ICON student, Rebecca Leong, based in Malaysia, won the best poster competition at the Foundation Conference 2019. 

Rebecca is undertaking a PhD entitled 'Self-powered strain sensor based on graphene-MXenes composite film for pipeline monitoring' at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS.  Her project focuses on the development of self-powered strain sensors using graphene-MXenes as the sensing element for real-time pipeline monitoring. The sensor will be self-powered as it converts the mechanical energy from vibration into electrical energy through integration of a energy harvesting module. The added advantage of flexibility with high durability and low power consumption will allow for measurements of local deformations, damage detection, and fatigue studies of any pipeline system. 

Pipelines are normally used to carry fluids which are in gaseous state or liquid such as water or petrochemical products. There are numerous underwater and underground pipelines being laid all over the world with the total length of approximately 3.5 million kilometres mainly used for oil and gas products. Most of the pipeline monitoring systems nowadays are based on wired networks for connection and communication with pipeline sensors. Major problems are encountered when network wire is damaged as the performance of the system will be disrupted and locating the faults and carrying out subsequent corrective measures can be extremely difficult as most pipelines can be difficult to access.