2021 Dr. Yong Pang
Post Graduate Thesis Award 2021
Thesis: Development of laser speckle imaging systems for evaluations of material deformation and engineering applications in structural health monitoring
2021 Post Graduate Thesis Award
Winner
Dr. Yong Pang
Doctor of Philosophy
Place of Study: Monash University, Australia
Dr. Yong Pang is awarded with RTSA 2021 PHD Thesis Award, whom his thesis addressed technical challenges of using laser speckle, develop optical sensors for non-contact, non-destructive and remote strain measurements and investigated the performance of these optical sensors under laboratory and field conditions.
Contact strain sensing technologies, such as foil strain gauges and fibre optical sensors, have been extensively used in railway, aerospace and civil engineering for structural health monitoring (SHM). However, installation, operation and maintenance of contact sensors may require tedious surface preparations and cumbersome wire connections, which are costly and time-consuming. Therefore, introducing non-contact sensing techniques can be alternatives to address these limitations. Laser speckle produced by illuminating an optically rough surface act as an information carrier, which records unique surface information and can be applied to the evaluations of material deformation and SHM. The technical feasibility of laser speckle imaging for strain measurement has been demonstrated forty years ago. However, it has been rarely used in recent laboratory and field studies due to strict requirements to the ambient environment in maintaining a high-level of speckle correlation.
The proposed optical sensors development will redefine the strain sensing technique and revolutionize entire Australia’s railway systems to a fully automatic health monitoring for 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.
2021 Post Graduate Thesis Award
Runner Up
Dr. Nick Pelham
Doctor of Philosophy
Place of Study: Melbourne University, Australia
Nick is a former Naval Officer and has a Science degree and a PhD from Melbourne University in Project Management and Engineering. He received the Sir Louis Matheson Award as the best post graduate civil engineering student in 2015.
He has broad consulting and management experience at Halliburton, Sinclair-Knight-Merz, the Department of Treasury and Finance, Downer EDI and Metro Trains Melbourne and mentors for Women in Engineering in Project Management and Asset Management.
His thesis explored the reasons for the success of the Regional Trains Revitalization project which avoided the fate of so many complex projects by being completed on time and on budget. He studied the governance model and the role of the Board in this achievement and from this articulated a novel theory on project governance.