Skip to main content

The TRATECH Committee

Alabi Joshua Atta, TRATECH Chair


The Trade and Technology (TRATECH) committee is headed by the TRATECH chair.

The committee represents the department in all aspects pertaining to Fairs.

 The committee also supervises and approves all projects and exhibitions in
the association.

Comments

See Also

 Meet our personality of the week,our Immediate Past President Mr.Samuel Kweku Afari Can you tell us about yourself?   I am Samuel Kweku Afari, born on the 4th of March 1998. I am 23 years of age and I pride myself to be the only child of my parents. I come from Abesim in the Bono Region where I started the earlier part of my junior high education at Sacred Heart Preparatory School.  I moved to Tarkwa to continue my junior education at Golden Age School complex and that is where I had my Basic Education Certificate after completion in 2014. By God’s grace, I went on to have my senior high school education at St John’s School in Sekondi where I read General Science. Whilst in St. Johns School I served as the Sports Prefect (2016/2017). I completed St. Johns School in the year 2017 and by God’s grace had the opportunity to start my university education the same year at my dream university, KNUST.  I am currently in my final year reading BSc. Metallurgical Engineering a...

Non-stick surface technology

By Hilda Kafui Nuworku [3min read] Non-stick is a surface engineered to reduce the ability of other materials to stick to it. Non-stick is often used to refer to surfaces coated with Polytetrafluroethylene (PTFE),  but in the 21st century other coatings have been marked as non-stick, such as anodized aluminum,  ceramics, cast iron, carbon steel and many others. Cast iron, carbon steel, cast aluminium and steel cookware may be seasoned by applying fat to the surface and heating to polymerize the fat. This produces a dry hard smooth, hydrophobic coating, which is non-stick when food is in it. Polytetrafluroethylene is a synthetic fluoropolymer or tetrafluoroethylene that has numerous applications. Its well known brand is Teflon® , by Chemours,  a polymer company. PTFE molecular structure. PC: susbtech.com Properties of PTFE: It's a fluorocarbon solid, with a high molecular weight. It's hydrophobic due to the high electronegativity of Fluorine. It ...

THE WAIT

Illustration. Credit: HIOS The past they say hunts you down . But to get someone who overlooks all the past and says, ''Hey you deserve another shot'', has always been a one in a million event. We met in the weirdest of ways but we have grown to become the best of friends. If anyone had told me things would have grown this fast between us, I wouldn't have believed. Today I stare at your pictures and I can literally smell you. ''Am I getting mad?'', I ask myself. Maybe, no; probably yes. But if I would go mad because of the person who although I needed a new start due to my past transgressions, yet believed in me, then I wouldn't think twice about it. I guess the light I see in her is what she sees in me. We are taking things slow, not rushing a thing; trusting Your timing, not pushing when we need to pull--step by step, growth by growth--not  missing even a single nano-detail of the process. Am I mad to wait till you are ready?  For I...

The 'thinking metal': Shape Memory Alloy

Nitinol wires. PC: Wikpedia By Francis Agyemang, Member of the Editorial Team, MATESA KNUST We are the intelligent metal alloys !!! Yes! People prefer to call us shape memory alloys and it is the name we well deserve. We never forget our shape when thermal or mechanical load is exerted on us. Once the load is removed, we regain our pre-deformed shape. Our thermal deformation is very unique, unlike other metals, we deform under low temperatures and regain our shapes upon heating. Our effect (shape memory effect) was first discovered in an alloy of gold and cadmium (AuCd) by Swedish physicist Arne Olander in 1932. 2D view of nitinol's crystalline structure during cooling/heating cycle The two most prevalent smart alloys are copper-aluminium-nickel (CuAlNi) and nickel-titanium ( Nitinol). Though we have many uses and potential applications, we are commonly used in mending broken bones and making of dental braces. A nitinol paperclip bent and recovered aft...

New 'Artificial Leaf' That Converts Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel

Scientists have created an “artificial leaf” to fight climate change by inexpensively converting harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into a useful alternative fuel. The new technology, outlined in a paper published on November 4, 2019, in the journal Nature Energy, was inspired by the way plants use energy from sunlight to turn carbon dioxide into food. “We call it an artificial leaf because it mimics real leaves and the process of photosynthesis,” said Yimin Wu, an engineering professor at the University of Waterloo who led the research. “A leaf produces glucose and oxygen. We produce methanol and oxygen.” Making methanol from carbon dioxide, the primary contributor to global warming, would both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide a substitute for the fossil fuels that create them. The key to the process is a cheap, optimized red powder called cuprous oxide. An hour-long chemical reaction creates the engineered red powder that is the key to new technology to tur...

Personality of The Week: Prof. Samuel Kwofie

Prof. Samuel Kwofie To end this month's Personality Dialogue is the first Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in Ghana, Prof. Samuel Kwofie. He shares with us his rich knowledge and experience. Enjoy the read as you learn along. PROFILE Prof. Samuel Kwofie is the first professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the country. He lectures at the Department of Materials Engineering at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He is the immediate past Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering, formerly the Faculty of Chemical and Materials Engineering. He is an alumnus of Independence Hall in KNUST and Ghana Senior High Technical School (GSTS-Takoradi). He hails from Elmina in the Central Region. His skills and expertise include Powder Metallurgy, X-ray Diffraction, Mechanical Testing, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Failure Analysis, Mathematical Modeling, Experimentation, Characterization, Electron Microscopy, among others. ...

Be A Survivor -- A Poem By F. Agyemang

Many across the globe are bearing the brunt of Covid19. Some who haven't experienced it can't really imagine its consequences on people and economies. Let us thus relieve ourselves of the stress with this exhilarating poetic piece by @cocajuana_pens You can call me Covid I'm more dangerous than conflict I have no limit And I kill without mercy Cos I have no vaccine Just don't dare me I might end your destiny I'm so wicked! But you can avoid me Stay at home Give a distance And do no hommies For instance If you have to sneeze or cough Just cover it off Don't do it raw Else it'll be an issue So kindly use a tissue Hand washing should be regular That's the normal routine Do it with soap under running water Even if you haven't eaten Wondering how to keep clean? Use a hand sanitizer Just like many diseases I know I won't last forever A vaccine will be made And I will be slayed Until then, you have to be a survivor ...

Personality of the Week: Mr Ibrahim Sualah Bamba

For this week, our Personality Dialogue dial falls on a gentleman of the Department, Mr Ibrahim Sualah Bamba, a final-year Materials Engineering student. He has great interest in Debating and is specially interested in Composites. Enjoy the ride with him. Who is Ibrahim Sualah Bamba? I am the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bamba. Born on October 03, 1993 Any more thing about you? I have always lived my life moving from one place to the other. I am from Banda, a beautiful town in the west - central part of Brong Ahafo Region. So I am a proud Ghanaian. I have lived in different towns aside my hometown. Berekum, Wenchi, Techiman, Sunyani, Lapaz, Nungua, Accra New Town and many more areas across Ghana. Well, I have also lived in Adjifou, a city in Abidjan of Ivory Coast. How has the educational ladder been for you so far? Schooling has not been easy for me right from day one. This was because to me, I had to compete hard to understand both the local Akan and English languages just to ...

Personality of The Week: Prof Anthony Andrews

Our Personality for this week is none other than Professor Anthony Andrews. On Personality Dialogue today, we bring to you a profile of this outstanding Personality, a Royal and Santa Clausian. PERSONALITY PROFILE Professor Anthony Andrews is a lecturer at the Department Materials Engineering (DMSE), KNUST and is one of Africa’s youngest and most refined professors especially in the field of engineering. His extremely rich blend of academic, research and professional knowledge and experience makes him an ace in his field and beyond. EDUCATION He obtained his SSSCE at Adisadel College, Cape Coast in the year 1996.  He studied B.Sc. Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy at KNUST. He has an M.Sc. in Materials Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the same institution. His M.Sc. research focused on corrosion engineering while his Ph.D. was on ceramics engineering. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE He joined...