First Workshops at Makerere University!

We have fantastic news to share from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.  John Paul, SciBridge co-chair and Lecturer in Physics, led not one but TWO first-ever SciBridge project workshops last Friday and Saturday on dye-sensitized solar cells for his undergraduate Physics students.  

John Paul writes:  "The students enjoyed the hands-on activity and had some good results. It was very interesting and a moving experience for students who ably fabricated working dye-sensitized solar cells. We now look forward to having a web-seminar on Friday November 6, 2014. Our students are motivated and look forward to taking on individual research topics in dye-sensitized solar cells using a range of local natural dyes of their choices. This they will do as part of their undergraduate program which requires them to conduct research in topics of their interest and it starts in the next academic semester (opening in February 2015)."

Check out the photos from the two very succesful workshops at Makerere University below!

Preparing conductive glass slides (front to back):  Samuel Onoro, Francis Ssendi, Robert Kato, and Levi Kwemoi.

Drying the TiO2-coated films (L to R):  Panzi John Makawa, Robert Kato, Levi Kwemoi, Sadick Mukasa, Egido Bataringaya, Francis Ssendi, Ireen Ankwasa, and John Bosco Ssebandeke.

Coating slides with graphite (L to R):  Sadick Mukasa, Levi Kwemoi, John Bosco Ssebandeke, John Paul Eneku, Robert Kato, and Samuel Onoro.

Soaking TiO2 slides in anthocyanine dye (L to R):  Samuel Onoro, Sadick Mukasa, and Levi Kwemoi.

Samuel Onoro measuring the graphite-coated slide conductivity.

Samuel Onoro and Sadick Mukasa adding the electrolyte.

Washing the glass slides (L to R):  Ireen Ankwasa, Francis Ssendi, and Elia Bwengye.

Measuring the solar cells!  (L to R):  Godfrey Opio, Francis Ssendi, Panzi John Makawa, Ireen Ankwasa, Elia Bwengye, and Knoxwell Kamuhimbise.

Lab briefing (L to R):  John Paul Eneku (SciBridge Vice-Chair & Lecturer), Panzi John Makawa, Knoxwell Kamuhimbise, Francis Ssendi, Ireen Ankwasa, and Elia Bwengye.

The students experimenting with a new electrolyte (L to R):  Knoxwell Kamuhimbise, Godfrey Opiyo, and Francis Ssendi.

The students with their assembled solar cells (L to R):  Knoxwell Kamuhimbise, Ireen Ankwasa, John Paul Eneku (SciBridge Vice Chair and Lecturer), Francsi Ssendi, and Elia Bwengye.

These workshops would not have been possible without financial support from the Materials Research Society (MRS) Foundation Grassroots Grant Award.  We thank the University of California, Los Angeles for the dye-senitized solar cell experiment design.  We also thank our home institutions, the University of Texas at Austin and Makerere University, for supporting and encouraging the SciBridge project.

The next stage of the workshop is a web-seminar, to be given by Nella Vargas of Penn State University.  Connect with the SciBridge project and join in our discussions on the Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/scibridge!