International and National Coordinators

2018/19 Cohort: Educators Without Borders

Tekalign T. Debela, Hawani Negussie ,Belhu Metaferia, Aster Tsegaye, Emanuel Biru, Mammo Muchie, Josephe Beyene, Daniel Alemeneh, Angel Ford,
Yinges Yigzaw, Wanda Diaz

Sites: Addis Ababa University, Arsi University Kotebe Metropolitan University, Debrebirhan University, Debretabor University, University of Gondar, Bahirdar University, Arsi Asela Schools

General Education and Research Interest Groups

• A) Material Science/Computational Science- (Tekalign Debela, Tadesse Abebaw, Fitsum Taye Feyissa, Samuel Tesfaye)
• Space and Astrophysics (Wanda Diaz, Abebe Kebede)
• Pharmacology and Biomedical Engineering (Belhu Metaferia, Yinges Yigzaw)
• STEAM Education (Mulugeta Alemseghed, Abebe Kebede, Wanda Diaz, Tsegaye Legesse)
• Ethiopian School of Physics (Iwnetim Iwnet, Dereje Seifu, Abebe Kebede, Addis Mekonnen, P. Kurian Gx. Tessema)
• Early Childhood Development (Hawani Nigussie,  and everyone)
• Special Needs Education (Wanda Diaz,  Abebe Kebede, and everyone)

Courses workshops and seminars

Astronomy, Space Science and Technology

Astronomy and Astrophysics (SPS I)

This course is the study of radiation from stars and nebulae to determine the basic stellar characteristics, the composition and physical conditions of matter in and between the stars. It also investigates the structural properties of our milky-way galaxy, as evidenced by the spatial distribution of dust, gas, stars and magnetic fields. There will be several lectures on observational astronomy, computational astrophysics, and access to telescopes. There will be at least three lectures on Ethiopian/African Astronomy and its role in contemporary astronomy.

Near Earth Space (SPC II)

The influences of the solar activity on the terrestrial space (the Earth’s ionosphere). How does the 11 year sunspot cycle control ionization content, electric fields, and plasma transport in the Earth’s ionosphere (emphasis on equatorial ionosphere). How does the main plasma instabilities processes of the low-latitude and equatorial ionospheres (equatorial electrojet, the equatorial ionization anomaly, and the equatorial spread F) respond to the sunspot variability? How does the Earth’s ionosphere respond to geomagnetic storms triggered by coronal mass ejection, solar flares, etc.? Space weather effects of solar activity. Magnetometer, satellite, radar/ionosonde, VHF/GPS scintillation data, animations, and models will be most likely used in the presentation.

Open/Free Tools for Teaching & Research in Sciences

ICT has the potential to improve the quality of education, & prepare better skilled workforce for the new global economies. Realizing the potentials of ICT for education & research/development, the University of Gondar is carrying on ICT related projects & infrastructure developments. The new science curricula of Ethiopian Higher Learning Institutes also incorporates improved (technology supported) instructional methodologies & better assessment techniques as their key features. One of the four elements of Microsoft’s Vision of 21^st Century Learning, 21^st Century Skills, includes training teachers in exploiting ICT to improve teaching & learning; supporting lifelong learning; assisting with development of digital curricula & learning communities; & conducting researches. Improving quality of education & producing well skilled workforce therefore requires competent instructors in technological skills among other factors. Hence, this training will attempt to introduce instructors to computational skills, & try to develop their competencies in using technology tools to improve teaching – learning & research skills. In this course the participant will gain hands-on experience on the latest technologies in active learning and be exposed to some of the best “Open/Free Tools for Teaching & Research in Sciences. Integrating virtual labs & interactive simulation with lessons will be demonstrated.

Integrating Laboratory Activities with Science Curriculum

Besides testing the validity and limitations of theoretical concepts, experimental activities help students to develop knowledge & skills that will be used in devising their own laboratory research programs to determine new knowledge. Laboratory sessions are by their very nature require active engagement of students, support student-centered approach, and deliver a wide range of learning outcomes as a result. Though experiments should always be an integral part of the science curriculum, many high schools do not support their lessons with laboratory classes. Hence, most students joining science departments lack basic practical skills & familiarity with basic lab equipments. Lack of laboratory facilities & lack of proper laboratory training are pointed as main reasons for the above challenges. Thus, this session will provide intensive practical training for schools teachers. They are expected to participate actively in planning and carrying out experimental investigations, and in analyzing & discussing results of their investigations. Finally they will demonstrate how to integrate experiments & demonstration with their lessons.

Adaptive Technology & Special Need Education

This course  focuses on the intervention of Adapting teaching material for inclusive education to meet EFA’s (Education For All) goals  The role of Ethiopian Adaptive Technology Centre for the Blind (ATCB) in the development of computerized Ethiopic Braille to blind students will be discussed. The discussion will be supported by demonstration on Computerized Braille, Ethiopic Speech Synthesizer, Sound Engineering & FOSS for Visually Impaired, and Process of Computerized Braille Production in Ethiopia.

Workshop on Remote Sensing

Remote sensing has a growing relevance in the modern information society. It represents a key technology as part of the aerospace industry and bears increasing economic relevance. Furthermore, remote sensing exceedingly influences everyday life, ranging from weather forecasts to reports on climate change or natural disasters. Remote sensing makes it possible to collect data on dangerous or inaccessible areas. Its applications include monitoring deforestation, glacial features, and depth sounding of coastal and ocean depths. It also replaces costly and slow data collection on the ground; orbital platforms in conjunction with aerial or ground-based platforms, provides enough information to monitor trends such as El Niño and other natural phenomena. Other uses include natural resource management, land usage and conservation, city planning, archaeological investigations, national security and military observation, and geomorphological surveying.The Workshop on Remote Sensing will be composed of two parts: Theoretical Discussion on Remote Sensing and Practical Training on Digital Image Processing. The theoretical discussion on remote sensing will provide background & discussion on the following topics:

• Remote Sensing Data Division & Acquisition Techniques;
• Most Popular Remote Sensing Platforms;
• Remote Sensing Resolutions;
• Application of Remote Sensing

The practical training will focus on remote sensing digital image processing using state-of-the-art software. Demonstrations of different techniques in remote sensing digital image processing will be accompanied by explanations of algorithm development. The following activities are included in the practical training:

• Extraction of Initial Statistics of the Remote Sensing Data;
• Digital Image Enhancement;
• Extraction of Thematic Information;
• Digital Change Detection;
• Special Remote Sensing Digital Image Processing Approaches.

 Green Energy Technology

Energy is a trillion dollar industry and the number one challenge of the 21^st century. Green Energy produces no or little by products that harm the environment. It uses environmentally benign and sustainable energy storage, and conversion and distribution technologically engineered from advanced materials. This part will focus on the following and other related topics:

• Energy Generation,
• Energy storage and conversion technologies
• Energy for High Tech Applications
• Energy Utilization
• Energy Distribution, Efficiency and Management.

Nanotechnology and Fine Materials Technology

Some of the potential applications of Nanotechnology and materials science which will be presented or delivered as lectures in this part include their proven applications as enabling technologies in:

• Space Science ( fabrication of light weight materials, sensors, energy and power autonomy, design of cost effective materials etc),
• Medicine (design and development of miniature surgical instruments, diagnosis, drug delivery, therapy and imaging techniques…),
• Energy Technology (engineering of materials at atomic and molecular levels to boast high power and energy density materials),
• Environment ( water and air qualities, waste and materials recycling …),
• Food (starting from food growing, processing, safety, storage to packaging…),
• Biotechnology and nano-bio-technological applications in Agriculture,
• Electronics and IT, etc

Advanced Seminars and outreach

Seminars On Education-2019 DC Conference Abstracts

Capacity Building Computational Science and Engineering (Coordinator: Abebe Kebede)

This filed of computational science and engineering shapes technology and provides the opportunity the deeper understanding of natural phenomenon that can be inaccessible to experimental investigation or when experimental investigation is financially prohibitive.  Computational models and simulation with the help of high performance computation can now solve complex problems in physical and mathematical science, Economics and Finance, Climate Change, life sciences and engineering.  There is need to develop research competences in this field to provides students and researchers skills in high performance computing, numerical mathematics, multiscale and multi-physics modeling, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Atmospheric Science, Climate Modeling, Seismology, Reservoir Modeling, Structural analysis, Materials,  Particle Physics, Astrophysics, Quantum Computing, General Relativity, Cosmology, Biophysics, Chemistry, Biology, Medical Imaging, Economics, Finance,  Nonlinear Dynamics, Numerical Analysis, Parallel Computing etc.

Physics of Materials Research: Superconductivity and Energy Storage (Abebe Kebede)

-This talk presents generalized routes to establish a multi-disciplinary research effort to develop fundamental experimental and theoretical research into the physical properties of amorphous, ordered, and nanostructured solids. The materials being investigated include metals, insulators, semiconductors and amorphous solids. The phenomena of interest include phase transitions, localization, electronic, magnetic, and lattice structure of solids. The general procedure to realize a sound physics of materials research involves: 1) Synthesis, characterization, and analysis of new materials by novel methods and establishing the optimum processing parameters to produce high quality single crystal and bulk materials and 2) Thermal characterization under low or ultra-low temperatures, ultra-high pressures, and high magnetic fields, and non-destructive testing such as photoemission and neutron scattering studies and other surface studies. Since physics of materials research involves a variety of set of skills and experiences, in this talk specific examples of research endeavors and results are presented. These include superconductivity and magnetism in Iron Chalcogenide, high temperature Superconducting thin films, transport properties of graphene, Impurity Studies in CeCoIn5 alloys and impurity studies in High Temperature Superconductors.

Photophysics and Photovoltaic application of direct heteroarylation derived isoindigo based copolymers  (Newayemedhin Tegegne(Ethiopia)

Their environmental friendliness, ease of fabrication, low cost and mechanical flexibility makes organic solar cells a potential future of renewable energy sources. The structure of organic materials such as conjugated polymers plays an important role in their opto-electronic properties that are relevant to power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells. Copolymers have an internal donor-acceptor coupling that will reduce the band gap from the respective donor or acceptor units. Fundamental photophysical properties of such copolymers is crucial to understand efficiency limiting factors. The dynamics associated with charge transfer in the molecules, in the solid films and bulk  hetrojunction composites were studied using femto second-transient absorption spectroscopy in three copolymers. The result on a bithiophene-isoindigo copolymer in dilute solution showed an intramolecular charge transfer state generation rate of 2 pico second. The bulk heterojunction film of a blend of P2TI:PCBM71, showed a fast charge generation (<250 femto second). But only 40% of the charge carriers could stay longer than 2 nano second. This is due to a poor charge percolation pathways in the active layer morphology. The low power conversion efficiency in P2TI:PCBM71 based solar cells is due to poor percolation pathway to charge carriers. Moreover, we studied effect of side chains on photophysics of two terthiophene-isoindigo copolymers. The result showed when the length of the alkyl side chains at position 3 and 4 of the first and the last terthiophene unit increases from (C8H17) by four methyl units to (C12H25), the intramolecular charge transfer rate slows down from 4.5 pico second to 13 pico second. The longer side chains also lower exciton life time by creating a barrier for interchain interaction. Exciton diffusion is less efficient when the side chains are longer.

Advanced Methods in Materials/Technological Research for Health Applications- : Research and Development (Mulugeta Alemseghed (USA))

Advancements in Polymeric material Science have afforded us many possibilities for groundbreaking product development and research particularly in the preventative healthcare sector. The transition from development to product must be considered with the utmost attention to sustainability and focus to health and happiness. At the At the heart of all scientific research is both valuable information and the potential to improve quality of life. In this discussion we will outline some recent developments in material science, technology and the applied benefits of creating new ways to improve the health of humanity in a sustainable way. This discuss will outline some innovative methods in investigation, design and implementation

Design for Zero Waste in Materials Science/Industry: [How Can We Invest in] Initiatives to Design for Zero Waste- Environmental Engineering/Sustainability (Nicole Chardoul, RRS (USA))

As the use of packaging and disposable products continue to grow, managing these waste streams and developing methods to recover and recycle our resources becomes more important. “There is no waste in nature” is a simple way to describe the reuse and recycling Circular Economy around a common goal of sustainability. Through the collective action of local champions and proactive Public/Private initiatives, we can plan and implement materials management and zero waste solutions that can prevent further pollution of our environment, improve public safety, generate jobs, design infrastructure for the reprocessing and recycling industry and develop end market opportunities. This session will explore initiatives that can bring together these partners in the value chain with a single shared purpose of sustainability and zero waste.

Computational Materials Discovery of 2D materials for Energy Application (Dr. Tekalign T. Debela(South Korea))

Recently, the crystal structure prediction algorithms combined with DFT calculations are speeding up the discovery of new materials with superior and desirable properties. In this talk, I will introduce the crystal structure prediction technique, and how it can lead to discovering of new materials with ‘forbidden’ chemistry. In addition, our recent works on two-dimensional WS2-Nitrogen-Doped Graphite for High-Performance Lithium Ion Batteries (Experiments and Molecular Dynamics Simulations), Phase polymorphism and electronic structures of TeSe2 will be discussed.

Mechanism of chiral response in all planar nano-optical materials(A. Mekonnen)

Chirality is pervasive in nature. A system is named chiral if it is non-superimposable with its own mirror image.  The interaction of such object with left and right optically handed lights results a spin-selective differential response. This fundamental property of nature was applied in 2D- and/or 3D-chirally designed nanostructures so as to generate chiral field responses.  Here, the absence of chiral response from structurally chiral 2D planar nanostructure is argued and a new method of identification of optical chiral response is suggested. If a system supports polarization conversion and consist at least two phase-lagged dipoles, it suffices to produce optical spin selective response at normal incidence of light. The simplicity and the generality of this finding reveal a whole new significance of the electromagnetic design at a nanoscale with far-reaching potential for the application of nano-spinoptics.

Development of peptide nucleic acid-liposomal nanoparticle conjugates against the  ErbB2/ErbB3 obligate oncogenic partners in breast cancer (Belhu Metaferia (USA))

Innovation: This project aims to develop antigene/antisense peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) against the ErbB2 and ErbB3 oncogenes implicated in breast cancer tumorigenesis. Since there are no yet known therapeutic agents that co-target both the ErbB2 and ErbB3 oncogenes, the proposed antisense approach could lead to a novel and effective alternative to the current therapeutic approach. The application of PNAs as antisense agents is superior to oligonucleotides because PNAs are stable against hydrolytic degradation by nucleases, proteases, and they are amenable to large scale chemical synthesis and various modifications.  Hypothesis: Her2/neu a tyrosine kinase receptor is either amplified or over-expressed in 25-30% breast cancers, and in a variety of other cancers including osteosarcoma. It has been identified as a marker of advanced stage breast cancer and as a prognostic marker. It has been shown that chemotherapy with a monoclonal antibody Herceptin (trastuzumab) improves clinical outcomes including response rate, time to progression, and overall survival for women with Her2/neu positive metastatic breast cancer. However, more than half of the patients are not responsive or develop resistance to trastuzumab treatment. Recent advances in EGFR family of tyrosine kinase receptor studies have identified the tumorigenic activity of the ErbB2 oncogene to be dependent on its dimerization with ErbB3. It has been also demonstrated that down-regulation of the ErbB3 expression leads to overcoming erbB2 mediated drug resistance. Therefore, the oncogenic effect of ErbB2 in breast cancer can be effectively blocked by down-regulating both  ErbB2 and its major signaling partner the ErbB3 gene through antisense/antigene mechanism.  As a result breast cancer proliferation, angiogenesis and  growth will be inhibited. Moreover, by targeting both components of the ErbB2/ErbB3 dimer, we believe to overcome the incidence of  drug resistance encountered in Herceptin treatment against Her2/neu+ breast cancers. In this talk we discuss the results of our experiments and application  of materials in drug delivery.

Effect of shot peening on the formation of surface cracks during lubricated rolling-sliding wear of carburized low Mo alloyed sintered steel (Samuel Tesfaye and Alberto Molinari)

Carburizing increases hardness of the surface layers of steels, with positive effects on wear and fatigue resistance. It also improves the resistance to the nucleation of the contact fatigue cracks due to subsurface hardening. A theoretical model to predict such a resistance was developed and verified. However, the combination of a high microhardness and of porosity may give rise to the formation of surface cracks since the reduced fracture toughness of the matrix may promote a brittle fracture. A theoretical model was developed to predict such a damage mechanism, and lubricated rolling-sliding wear tests were carried out on a gas carburized 1.5%Mo sintered steel, to validate the model. Shot peening promotes surface densification and the accumulation of compressive residual stresses. These effects were introduced in the theoretical model, and the mean pressure at which surface cracks nucleate was predicted to increase. Such an increment was verified experimentally, confirming the positive effect of shot peening on wear of porous sintered steels.
Bio: Samuel Tesfaye received his PhD at University of Trento (Italy) on the research area of contact fatigue of powder metallurgy materials; it cover the investigation of damage mechanisms, tribology, wear, theoretical analysis of solid mechanics, metallurgy and microstructure, dimensional change, and fracture of mechanical components that undergoes rolling-sliding or sliding contacts. He also received his Master of Science and Engineering at University of Trento; for his master’s thesis, he did a research on high sintering temperature, dimensional change, and property anisotropy of low alloyed porous steel in collaboration with GKN Sinter Metals SPA. In addition, He was assistance lecturer at Adama Science and Technology University in mechanical and vehicle engineering department. Currently, He is an assistant professor at Gondar University.

Public Lectures

1) Science and Development,

2) Women in Science and Technology

3)  Information sessions about ICTP and its role in international science

4) Information Session on international scholarships and graduate school applications processes.

5) Lecture on Africanization/Ethiopianization of STEM, and discussions on STEAM resources that can be accessed from remote sites.