PostgradMalaysia.com


Welcome to the Postgraduate Channel.

Postgraduate study is significantly important when you aim to reposition your career or to begin scientific research.

Students' Hotspot: Latest News

Monash University Achievements Posted: 04 December 2009; Category: Achievement

Institution’s Achievements & Activities in Research

Monash University is world-renowned for its innovation and excellence in research and teaching. Monash research make important contributions that bring real and positive change to people all over the world.

Some of the ground breaking research conducted at the university includes:
Pioneering IVF technology, drug development including combating malaria and influenza, climate change and many more.

Significant Research Currently Undertaking

The Sunway campus has research strengths in biotechnology, medicine & health, economic & business modeling, Islamic banking, electronic test technology and agri-business. The Brain Research Institute at Monash Sunway (BRIMS) us an Associate School of Neuroscience of the French-based International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO). This status aids in its efforts to be the regional driver of neuroscience research and education development.

The School of Business is leading research in Islamic Banking and Finance and is the organizer of a major annual conference on Islamic Banking and Finance in Kuala Lumpur while the School of Engineering has formed a number of partnerships with industry and other organizations for research. These range from FreeScale Semiconductor to Malaysia’s National Sports Institute, with whom research is being carried out on how to improve the performance of athletes.

Researchers at the School of Science are also working on a number of major research projects, ranging from understanding how gum infections can lead to heart disease, to deepening our understanding of the body’s immune system.

Commercialisation of Research

In 2007, a total of 147 research publications came from the Sunway campus. This is an increase compared to the previous year which had 114 published articles. These articles are published in journals, research book chapters and into research books.

Other Useful Research News

Latest Research News from the Sunway campus:
Internet at the speed of light
The development of a fully optical internet may not be as far away as previously thought. Some fundamental changes in the network architecture could provide enough cost savings to present a strong case for its implementation, says Monash researcher Dr Rajendran Parthiban.

“Although fibre optic cables are already used for high-bandwidth data transmission, the routers used at the end of these cables work in electrical domain and have the potential to slow down the internet transmission rate," he says.

“At present, data transmitted over the Internet is sent in bundles called ‘packets’. In routers, these packets are lined up in a process called ‘buffering’ and then forwarded into the Internet. The data is carried through fibres in the form of light (or optical) signals.”

“The optical signals need to be converted to electrical domain in the routers for buffering and forwarding. These signals are converted back to optical domain before being sent through the fibers. This optical-to-electrical-to-optical conversion process is costly and can slow down the transmission rate.”

“One way to increase the transmission rate cost-effectively is through replacing some of these routers with optical cross-connects, which can forward packets solely in optical domain without the need for this conversion,” said Dr Rajendran.

“Optical buffering technology is in its infancy at this stage, hence routers are still required in a network with optical cross-connects for buffering and cost-effective packaging of packets.”

In view of the current limitations in optical buffering, he says an interim technology called Optical Burst Switching can be applied and his research shows that it is more commercially viable than previously thought. An article based on this research has been accepted for publication in Journal of Lightwave Technology.

“There is an additional step that we need to take before we can move to a fully optical internet – where we use the optical burst switching technology as a precursor to fully optical packet switching.”

Dr Rajendran says the cost-effectiveness of Optical Burst Switching shows promise and may pave the way for a fully optical internet hopefully not too far down the road.

View Other categories: NATIONAL | CAMPUS | ACHIEVEMENT | EDITOR'S DESK