Topics for Term Paper 1 (Prof.

Koh)
P01: Ocean acidification due to global warming and its impacts on marine
ecosystem (Presentation date: 20/1/2016)
Discuss the mechanisms that ocean is acidized due to human activities, how
much CO2 has been dissolved, how much changes in the pH has been recorded
so far, the capacity of the ocean to act as the carbon storehouse, what impacts
ocean acidification has on marine ecosystem (eg different depths) and why,
specific examples of the damages so far, predictions for the future trends.
P02: Droughts, forest fires, haze and its impact on health (Presentation date:
20/1/2016)
Discuss why the chance and the length of draughts increase due to global
warming, and how the chance of forest fires increases due to global warming.
Give specific examples. Also discuss the specific case study of the forest fires in
Indonesia, and how the haze affects the health of the residents in Indonesia,
Singapore and Malaysia. Particularly discuss the dangers of PM2.5 and why it is
more harmful than other pollutants.
P03: Ice-albedo feedbacks and polar amplification (Presentation date: 20/1/2016)
Discuss what is the ice-albedo feedbacks, and what and why there is a polar
amplification. Discuss its effects on arctic, including the vanishing cryosphere
and the change of polar jet stream. Discuss the predictions on ice-free summer.
Also discuss how real are those predictions (eg against the seasonal variation
which is natural) and also the increase of ice-coverage in Antarctica (and cold
weather there as well).
P04: Paleocene-Econe Thermal Maximum - A Case Study (Presentation date:
20/1/2016)
Discuss what is PETM, what happened and the possible reasons it happened.
Draw analogy to the possible scenario for the man-made global warming. Discuss
the impacts of global warming during the PETM period, especially to the
ecosystem during the time.
P05: Is global warming real and man-made? (Presentation date: 20/1/2016)
Discuss the uncertainty of the evidences of global warming, other evidences that
might not be consistent with global warming, any weak links to prove that the
global warming is man-made rather than due to natural cause, the catastrophic
predictions by the alarmists and the reliability of the predictions, etc.
P06: Organic solar cells (Presentation date: 3/2/2016)
Discuss the rationale and potential advantages of organic solar cells. Discuss the
working principles of the organic solar cells and how the working principles affect
the choices of materials, designs, the performance etc of the solar cells. Discuss
recent new innovations to improve the potential commercialization of organic
solar cells.
P07: Dye-sensitized solar cells (Presentation date: 3/2/2016)

Discuss the rationale and potential advantages of dye-sensitized solar cells.

Discuss the working principles of the dye-sensitized solar cells and how the
working principles affect the choices of materials, designs, the performance etc
of the solar cells. Discuss recent new innovations to improve the potential
commercialization of the dye-sensitive solar cells.
P08: Concentrated solar power (Presentation date: 3/2/2016)
Discuss the rationale and advantages of concentrated solar power system.
Discuss the working principles of concentrated solar power and how the working
principles affect the choices of materials, designs, the performance etc of
concentrated solar power. Discuss recent new innovations to improve the
performance of concentrated solar power system.
P09: Safety of modern nuclear power plants (Presentation date: 10/2/2016)
Discuss the evolution of designs of nuclear power plants to date. Discuss the
sources of potential accidents in nuclear power plants and how safety
precautions are incorporated into modern nuclear plant designs. Discuss the
potential risks of modern nuclear power plants (eg how large the affected areas,
how long is the effects, for each type of accidents) and from that discuss the
suitability of building a modern nuclear power plant in Singapore.
P10: Supercapacitors (Presentation date: 17/2/2016)
Discuss the rationale and advantages of high capacity supercapacitors. Discuss
the working principles of high capacity supercapacitors and how the working
principles affect the choices of materials, designs, the performance etc of the
supercapacitor. Discuss recent new innovations to improve the potential
commercialization of high capacity supercapacitors.
P11: The use of phase-change materials for thermal energy storage (Presentation
date: 17/2/2016)
Discuss the rationale and advantages of using phase-change materials for
thermal energy storage. Discuss the potential fields/industries that phase change
materials could be applied. Discuss the different types of phase-change materials
currently available/proposed, and how they are suitable for different potential
applications due to different needs of the industries. Discuss recent new
innovations to improve the performance of phase-change materials for energy
storage.