manado, Indonesia, and did her Master’s in Process Engineering at UNSW, Sydney, Australia. She received a ‘training in job’ in Hotelschool, the Hague, the Netherlands when she worked at DLSM in Manado. In order to create a better processing method for Aren sugar production, she started a PhD at Bioresource Engineering Department last fall and she is now working under the supervision of Dr. Valérie Orsat.

Item 4: Anteneh Belayneh
Drought Forecasting in Ethiopia

Droughts are a normal and recurrent feature of climate. They can cause significant damage to both the natural environment and to human society when they persist for a long period of time. Drought monitoring and forecasting play a significant role in mitigating the potential impacts of drought on the environment and in the planning and management of water resources. In this presentation, a method based on coupling discrete wavelet transforms (WT) and artificial neural networks (ANN) is presented for forecasting drought.    

Aneteneh is currently a first year Master’s student in the Department of Bioresource Engineering of 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ, working under the supervision of Dr. Adamowski. He completed his Bachelor’s of Science at 9IÖÆ×÷³§Ãâ·Ñ and his research interests now lie in hydrologic forecasting.


Item 5: Muhammad Azhair Baig
Two Capitals of Punjab

After the partition of British India, the Punjab region was split between India and Pakistan. Lahore which was the traditional capital of the combined Punjab, became part of Pakistan. India then constructed a new capital for its part of the Punjab, the modern city of Chandigarh. In this presentation the two cities will be compared in terms of architectural style and cultural heritage.

Muhammad Azhar Baig is from Pakistan. He did his Master’s degree in water resources engineering at the University of Engineering, Lahore. He then worked as a groundwater modeling consultant for three years. Later he joined the public sector University of Pakistan as Assistant Professor. Currently he is enrolled as a PhD student in the department of Bioresource Engineering, working under the supervision of Dr. Shiv Prashar.