Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
RESEARCH
BULLETIN
JULY/AUGUST
2013
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Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
© All rights reserved
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
“No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
copyright holder”.
2
Design and Printed by
University of Mauritius Press
Réduit, Mauritius
ISBN NO. 978-99903-73-32-5
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Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
DEAN’S MESSAGE
We are happy to share our irst Faculty Research
Bulletin with you. The Research Bulletin is
published twice a year, in January and July. The
aim is to show the diversity and innovative
research and scholarship being carried out in the
Faculty.
Prof T Ramjeawon
Ag Vice Chancellor, UoM
Assoc Prof D K Hurreeram
Ag Dean, Faculty of Engineering
At the Faculty of Engineering, we are committed to
an inclusive model of knowledge creation and
dissemination where research and scholarship are
valued. The Faculty has a strong drive and a good
track record in engaging with industry and
government to solve applied problems. We
welcome enquiries from industry and government
regarding their research needs.
We have an increasing number of students
registering for M.Phil/PhD degrees, which leads
to a steady stream of highly skilled people moving
on to further their careers in industry or
academia.
We hope that you will ind the bulletin
informative. I wish to thank all the staff who have
taken their time, intellect and energy to advance
our research portfolio so far. And, a special thanks
to the editorial team for their commitment in 3
publishing this irst Research Bulletin.
Happy Reading.
Prof T Ramjeawon
Ag Vice Chancellor, UoM
Assoc Prof D K Hurreeram
Ag Dean, Faculty of Engineering
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Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
MESSAGE FROM
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING RESEARCH ADVISOR
I"f we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called
research, would it?"
Albert Einstein
As the Faculty of Engineering Research Advisor, I am pleased
to welcome all readers and contributors to this new Research
Bulletin, indeed a commendable initiative of the Faculty
Research Committee.
Research is not only critical to the mission of our University
but also to the economic and social development of the
country. The importance of academic research is becoming
increasingly more evident especially as one of the factors
directly related to good economic performance. Research leads
to applications that directly benefit the people of this country
and beyond and help to transform and improve our natural,
social, and individual worlds.
EDITORIAL TEAM
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Prof K. M. S. Soyjaudah
Dr S. Goolaup
Mr R. Doomun
Dr K. Amic
Dr D. Surroop
Dr R. Unmar
Mr S. Nunkoo
This Bulletin comes as a first in the history of the Faculty of
Engineering and it will be brought out on a six monthly basis
to allow adequate time for getting some well researched
articles and inputs and allow space for meaningful dialogue.
The aim of this publication is to create a dynamic forum for
research and provide a platform for sharing of research ideas
and research works. Further, we would like to foster
collaboration with the real sector and focus our efforts towards
project outcomes that have a major impact on competitiveness
and productivity. To this end, we will put our talents and
research competencies to the service of the industry through
research seminars, workshops, conferences and consultancy.
Through this Bulletin, we also aim at attracting extramural
funds that can be applied to specific research projects which
will collectively benefit academics and the industry.
So let us all join our efforts to pursue our research agenda and
look to a vast range of opportunities to build a future economy
based on the strengths of our resources backed by research
from this University.
Professor K M S Soyjaudah
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Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
Since its creation in 1968, the Faculty of Engineering has fulfilled its initial
mission of producing and training technicians and engineers, in various fields, who
consequently have contributed significantly in the first phase of the industrial
development of Mauritius. Up to June 2012, the Faculty has produced about 4500
undergraduates, 1000 postgraduates in engineering, computer science and textile
technology and over 2000 students were awarded diplomas/certificates.
The Faculty of Engineering comprises six departments namely: Applied
Sustainability and Enterprise Development, Civil Engineering, Chemical &
Environmental Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical and
Electronic Engineering and the Mechanical and Production Engineering.
The Faculty is highly geared towards research and training.
The Faculty is composed of 178 staff composed, of 92 full-time academic staff, 50
technical staff and 36 administrative staff. In 2012/2013 the total student
population in the Faculty was about 3100 (2631 full-time students and 469 parttime students). 201 students were following MSc programmes. 52 research
students are enrolled on MPhil/PhD degrees.
The mission of the Faculty is to provide high quality education at both
undergraduate and postgraduate levels, to develop excellence in research, to foster
industry/faculty partnerships and to contribute to the development and application
of technology for the advancement and welfare of the community at large.
The Faculty welcomes the following new academic staff for academic year
2012/2013:
 Mr Seeboo Asish in the Civil Engineering Department
 Mr Seejore Om Prakash in the Mechanical & Production
Engineering Department
 Mr Toolsy Bhoomitra Sharma in the Mechanical & Production
Engineering Department
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Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING RESEARCH THEMES
ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC
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Communication Theory
Source Coding, Channel Coding and Modulation
Network and Wireless Security
Telemedicine
Renewable Energy and Energy for Sustainable
Development
Energy Efficient Buildings
Energy Management
Application Layer Forward Error Correction Codes
Robust Transmission of H.264 AVC Over Wireless
Networks
Power Electronics and its applications in the
Control of Motor Drives
Photovoltaic and Wind Energy Systems
Power Quality and Harmonic Mitigation
Imaging Techniques and Applications
Signal Processing Applications
Power Systems
Computational Intelligence
Optimization
Control Theory: Optimal and Robust Feedback
Control
Control Applications: Process Industries, Biological
Systems, Renewable Energy and Smart Grids, Power
Systems, Energy-Efficient Buildings, Wind Turbine,
Quantum Optics
Multimedia Communications
Iterative decoding systems for communication
receivers
Energy efficient data transmission techniques
Networking and Security
Adaptive Coding Techniques for Data Transmission
Engineering Education
Renewable Energy
Econometrics as Applied to Power Systems
CHEMICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
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Wastewater Engineering
Environmental Engineering & Management
Environmental Impact Assessment
Energy/Renewable Energy/Bio-Energy
Sugarcane Industry (Sugar, Electricity, Ethanol Production Systems)
Energy & Sustainable Development
Energy-Environment-Economy-Development
Environmental Risk Assessment
Persistent Toxic Chemicals- Mercury management
Environmental, Quality and Health & Safety
Management Systems
Process Design Simulation
Energy engineering and management
Industrial Ecology
Life Cycle Analysis of Environmental & Energy Processes
Degradability/Biodegradability of Solid Wastes
Composting
Anaerobic Digestion Processes
Waste Management
Waste-to-Energy
Climate Change
Energy & Waste Auditing
Remediation of solid wastes, wastewaters &
Environmental pollutants (composting, anaerobic digestion processes; ultrasound- & microwave-assisted pre
treatment for waste treatment;
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adsorption)
Bio-Ethanol Production Technologies (Acidic/Enzymatic)
Composting
Anaerobic Digestion
CIVIL
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Life Cycle Assessments
Business Sustainability Assessments
Sustainable Buildings and Construction
Sustainable Consumption and Production
Environmental Modelling
Water Resources Management
Hydrology & Water Resources
Project Management
Infrastructure
Climate Change
Sustainable Development
Hydrogeology of Volcanic basins
Statistical Modelling & Drought predictions
Climate change and extreme hydrological events
Applications of Geographical Information Systems
Geotechnical site characterisation
Engineering behaviour of residual soils
Indexing the engineering properties of basaltic rock
Slope stability: risk assessment.
Urban Planning
Environmental Management
Physical Planning
Environmental Planning
Structural Engineering
Structural Design
Concrete
Engineering materials
Construction Project Management
Surveying
Land Measurement
Boundary Disputes
Environmental Engineering – Sustainable and
renewable energies
Traffic engineering & Intelligent transport system
Traffic studies
Concrete Technology
Network Security and Privacy
Wireless Security
Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks
Information retrieval
COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
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Intelligent Systems
Wireless Sensor Networks
Nature Inspired Computing, Optimisation
Algorithms
Sustainable Development and Thinking
Transport Engineering
Waste Management
E-Learning
Machine Learning
Computer Vision
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Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING RESEARCH THEMES
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Information Representation and Knowledge
Organisation for web
Digital Libraries and Organisations
Web Science and Social Computing
Computer Networks
Ubiquitous Computing
Mobile and Wireless Computing
Enterprise Systems
Enterprise Application Integration
Context Awareness
Knowledge Management
Global Internet Economics
Biometric Security System
Pattern Recognition
Routing Protocols in ad-hoc networks
Network Services
Open Source Software
Cloud Technologies
Context-Awareness
Open Source Software
Mobile Ad-hoc Networks
Software Engineering
Knowledge Management
Web-related Technologies
Web Agents and Services
Computer and Information Security
Networking
Security and Biometrics
Information Retrieval and Classification
Social Networks
Web Technologies and Web 2.0
Mobile Communication
Telecommunication
Databases
Automated Software Engineering
Computer Networks
Ontology Engineering
Semantic Web
Knowledge Engineering
Knowledge Based Systems
Knowledge Management
Information Systems
Geographic Information Systems
Social Networking
Computer Security and E-Learning
Operating Systems
Distributed Systems
Multimedia
IPV6
Bioinformatics
Image Processing
Vision Systems
Human Computer Interaction
Computational Biology
Cloud Computing applied to Bioinformatics
Caching Architectures
APPLIED SUSTAINABILITY & ENTERPRISE
DEVELOPMENT
 Electrospinning
 Sme Development & Empowerment
 Surface Chemistry of Polymers
 Textile Composites
 Colouration of Polymeric Materials
 Colour Communication
 Colour Trends and Forecasting
 Nanotechnology Application to Textile and
 Polymeric Materials
 Garment Comfort and its Measurement
 Tactile Communication
 Design Theory & Concept for Fashion, Textiles and
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Interior
3-Dimensional Printing & Relief Surface Pattern
Assistive Clothing and Fabrics for Specific and Niche
Market
Environmental Clothing, Bio Fashion and Recycling
Materials
History of Design
Design Crafts
Geometrical Modeling of Textile Structures
Computer Visualisation of Fibruous Materials
Realistic Simulation of Surface Appearance
Sustainable Product Design and Development
Use of Indigenous Materials for Crafts through
Design Innovation
Textile with Eco Prints and Weaves
Designing and Product Development for Recyclable
Textile Materials
Surface Design for Textiles
MECHANICAL & PRODUCTION
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Corrosion Phenomena of Stainless Steel
3D Surface Texture of Metal Surfaces due to Common
Wear Phenomena
Surface Integrity aspects of Corroded Metal Surfaces
Quality Engineering Strategies as Part of a Quality
Excellence Framework
Operations Research
Business Strategy Formulation and Auditing
Performance and Productivity Management
Advanced Manufacturing Technology
Total Quality Management Energy Management
Energy Engineering
Environmental Monitoring & Control with
Emphasis on Energy Issue
Materials and Processes
Vibration Assisted Processing
Automation and Mechatronics Systems
Corrosion: Monitoring, Assessment and
Prevention
Applications of Industrial Engineering and Lean
Management in different Industries
Technology Management
Quantifying and Reducing E-Waste
Economic Productivity Assessment and
Benchmarking
Applications of Industrial Engineering and Lean
Management in different Industries
Fluid Mechanics
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Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
CONFERENCE PAPERS FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013
1.
2.
Mr D S Callychurn, “Service Quality through
Quality Management in the hotel sector in
Mauritius: A case study of hotels X, Y & Z”,
4thWorld Conference of Production and
Operation Management in Amsterdam ,
Netherlands, July 2012
Assoc Prof K Elahee, “Maurice Ile Durable
Concept: Sustainability for a Small-Island”, 11th
Global Conference on Environmental justice
and Global Citizenship in Oxford, UK, July
2012
3.
Assoc Prof Mr C Bhurtun, “Real-Time Efficiency
Estimation of an Electric Motor”, ICUE
International Conference in Cape Town, South
Africa, August 2012
4.
Mrs M Heenaye-Mamode Khan, “A Multimodal
Hand Vein Biometric based on Score Level Fusion”,
2nd International Symposium on Robotics and
Intelligent Sensors 2012 in Kuching Sarawak,
Malaysia, September 2012
5.
Assoc Prof D K Hurreeram, “Business
Performance Monitoring: Beyond Financial
Indicators”, 26 International Conference on
Manufacturing Research(ICMR) at University
of Aston, UK, September 2012
6.
Mudhoo Ackmez, “Effects of microwave heating
on biogas production, chemical oxygen demand and
volatile solids solubilisation of food residues”,
International Conference on Environmental
Management and Engineering(ICEME 2012) in
Singapore, September 2012
7.
8.
9.
Dr N Kistamah, “A New Method for the
Determination of Drape of Fabrics”, 41st Textile
Research Symposium(TRS) at University of
Minho, Guimaraes, Portugal, September 2012
Dr R T F Ah King, “Integrating Distributed
Energy Resources in the Electrical Grid
considering Resource Variability for Reliable Power
Planning”, 38th annual Conference of the IEEE
Industrial Electronics Society(IECON 2012) in
Montreal, Canada, September 2012
Mr P Appavoo, “Using Network Protocols’
Fingerprints to Efficiently Determine the
Penetration Level of Open Source Software in
Online Businesses”, IEEE Conference on Open
Systems(ICOS2012) in Kuala Lampur,
Malaysia, October 2012
10.
Mrs A Meetoo-Appavoo, “OSSpolicy – An
Information and Communications Technology
Framework based on Open Source for Developing
Countries”, IEEE conference on Tecnology and
Society in Asia 2012, Singapore, October 2012
11.
Mrs V Ramnarain-Seetohul, “A case study of an
Online Assignment Submission System at UoM”,
ICCESSE 2012: International Conference on
Computer, Electrical and Systems Sciences and
Engineering in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia,
October 2012
12.
Dr (Mrs) S Baichoo, “GCVT-A Genome
Comparison and Viewing Tool’ and ‘GIDT- a tool
for the identification and visualization of genomics
islands in prokaryotic organisms”, IEEE 12th
International Conference on BioInformatics
and BioEngineering(BIBE2012) in Larnaca,
Cyprus, November 2012
13.
Mrs Z Cadersaib, “Improved EAI Methodology”,
3rd Annual International Conference on
Software Engineering and Applications(SEA
2012), Singapore, November 2012
14.
Mrs A Vaidya Soocheta, “Sustainable Product
Development using ‘Pandanus Utilis’ Leaf fibre”,
2nd International Conference on Textile and
Apparel, Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 2012 8
15.
Dr B Rajkumarsingh, “Using LabVIEW Software
in an introductory Residual current device course”,
ICCEIT 2012 in Paris , France, November 2012
16.
Mr R Doomun, “Integrated Green Cloud
Computing Architecture”, International
Conference on Advanced Computer Science
Applications and Technologies(ACSAT) in
Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, November 2012
17.
Mrs Y Baguant-Moonshiram, “Sustainable
Village:
Case Study Goodlands, Mauritius”,
International Scientific Academy of
Engineering and Technology Conference in
Bangkok, Thailand, November 2012
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Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
CONFERENCE PAPERS FOR ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013
18.
Ms B Gobin, “A domain ontology for capturing
knowledge for social integration”, 10 th
International Conference on ICT and
Knowledge Engineering 2012 in Bangkok,
Thailand, November 2012
19.
Mr R K Moloo, “A Comparative Analysis
between Facebook integrated using Open APIs and
a normal website: A case for Social Enterprise
Computing in Mauritius”, International
Conference on Computer Engineering and
Network Security ICCENS’2012 in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, December 2012
20.
Mr V Oree, “Assessing the energy savings
potential in public buildings through retrofit
measures in tropical climates – A case study in
Mauritius”, 10th Ceo- Energy and materials
SWcience and Engineering Symposium
(EMSES 2012) in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand,
December 2012
21.
Mr S Pudaruth, “The Effect of Class Attendance
on the Performance of Computer Science
Students”, 2013 International Conference on
Communication and I nformation Technology
and Engineering(ICCITE) in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, January 2013
22.
Dr S Z Sayed Hassen, “Optimal Frequency
Regulation of a Two-area Power System”, 2013
IEEE International Conference on Industrial
Technology (ICIT 2013) in Cape Town, South
Africa, February 2013
23.
Dr B Rajkumarsingh, “ Modeling a TN Earthing
System using Labview”, IEEE EDUCON2013
Conference in Berlin, Germany, March 2013
24.
Mr L Nagowah, “RTET – A Round Trip
Engineering Tool”, International Conference of
Information and Communication Technology
in Bandung, Indonesia, March 2013
26.
Dr T P Fowdur, “Performance of Turbo Coded 64
-QAM with Joint Source Channel Decoding
Adaptive Scaling and Prioritised Constellation
Mapping”, 6th International Conference on
Communication Theory, reliability, and
Quality of Service (CTRQ 2013) in Venice,
Italy, April 2013
27.
Prof K M S Soyjaudah, “Improving the
Performance of NEAT Related Algorithm via
Complexity Reduction in Search Space”, 10th
International Symposium on Distributed
Computing and Artificial Intelligence in
Salamanca, Spain, May 2013
28.
Assoc Prof V Proag, “ Potential Hurricane
Loading Conditions in Mauritius” and
“Simulating Drought Conditions for Hydroenergy
Generation”, 2nd International Conference
Energy & Meteorology 2013 in Toulouse,
France, June 2013
29.
Mrs V Dookhun, “Industrial Symbiosis and
Performance Management: A case study from the
sugar industry in Mauritius”, 7th International
Society for Industrial Ecology Biennial
Conference in Ulsan, South Korea June 2013
30.
Mr A A H Khoodaruth, “Exergy Analysis of the
potential of the cane bagasse cogeneration plant in
Mauritius”, 5th International Conference on
Applied Energy (ICAE 2013) Energy
Innovations for a sustainable world in
Pretoria, South Africa, July 2013
31.
Mr V Oree, “Improving Efficiency of a Dual-axis
Solar Tracking System via Optimization of Drive
Power Consumption”, European Conference on
Sustainability, Energy and the Environment
(ECSEE 2013) in Brighton, UK, July 2013
32.
Assoc Prof K Elahee, “Solar Water Heating: The
Case of Mauritius”, European Conference on
Sustainability, Energy and Environment
(ECSEE 2013) in Brighton, UK, July 2013
9
25.
Mrs S D Nagowah, “A Mobile Knowledge
Management Framework for Police Force”,
International Conference of Information and
Communication Technology in Bandung,
Indonesia, March 2013
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Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
ENHANCED MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES
DR T. P. FOWDUR*
The advent of broadband
internet
and
the
recent
emergence of 4G mobile
technologies have led to an
explosive growth in the volume
of multimedia traffic generated
on communication networks.
Applications
such
as
videoconferencing, video on
demand, P2P, online gaming
and mobile TV are becoming
increasingly
popular.
In
addition, devices capable of
supporting
multimedia
communication such as 3G/4G
mobile phones, digital tablets
and i-pads are now easily
accessible. Already several
networks such as LTE and
ADSL are being pushed to their capacity limits to meet
the
bandwidth
requirement
for
multimedia
communication and it is very difficult to ensure an
acceptable QoS and QoE, especially during peak
demand periods. Multimedia data (video/images/audio)
are normally compressed before transmission with
powerful coders such as H.264, MPEG4, JPEG, JPEG
2000, MP3, etc., so as to reduce bandwidth
requirements. However, the use of compression renders
the data extremely sensitive to errors introduced by
noisy communication links. Moreover, the quality of
service and quality of experience can be seriously
compromised due to bandwidth fluctuations and delays
particularly during the transmission of real time
multimedia
data.
Hence,
several
adaptive
communication strategies are being developed to meet
the challenges of multimedia transmission over
different networks such as LTE, IEEE 802.11a,
WiMax, DVB-T, DVB-RCS and ADSL.
Achieving high
quality of
Service and
Quality of
Experience in
Multimedia
Transmission
using Unequal
Error Protection
and Iterative
Decoding
Techniques
A significant improvement in transmission fidelity can
be obtained for multimedia data by using techniques
such as Unequal Error Protection (UEP), error resilient
coding, error concealment and strong error correcting
codes such as Turbo and LDPC codes. UEP is a
technique which is particularly suited to multimedia
transmission since multimedia data can be easily
partitioned into segments of unequal importance. As
such, by giving more protection to the most important
part of the multimedia data, a significant improvement
in the quality of the received signals can be obtained.
Error resilient coding deals with techniques which can
exploit the structure and probabilistic characteristics
of the entropy codes used multimedia compression. It
can provide significant improvement in quality by
preventing error propagation and enabling the
detection and correction of erroneous data blocks.
Error concealment techniques are also very useful
especially in situations where retransmission of lost
packets cannot be made due to unacceptable delays.
Finally, error correcting codes such as Turbo and
LDPC codes have made near Shannon limit error
correction possible which implies that they can
achieve very low bit error rates at specific power
levels. Hence, they can provide a major performance
improvement in multimedia communication. Turbo
and LDPC codes are iteratively decodable codes that
have been adopted by several communication
standards such as LTE, CDMA 2000, DVB-RCS,
DVB-S2, DAB and IEEE 802.16. Incidentally, all10
these communication standards are being used for
multimedia communication. However, for many
applications, it is desirable to further reduce the
complexity and optimize the convergence of these
codes. Techniques such as iterative detection and
extrinsic information scaling have been therefore been
developed to reduce the complexity and speed up the
convergence of Turbo codes. Interestingly, current
investigations have revealed that the coupling of
extrinsic information scaling and UEP for JPEG
image transmission leads to major improvements in
the quality of the images received.
About the Author
Dr T. P. Fowdur is a Lecturer at the Department of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering. His research focus
is on Joint Source Channel Coding, Unequal Error
Protection techniques for image and video transmission,
Wireless Communications, Networking and Security.
Email: p.fowdur@uom.ac.mu
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A SECURE DATA ACCESS MODEL
FOR THE MAURITIAN HEALTHCARE SERVICE
(MRC FUNDED PROJECT)
Securing
Access to
Medical
Information
Systems For An
Improved and
Modern
Healthcare
System
The healthcare sector is highly information
intensive and a computerization of the
sector would have innumerable benefits at
different levels. Several developed and
developing countries are investing
substantially in Electronic Patient Records
systems. For an improved and modern
healthcare service, Mauritius should also
follow suit by working towards a
computerized healthcare systems that
allow the sharing of data among different
healthcare institutions. Among the benefits
of such systems are:


Immediate access to patient
information
(eg.
allergies,
previous diagnosis), which can be
crucial in emergency treatment.
Use of critical data with
predictive modeling to identify
high-risk candidates. This can
enhance healthcare operational
efficiency by initiating strategic
management tactics to mitigate
the potentially significant costs of
fully developed illnesses.
Facilitation of statistical analysis
and help to identify trends in
diseases.
Availability of valuable data that
can be useful beyond the
boundaries of the healthcare
services, eg. for the police
department
and
insurance
companies.
Potential to improve the quality of
healthcare audit and research.
Motivation
Computerized healthcare systems can save
lives, speed up treatment, reduce treatment
costs and help in reducing long-term costs
through strategic planning. Due to the
sensitivity of the data and number of types
of users involved, access control is an
extremely important feature. Access
Control should be performed securely and
efficiently without getting into the way of
valid users to ensure that users only obtain
as much access as they are authorized.
RBAC introduces an efficient way of
assigning access rights to data through
roles rather than to specific users. However
for enhanced access control, researchers
have considered adding a number of
context based parameters, such as time
and location of access. In a healthcare
institution, this would mean that a nurse is
only allowed access to a patient
information from the ward where she has
been assigned duty, only during her onduty schedule.
Objectives
The aim of the project is to study the
applicability of Role-Based Access

Control, supported by context based
parameters, to perform access control of
patient data in the Mauritian healthcare11
system. The “Nouvelle Clinique du Bon

Pasteur” of Rose-Hill has kindly agreed to
collaborate on this project, which is funded
by the Mauritius Research Council.
The project will entail the investigation of
different types of user roles involved in the
healthcare
institution,
how
role

management can be performed in a
computerized healthcare system, the types
Access Control is an important component of context parameters and constraints that
need to be applied in such a system and the
of a healthcare
system.
This Email: ovn@uom.ac.mu
Project Team
project,
undertaken by a team of academics* from
Assoc. Prof O. Moonian, Assoc. Prof K.
the Computer Science & Engineering
Khedo, Dr (Mrs) S. Baichoo, Mr. R.
department of the UoM is looking into
Doomun, Mrs. S. Cheerkoot Jalim, Mrs.
design and implementation issues of
S. D. Nagowah, Mrs. Z. Cadersaib, Mrs.
providing access control based on recent
A.
Meetoo-Appavoo
and
concepts of Role-Based Access Control
Miss R. Doomun.
(RBAC) and Context-Based Access
Control (CBAC).
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
12
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
FIBROUS MATERIAL:
PRODUCT DIVERSIFICATION & SUSTAINABILITY
Optical Microscopic view of bundles of fibres
before combined steam and enzymatic treatment
“The use of
Sustainable
Fibres is
predicted to
be a growth
market in the
world
economy as
environmental
awareness
grows”
Introduction
There is a growing consumer trend towards the
use of natural, recyclable, renewable and
biodegradable resources and there is a huge
potential to exploit locally-available natural and
sustainable fibres for commercial applications
and product diversification. In addition, these
materials are low-cost and in general, are
available in abundance. The use of sustainable
fibres is predicted to be a growth market in the
world economy as environmental awareness
grows. Sustainable fibres such as coconut,
banana, pineapple, sansevieria, and vacoas
fibres and other ‘recuperated’ cotton and wool
fibres can be used to manufacture non-woven or
other fibrous structures for different engineering
applications. They may be used as geotextiles,
insulation materials, sound-proofing or filtering
materials, or as biodegradable and sustainable
materials for automotive applications or in
building/construction for the production of
‘green’ composites or laminated reinforcement
materials. The aim of the research work is to
assess the potential of recycling natural fibres
such as cotton and wool and to characterise the
properties of different locally-available natural
and high performance fibres for the
development of specialised fibrous structures
for commercial applications. The development
of nonwoven textiles structures is also an
important part of the project. Nonwoven
structures do not require the conversion of
fibers into yarn. They are bonded together by
entangling fibers or filaments mechanically,
thermally or chemically such that the inter-fiber
friction results in a strong fabric. They may be
given specific properties such as absorbency,
water vapour permeability, softness, strength,
sound or noise absorption, filtering and
bacterial barrier which help to create fabrics for
specific uses, while achieving a good balance
between product use-life and cost. Nonwoven
materials of special properties can be produced
in less time and at reasonable prices. The
production of nonwovens from popular natural
fibres, its waste and agricultural ‘waste’ fibrous
Optical Microscopic view of bundles of fibres
after combined steam and enzymatic treatment
materials such as banana, pine apple and
sansevieria fibres have not been fully explored.
Results : Degumming of Sustainable Fibres
One of the serious limitations of the use of
natural fibres such as banana, pineapple and
sansevieria fibres is their stiffness and ‘bundled’
fibrous structure. Therefore, the fibres have to
be degummed effectively to spin them
successfully into a yarn. The degumming
process consisted of a steaming followed by an
enzyme process. The result of the combined
steaming (30 mins)and prolonged (6 hours, at
50oC, pH 4.5) pectinase enzymatic degumming
process showed that the hand feel and stiffness
of the bundles improved quite remarkably.
However, optical microscopic observations
reveal that the bundles were only partially
degummed. The gums (pectins and lignins)
were quite tenaciously bound to the fibres that
form the bundles. The untreated sansevaria
fibres are less bundled, cleaner and softer than
banana or pineapple fibres. The handle and12
stiffness of the fibres improved marginally after
the combined steam and enzymatic treatment.
Sansevieria has, therefore, great potential as
spin-able material for commercial applications.
The industrial trail of the lab recipe of the
degumming process gave even more promising
results for all the fibres. Work is currently
underway for spinning blends of the fibres and
producing nonwovens with a mix of
commercially available natural fibres such as
cotton and wool waste.
About the Author
Dr N. D. Kistamah is Head of Department of
Applied
Sustainability
and
Enterprise
Development at the Faculty of Engineering,
University of Mauritius. He holds a PhD in
Textile Chemistry and has carried out research
work on fibrous materials for several years.
Email: dharma@uom.ac.mu
13
ADVANCED PROCESS CONTROL
Dr S. Z. Sayed Hassen*
“Although PID
control has been
the king of
regulatory
control loop for
many decades,
advanced
process control
has over the last
few decades
moved beyond
the laboratory to
become a
standard in
several
industries”
Process control refers to the
technologies required to design
and implement control systems in
the process industries. The goal of
process control is to bring about
and maintain the conditions of a
process at desired or optimal
values.
Process
control
technologies include physical and
empirical modeling, computer
simulation
and
optimization,
automation hardware and software
and advanced control strategies.
Process industries are those in
which raw materials are physically
or chemically transformed or
where material and energy streams may interact and transform
each other. These include continuous, batch, or sequential
processes and can refer to process units, whole plants, and
enterprises. Specific industries include biological/ biochemical/
bio-fuels enterprises, cement, chemical, electrochemical, glass/
ceramics, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC),
minerals and metals, petrochemical/refining, pharmaceuticals,
power generation, and water systems. Process components are
also prevalent in other industries such as automotive, green
buildings, microelectronics, and nuclear power.
Modern process industries cannot operate without process
control. Control is required to stabilize unstable processes or if
the process is stable, the technical impact of process control is
to improve dynamic response and reject disturbances. Once the
plant is designed and working, process control provides the
means for maximizing production and product quality. On
average, improvements achieved in various industries can be
quantified by increased throughput (3-5%), reduced fuel
consumption (3-5%), reduced emission levels (3-5%), reduced
electricity consumption (3-5%), reduced quality variability (1020%) and reduced refractory consumption (10-20%).
Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers have been
successful in the process industries because they work
reasonably well in most applications. They are generally
implemented without the need for a process model and are
relatively easy to tune according to well established tuning
rules, either manually or automatically, using software supplied
by all the major vendors of process control platforms. Although
(PID) control has been the king of the regulatory control loop
for many decades, advanced process control has over the last
few decades moved beyond the laboratory to become a
standard in several industries. Many vendors now routinely
offer
advanced solutions. The most successful advanced process
control technology has been model predictive control
(MPC) with its ability to optimize multivariable
constrained processes. MPC is often combined with online
optimization of the setpoints on the basis of large, rigorous
nonlinear stationary plant models. MPC applications are
expanding from chemical/refining plants to industrial
energy and public power generation utilities. Other highimpact process control success stories include inferential
sensing using, for example, Kalman filtering; process
modeling and identification tools for the estimation of
process variables that are too difficult/expensive or
impossible to measure online; automatic fault detection
and diagnosis and statistical performance monitoring using
multivariate
statistical
methods;
and
systems
methodologies and analysis tools to deal with highly
complex processes. However, the key issue remains that
economic justification is crucial for new applications of
advanced control.
Mitigating the effects of climate change is perhaps the
grand challenge of the 21st century. The process industries
are major users of energy as well as major emitters of
greenhouse gases (GHG). Energy efficiency has always
been an important consideration in advanced process
control and is often explicitly included in optimization and13
control objective functions. A promising application
related to energy savings and carbon emissions reduction
is climate control in buildings. Advances in control
applications are also enabled by other technologies (new
sensors, wireless communications, broadband access to the
Internet, more powerful processors), and developments in
these areas open up new opportunities. All process
industries have their individual characteristics, so
methodologies and techniques must be tailored to meet
their respective requirements.
About the Author
Dr. S. Z. Sayed Hassen is the Head of the Electrical and
Electronic Engineering Dept. His research interests are
in control systems, in particular, optimal and robust
control.
Email: z.sayedhassen@uom.ac.mu
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
14
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
PRODUCTION OF TEXTILE MATERIALS
FROM BAGASSE PAPER
Mr J. Chummun*
An interesting step taken is the
consideration to manufacture
innovative, value-added products from
sugar and its by-products
The revenue accruing to Mauritius from sugar has
fallen by about 36%. The sugar industry has been one
of the main pillars of the Mauritian economy and in
2004, it accounted for about 20% of the value of
exports and 5% of the country’s GDP. However, sugar
proceeds occurring to Mauritius has fallen by about
36%. The fall in the price of sugar has prompted a lot
of re-thinking and re-engineering of the sugar industry
in many sugar-producing countries as well as
providing an impetus to continuously improve the
efficiency of the remaining sugar-cane mills. An
interesting step taken is the consideration to
manufacture innovative, value-added products from
sugarcane and its by-products. Bagasse is one
important by-product when freshly harvested and
shredded sugarcane stalks are crushed between heavy
rollers to extract the juice that is rich in sucrose. This
fibrous residue is currently used in Mauritius as
biomass mainly for the energy needs of the sugar
factory itself. Bagasse, being a cellulosic material, is
also widely used for the manufacture of a wide variety
of paper products. The aim of this project is to
manufacture textiles from bagasse paper. The process
consists of slitting paper made from bagasse into
narrow strips. The latter is then spun into yarn by
conventional spinning methods. The yarn would be
used to produce woven and braided structures, which
may, or may not, be coated with resin to impart
rigidity and water resistance.
The first part of the project aims at investigating the
relationship between the levels of twists imparted to
paper-yarns and their strengths as well as the extent of
yarn-contraction that results. For that purpose, paperyarns manufactured from different paper grammages
have been used. The second part focuses on the
manufacture of paper-yarns from bagasse paper based
on the optimum parameters obtained from the first part
of the investigation. The results show that as the level
of twist increases, the strength of paper-yarns tend to
increase until an optimum twist level is reached.
Beyond that value, there is a tendency for the strength
A cotton ring-spinning machine that has been modified to
twist paper-yarn. Mr Awatar (left), TechnicalAssistant, responsible for modification of the machine and
Mr Chummun (right).
to decrease. For a particular twist per unit length
value, the extent of twist-contraction increase as the
thickness of paper increases. Light-weight paper tends
to yield relatively stronger paper-yarn. It is expected
that these results will open new avenues to the area of
composite materials whereby paper yarns would be
used in some composite applications together with
fibres or instead of fibres. The second part is ongoing.
14
About the Author
Mr J. Chummun is a senior lecturer in the
Mechanical and Production Engineering Department
at the University of Mauritius. His research interest is
in the field of natural and renewable fibres and their
applications as technical-textiles.
Email: jchummun@uom.ac.mu
15
ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK IN MAURITIUS:
IMPACT ON SECONDARY EDUCATION
(MRC FUNDED PROJECT)
It has been found that OSNs have
Tremendous Potential for Enabling
Collaborations And Social Interactions
During the recent years, Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) have been identified as beneficial
tools for the educational system. The Government of
Mauritius has been actively promoting ICT since the last
decade. Students are embracing ICTs at an unprecedented
rate and given that Internet penetration is increasing within
the Mauritian households, more and more young people are
getting access to it. The most visited online services among
Mauritian youths are Online Social Network (OSN) sites
like Facebook and Youtube. It has been found that OSNs
have tremendous potential for enabling collaborations and
social interactions. Harnessing this potential for learning
may bring about an important educational transformation in
Mauritius. However, no study has been carried out yet in
Mauritius on the usage pattern of online social networks
among young people and the impact on their education and
social life.
This research project has investigated the roles that OSNs
play in teaching and learning at secondary school level. The
impact that OSNs has on communication and social needs
of students has also been examined. Large scale surveys
have been carried out on the use of OSNs among the
Mauritian students. In addition, experiments have been
carried out on the use of OSNs to conduct classes and
observations have been reported and analysed.
Around 4500 responses were collected from the survey and
the findings showed that Mauritian students are using OSN
sites extensively on a daily basis. It was found that students
make use of OSNs to discuss school works and teachers
also are communicating with students through these online
sites. The use of OSNs in secondary education is currently
done informally. The main reasons are that these sites are
blocked in schools due to the privacy and security concerns
for the students. The majority of teachers were found to be
reluctant to adopt this new method of teaching and learning.
Results from this study have clearly shown the benefits of
using OSNs in learning. Students were eager to make use of
this new way of learning and therefore this can act as a
motivating factor in the learning process. A few negative
issues with respect to the use of OSNs have also been
pointed out. Policy makers may thus consider the results of
this study as a basis for decision making with respect to the
use of OSNs in secondary education. A number of
15
recommendations have been made on how OSNs can be
integrated in formal education system in Mauritius.
Project Team
Assoc. Prof K.K.Khedo, Mr S.M.R.A. Elaheebocus,
Mr R.Suntoo and Ms A. Mocktoolah.
Email: k.khedo@uom.ac.mu
This research has been funded by the Mauritius
Research Council under the Unsolicited Research
Grant Scheme award number MRC/RUN/1103
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
16
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
ATMOSPHERIC CORROSION OF CARBON STEEL IN
MAURITIUS
DR B. Y. R SURNAM*
“Determining the Corrosivity of the
Mauritian Atmosphere”
Outdoor exposure of steel samples at the
University of Mauritius
Atmospheric corrosion of carbon steel has been the
source of widespread studies in many tropical
countries worldwide. Large corrosion losses, falling in
the corrosion category C 4 and C 5, according to ISO
9223, have been reported in countries such as Mexico,
India and Vietnam. Mauritius, being a tropical island,
is also expected to experience high atmospheric
corrosion losses, especially in the case of carbon steel.
Carbon steel is very prone to atmospheric corrosion
attacks but, it is still being increasingly used in the
country.
completed as a Ph.D project and a post doctoral
research project.
In last part of the study, the potential use of
alternatives to carbon steel, such as weathering steel,
would be investigated for applications in Mauritius.
Funding is still being sought for starting this part of
the study.
A study was launched with the aims of obtaining basic
information concerning the corrosivity of the
Mauritian atmosphere towards carbon steel,
understanding the atmospheric corrosion mechanism
and proposing other equally viable alternatives to
carbon steel in Mauritius. This is expected to benefit
both the general public and professionals involved in
the use of carbon steel in Mauritius and in other
tropical countries, especially in terms of improving
atmospheric corrosion inhibition.
The first part of the project consisted of determining
the corrosivity of the Mauritian atmosphere and the
atmospheric corrosion behavior of carbon steel at
several sites on the island. This was performed through
outdoor exposures of carbon steel samples. The second
part of the project consisted of determining the
atmospheric corrosion mechanism of carbon steel
through the use of Scanning Electron Microscopy and
Raman Spectroscopy. This has given a better insight
into how carbon steel corrodes in the Mauritian
atmosphere. These two parts of the study have been
16
About the Author
Dr B.Y.R. Surnam is a lecturer in the Mechanical and
Production Engineering Department since 2007. His field
of research is corrosion science and engineering. He is
also in charge of the Metallurgical Lab.
Email: y.surnam@uom.ac.mu
17
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
PREDICTING CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS FROM
BIOREACTOR LANDFILL
MR A. MUDHOO*
A Novel one-Dimensional
Mathematical Model Predicting
Carbon Dioxide Evolution Dynamics
in Simulated Lysimeters
Bioreactor landfills have emerged as a more
sustainable alternative to conventional landfilling. The
bioreactor landfill approach consists in controlling
moisture through the recirculation of the leachate
generated and/or aeration. Inference from previous lab
-scale studies suggest that stimulating aerobic
degradation processes in the refuse mass in bioreactor
landfill lysimeters by injection of air can speed up
biodegradation. On large scale, prior to investing in
retrofit/as-built bioreactor landfills, landfill design
engineers and operators and investors must ensure that
larger short-term expenses mostly related to liquid
and/or air injection infrastructure have to be offset by
future economic benefits coming from extension of
landfill life and reduced leachate treatment costs in the
medium to long run as well as possible carbon credit
revenues from certified avoided greenhouse gas
emissions.
The reduction in methane emissions following
implementation of retrofit aeration system is one key
motivation to consider aerated bioreactor landfills.
Understanding the potential effects in variability and
implications of heterogeneous conditions and
processes will increase the likelihood of optimizing
overall waste treatment in bioreactor landfills.
Keeping these operational needs into focus, the aim of
this work in a one instance has been to develop a onedimensional model which could be used to predict the
time variation of carbon dioxide in a fully aerated
bioreactor landfill lysimeter set up. The model
incorporates substrates utilization kinetics and
microbial growth kinetics taken by considering slowly
degradable, moderately degradable and rapidly
degradable substrates as metabolized by fungi, bacteria
and yeast.
Biodegradation-induced settlement
following mechanical compression has also been
considered and the criterion for aerobicity equally
taken into the mathematical computation loop.
As a further novelty, a multi-parameter simulationbased sensitivity analysis has also been designed in an
attempt to prioritize the more pertinent parameters
which may require consideration when designing such
systems combining leachate recirculation and aeration
at larger scales of operation. The next steps in this
research consist in verifying and calibrating the model
using experimental lysimeter data for synthetic MSW
substrates decomposition.
17
About the Author
Ackmez Mudhoo is a Lecturer in the
Department
of
Chemical
and
Environmental Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, University of Mauritius
His research interests encompass the
remediation
of
solid
wastes,
wastewaters
and
environmental
pollutants.
He is currently pursuing a PhD under the supervision of
Professor (Dr) Romeela Mohee (National Research Chair
in Solid Waste Management, Mauritius) and Associate
Professor (Dr) Bhola R Gurjar (IIT Roorkee, India)
Email: a.mudhoo@uom.ac.mu
18
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
REPLACING LPG BY BIOGAS IN COOKING STOVE
“With rising pressure on
fossil fuel and increase in
amount of GHG emissions,
Biogas emerges as a
solution”
The household sector is considered as one of the major
energy consumer as it makes intensive use of
Liquidified Petroleum Gas (LPG) for cooking. To a
lesser extent, cooking stoves that use electricity are
also used for cooking purposes. Both LPG and
electricity are derived from fossil fuels, the conversion
of which releases carbon dioxide, one of the main
greenhouse gases. Therefore, it is most urgent that
clean fuels are considered as alternatives to fossil fuels
for cooking purposes.
Biogas from waste is a renewable energy source that
can replace LPG for cooking purposes. Biogas consists
of mainly methane and carbon dioxide in varying
composition, depending on the substrate, as well as
small amounts of other gases. There are many low
income households that are still rearing cows and as a
result a significant amount of cow dung is produced.
Cow dung presents good potential as it can be used for
the production of biogas through the process of
anaerobic digestion.
Anaerobic digestion is a proven technique and
technology to solid waste to produce methane gas
which is a clean and green energy. Anaerobic
digestion process technologies are among the oldest
availed by humanity and have been developed over
many centuries. Anaerobic treatment involves the
application of biological processes, in the absence of
oxygen, for the breakdown of organic matter and the
stabilization of these materials, by conversion to
methane and carbon dioxide gases and a nearly stable
residue. Anaerobic digestion will be in line with the
concept of Maurice Ile Durable (MID) and can
contribute to substitute fossil fuels by renewable
resources.
A study was therefore initiated to develop a small
scale working bio-digestor for the production of
biogas. The focus of the study is to produce biogas
from cow dung. The main objective of this study was
to design and construct a pilot-scale anaerobic
digester. The digester was designed and constructed
using locally available materials. The bio-digester
being the main part of the stand alone system has
similar features as the fixed dome digester. A high
density polyethylene plastic tank which is readily
available locally is used for the construction of the biodigester and it is fitted with a manual mixing system.
The biogas is purified to remove any unwanted and
undesirable gases. The scrubbing of the biogas is done
using sodium hydroxide in order to remove impurities
that are generated during the digestion process mainly
carbon dioxide which will reduce the energy content of18
the biogas and hydrogen sulphide which is highly
corrosive to the materials of the cooking stove. Once
the biogas is cleaned, it is fed to a normal cooking
stove use in a typical household. This study can
therefore be used to displace LPG in cooking stove
which will contribute in the abatement of the climate
change and global warming effect and will enhance the
Maurice Ile Durable (MID) concept. The project will
also help the low income family to produce their own
biogas at very low cost.
About the Author
Dr D. Surroop is a Senior lecturer in the Chemical
Engineering Department. His field of research is on
waste management and conversion of waste into
energy.
Email: d.surroop@uom.ac.mu.
19
ENERGY USE OPTIMISATION AND PHOTOVOLTAICS
Mr Y. K. Ramgolam*
A Robust Tool Is Being Developed To
Perform Behavioural Modelling Of PV
Modules Of Different Materials And
Structures Under Real Weather
Conditions.
In line with the ‘Maurice Ile Durable’ vision, the target
of the Government is to achieve about 35% selfsufficiency by 2025 in terms of electricity supply
through a progressive increase in the use of renewable
energies. Mauritius is perfectly located and has the
optimum weather conditions to reap the benefits of solar
energy. As well, the Government of Mauritius is
promoting the integration of Independent Power
Producers (IPPs) and Small Scale Distributed
Generators, with the threshold of 2MW capacity
increased to 3MW with an eye to integrate Medium
Scale Systems (>50kW PV systems) in the near future.
Energy has become a key metric, especially for
companies. Saving energy means saving operational
costs for producers and reduced costs for consumers.
Reducing energy consumption also implies reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrating greater
care for natural resources by investing in renewable
energy sources. These are tangible actions for
companies looking to enforce and contribute to
sustainable
development.
But
unfortunately
organisations tend to implement Photovoltaics (PV)
systems without any prior optimisations of their energy
efficiency and without performing engineering
calculations and evaluations of their investment. Firstly,
prior to the installation of a renewable energy system an
organisation must ensure optimized energy use.
Furthermore, the choice and design of a PV system
requires site analysis and intricate engineering
calculations such that the PV system produces the
highest yield during its lifetime. Besides, financial
evaluations are required to support and justify
investments in energy optimization and the renewable
energy system. Hence the organisation optimize energy
use and well as returns on investment in the shortest
delay.
The main focus of my research work is on energy use
optimisation and PV. A project which performs the
evaluation of the current situation of residential
buildings in Mauritius and proposes a number of
recommendations for the design of sustainable
residential buildings has been recently completed and
submitted to the MRC. Related to energy performance
modelling in buildings, the effects of building
components, daylight controls and lighting control
systems under climatic conditions of Mauritius are
assessed for various types of buildings. Sustainable and
cost effective retrofits that can improve energy
performance have been identified. Currently, further
research is being carried out to assess real and leaking
power in households using net metering technique.
In the field of PV, a robust tool is being developed to
perform behavioural modelling of PV modules of
different materials and structures under real weather
conditions. The model will consider material and optical
properties of commercially available solar cells, realtime measured solar data in Mauritius. The model will
assist PV engineers/contractors evaluate and optimise
yield of PV systems and focus on the deployment of
19
location-specific modules. The research will also help
develop a set of guidelines that can be used by policy
makers for the development of appropriate standards
related to PV system design in Mauritius. Solar data,
which is being measured using state of the art
equipment, will be continuously updated and can be
used for further research in the field of solar
engineering. Besides, research is being carried out on
the optimization of energy and power output from
commercially available PV modules in Mauritius.
About the Author
Yatindra Kumar Ramgolam is a Lecturer, in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
His main research areas are Energy use optimisation
and Photovoltaics.
Email: y.ramgolam@uom.ac.mu
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
20
Ongoing Research
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
A COMPARATIVE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF
UTILISATION OPTIONS OF COAL ASH ON THE ISLAND OF
MAURITIUS.
The use of coal for energy generation is associated
with environmental impacts either through direct
emissions from the plant or through the disposal of
coal combustion by products (coal ash). Coal ash is
known to contain trace amounts of heavy metals
that are hazardous to health. Government has
recognized the need to address the issue of ash
disposal in an integrated environment strategy. To
reduce disposal problems, it is important to develop
applications requiring high volumes of coal ash. It
is expected that the major sectors of the local
construction industry which are the road
construction and cement/concrete production will
absorb the totality of the coal ash generated
annually. However, one of the barriers to the
wide –ranging utilization of secondary products of
energy production and industry in the construction
industry has been the uncertainty about the
environmental impacts. It is therefore important to
identify all impacts before implementation of any
recycling option of these materials. The Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) is one of the tools that can be
used to quantify the environmental impacts and to
assess how impacts differ between different
recycling options.
In light of the above and as a challenge to the civil
engineering community to realize projects with the
concept of sustainable development, it is essential
that research on the reuse/recycling options of coal
ash be carried out. The aims of this research are to
investigate the technical feasibility of the use of
bottom ash for subgrade improvement in road
construction and carry out a life cycle assessment
of that application with that where fly ash is used
in cement blending. This research project includes
the construction of a pilot road stretch of
approximately 15 m long using a mixture of
bottom ash and soil in 60% : 40 % proportion by
weight of soil to bottom ash as capping layer,
which will form part of the road project
“Construction of Road at Les Tulipes AvenueQuatre Bornes”. In order to meet the objectives of
this research project, monitoring of engineering
performance of the pilot stretch and assessment of
the environmental impacts of this application with
respect to leachate form the capping layer will be
carried out; followed by a comparative LCA of this
utilization option of bottom ash against that where
fly ash is used in cement blending.
20
Contact Information
Abdus Salaam Cadersa
Lecturer, Department of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
(a.cadersa@uom.ac.mu)
PhD Supervisors:
Professor (Dr) Toolseeram Ramjeawon
Associate Professor (Dr) Andre Chan Chim Yuk
21
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
Current PhD Projects (Academic)
Academic Staff
Project Title
Supervisor
Mr Bahadur G K
Integrating Light and Sound in Textile Materials for
Novel Effects in Interior Design
Dr M Bradshaw
Assoc Prof S Rosunee
(Co-Supervisor)
Mr Callychurn D S
Developing Decision Support System for
Environmentally - Sustainable Manufacturing Strategy
Prof K D Barber
Mr Cadersa A S
A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of recycling
options of Coal Ash on the island of Mauritius
Prof T Ramjeawon
(Main Supervisor)
Assoc Prof Chan Chim
Yuk(A ssoc Supervisor)
Mr Chummun J
Production of Textile Materials from Bagasse
Prof C M Carr
Assoc Prof S Rosunee
(Co-Supervisor)
Mr Dhookit J L
Simulating the Effect on Traffic of a Second Harbour
Dr Swet
Mrs Dookhun V
Assessing Environmental Risks Associated with
Persistant Toxic Substances
Prof R Mohee
Dr Cliff
(Co-Supervisor)
GOBIN Baby Ashwin
(Miss)
Modelling of knowledge Based System
Prof R K Subramanian
Prof L Sterling
(Co-Supervisor)
HEENAYE-MAMODE
KHAN Maleika Mehr
Nigar Mohamed (Mrs)
Biometric Security based on Veins Pattern recognition
Prof R K Subramanian
JEETAH Pratima Devi
(Mrs)
Investigation of the green energy potential of cellulosic
biomass in the Mauritian Context
Prof R Mohee
Prof Kim G Clarke
(Co-Supervisor)
Assoc Prof KHEDO
Kavi Kumar
Misense: A Generic Energy - Efficient Middleware
Architecture for Wireless Sensor Networks.
Prof R K Subramanian
KHOODARUTH Abdel
Anwar Hossen (Mr)
Potential and Implementation Programme for
Cogeneration in Mauritius: Energy and Exergy efficiency
Assoc Prof K Elahee
MUDHOO Ackmez
Accounting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Different
Treatments of Organic Wastes.
Prof R Mohee
(Main Supervisor)
Assoc Prof Bhola
Ram Gurjar
(Assoc Supervisor)
Mr N Pavaday
A Comparative Study of the Application of Pseudo
Random Codes and Channel Coding in Spread Spectrum
Techniques and in Cryptography for Mobile
Communication.
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
21
22
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
Current PhD Projects (Academic)
Academic Staff
Project Title
Supervisor
Mr Ragen A K
Investigating the applicability of constructed wetlands for
wastewater reclamation and reuse in the Mauritian domestic
sector
Candidates Committee
Assoc Prof M D Nowbuth
Assoc Prof R T Ramessur
Assoc Prof A Ruggoo
Mr Ramgolam
Yatindra Kumar
Evaluation of Commercially available solar modules for
optimum photovoltaic system design in Mauritius
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
Mrs Ramsamy-Iranah Investigation into Functional and Aesthetic Clothing and
SD
Fabrics for the Visually Impaired
Assoc Prof S Rosunee
(Main Supervisor)
Dr N Kistamah
(Assoc Supervisor)
Mr Seetohul
Jeetendranath
A Framework/Mechanism for Secure Communications in
Ubiquitous Computing
Prof R K Subramanian
Mrs SOOCHETA
VAIDYA Anagha
(MRC)
Investigation into the use of Sugarcane Bagasse for Producing Assoc Prof S Rosunee
(Main Supervisor)
Fibre - Based Composites.
Prof M D Teli
(Assoc Supervisor)
22
23
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
Current PhD Projects (Students)
Student
Project Title
Supervisor
ABEL Patricia Julie
(Ms)
Computer Modelling of the Thermo-Physiological Comfort
of Single Layer and Muliple Layer Woven Fabrics
Dr R Unmar
(Main Supervisor)
Assoc Prof S Rosunee
(Assoc Supervisor)
ANNAUTH
Rajendrasingh
Optimisation of Communication System Resources using
Evolutionary Algorithms
Prof H C S Rughooputh
AMEERUDDEN
Riyad M (Mr)
Design and Optimisation of a PIFA Antenna Using Genetic
Algorithms
Prof H C S Rughooputh
BAKUNZI
Theotime
(Foreigner)
Face Image Reconstruction for Face Recognition
Assoc Prof S Baichoo
BAYNATH
Purvashi (Ms)
Username and Password Authentication through Keystroke
Dynamics Artificial Neural Network / Neuroevolution and
other evolutionay Algorithms
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
BEEHARRY
Yogesh
Combined Iteractive Source Channel Decoding Strategies for
digital Communication Receivers
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
(Main Supervisor)
Dr P Fowdur
(Assoc Supervisor)
BHURTAH Insah
(Ms)
Improving the Encoding Process of Low-Density Parity
Check Codes for Novel Applications
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
(Main Supervisor)
Dr C Catherine
(Assoc Supervisor)
BHURTUN Bhima
Dev
Robust Image and Video Transmission Techniques
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
(Main Supervisor)
Dr P Fowdur
(Assoc Supervisor)
BOODOOJAHANGEER
Nazmeen (Mrs)
Evaluation of Biometric Techniques
Prof R K Subramanian
Assoc Prof S Baichoo
(Associate Supervisor)
BOODOO Sajaad
Improving the Performance of an Active Noise Control
Assoc Prof R Paurobally
(Main Supervisor)
Dr Y Bissessur
(Associate Supervisor)
BRIZMOHUN
Ravina (Ms)
Life Cycle Assessment of Electricity Generating Systems in
Mauritius
Prof T Ramjeawon
BUNDHOO
Muhammad Ali
Zumar
Effects of Microwave and Ultrasound Irradiation on Energy
Production from Anaerobic Digestion and Dark Fermentation
of Municipal Solid Wastes
Prof R Mohee
(Main Supervisor)
Prof Mohamed Ali Hassen
(Assoc Supervisor)
CHINNIAH
Rishta
Investigation into the Use of B-Cyclodextrins for the
Colouration of Wool and Wool Blends
Assoc Prof S Rosunee
(Main Supervisor)
Prof C M Carr
(Assoc Supervisor)
23
24
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
Current PhD Projects (Students)
Student
Project Title
Supervisor
COONJAH Irfaan
Muhamad
Design and Analysis of a Modified Open SSH Virtual Private
Network using UDP as base
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
(Main Supervisor)
Dr C Catherine
(Assoc Supervisor)
CUNDEN
Tyagaraja
Sooprayen Modelly
Generation of Electricity Using Wind Power in Mauritius
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
DURBARRY
Assadullah (Mr)
Supporting QoS in Mobile IPv6 System
Dr O Moonian
ESSACKJEE
Ismael Adam
The Impact of Distributed Generations on the Mauritian
Power Sector
Assoc Prof Ah King
ESMYOT Marie
Annick Joanne
(Mrs)
Business Process Management System Implementation: A
Model for Business Process Outsourcing Companies in
Mauritius
Dr F Khodabocus
FELICITE Louis
Eric Orlando
Humic Acid Generation and Nitrogen Volatisation during
Composting of Municipal Solid Wastes
Prof R Mohee
FOOLMAUN
Rajendra
A life cycle assessment (LCA) of used polyethylene
Terephthalate (PET) bottles in Mauritian Context
Prof T Ramjeawon
GUNASEE Sanjane
Devi (Ms)
Comparing thermo Chemical treatment of Solid Wastes using
thermo gravimetric analysis
Prof R Mohee
(Main Supervisor)
Assoc Prof J Gorgens
(Assoc Supervisor)
LATCHOOMUN
Lekhramsingh
Leakage Reduction Control of the Water Distribution System
in Mauritius
Assoc Prof Ah King
(Main Supervisor)
Dr K K Busawon
(Assoc Supervisor)
MAUTHOOR
Sumayya (Ms)
Industrial Waste Management in Mauritius Using Recycling
and an Industrial Ecology Approach
Prof R Mohee
(Main Supervisor)
Mr P Kowlesser
(Industrial Supervisor)
MIHILALL
Yaswaree
Investigation on the production of best quality compost from
biowaste and Cellulolytic Waste to be used as Substrate for
the cultivation of Oyster Mushrooms
Prof R Mohee
MOHABEER
Heman
Neural Networks Intelligent Agents Using Neuroevolution for
Emerging Communication Technologies
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
PEER Adeela
Ahmud Iqbal (Ms)
Development and Marketing of a Clothing Brand for a Small
and Medium Enterprise in Mauritius
Assoc Prof S Rosunee
PEERTHY Gayen
Elaboration de Méthodes d'évaluation des impacts
environnementaux des principales activités anthropiques de
l'Ile Maurice utilisant l'analyse de cycle de vie et l'analyse de
cycle de vie hybride
Prof T Ramjeawon
24
25
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
Current PhD Projects (Students)
Student
Project Title
Supervisor
PEYRYE
Muhammad
Naushad
Selective Secured Network Coding with Error Correction
Capabilities
Dr M A Hosany
RADHA Bhoomesh
Quantum - Inspired Algorithms for Power Distribution
Optimization
Prof H C S Rughooputh
RAJCOOMAR
Sachindev Avinash
Life Cycle Assessment and Economic and Social Evolution
of Recycling in Mauritius
Prof T Ramjeawon
RAMDOO
Mahendra
Energy Management: A Strategic Business Issue for Top
Management in Mauritius
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
RAMTOHUL
Avinash
Devising an Information Security Solution including an
Institutional Framework for the Implementation of Secure eGovernment Transactions in Emerging African States
Prof K M S Soyjaudah
SOOBEN
Darmanaden
Energy Efficiency Analysis in the Cold Chain in the food
Industry in Tropical Regions
Prof R Mohee
(Main Supervisor)
Prof Francis Meunier Conservatoire Nationale
des Arts et Métier
(Assoc Supervisor)
SOOBHANY
Nuhaa (Ms)
Comparative Assessment of nutrients and heavy metals
content during the composting and Vermicomposting of the
organic fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
Prof R Mohee
(Main Supervisor)
Assoc Prof V K Garg
(Assoc Supervisor)
25
26
Faculty of Engineering, University of Mauritius
Illustrated guide to PhD
Imagine a Circle that contains all human knowledge
By the time you finish primary school, you know a
little
With a bachelor degree you gain a speciality
After secondary school you know a little bit more
A master degree deepens that speciality
Reading research papers takes you to the edge of
human knowledge
You push at the boundary for a few years
Once you are at the boundary, you focus
26
Until one day the boundary gives away
That dent is called a Ph.D.
Of course the world looks different to you, but do not forget the bigger picture
Source:
http://matt.might.net/articles/phdschool-in-pictures/