Preface

Abstract

The University Scholar Conference: Engineering and Innovation (USC) is a conference organized by the Association of Mechanical Engineering (AMES) at Kathmandu University (KU). The first edition, USC 21, was successfully completed in virtual mode, and the second edition, USC 22, was held on May 17-18, 2022, in a hybrid mode. USC 22 was hosted by Kathmandu University, co-hosted by the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC-ICIMOD), and supported by the Department of Mechanical Engineering - KU, the University Grant Commission (UGC), the Nepal Technology Innovation Center (NTIC), and the Green Hydrogen Lab (GHL). The inauguration ceremony of the two-day conference event was held at ICIMOD head office with a keynote session delivered by Dr. David Molden, Director General of ICIMOD, and the closing ceremony was organized at Kathmandu University.The University Scholar Conference 2022 provided an excellent platform for graduate and undergraduate students to share their cutting-edge developments and state-of-the-art research work in the fields of science and engineering. One interesting fact about this conference is that it was completely organized by a student club under the supervision of faculty. Thus, the USC conference is a student-level conference organized by university students for university students. The conference was attended by a mix of academia, researchers, industrialists, professors, students, and policymakers. The conference committee highly encouraged the participation of graduate and undergraduate students engaged in engineering and science education within Nepal and abroad.With the tagline “Women Empowerment in Engineering,” four thematic areas were defined for USC 22: i) Automotive Systems, ii) Materials and Design for Transformation, iii) Digitalization and Emerging Technologies, and iv) Advances in Energy Systems. A total of 103 abstracts were received at the initial phase, out of which 48 papers were selected for presentation in the conference. Participants from 10 different universities from 5 different countries presented their research works in 12 plenary sessions during the two conference days. In addition to the parallel plenary sessions, a poster presentation was also conducted for funded projects. Based on the quality of the presented work, four best paper awards were declared for each thematic area, and a gift hamper was presented to the winners. The 48 papers presented at the conference were considered for further publication in the IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. After a detailed peer-review process, a total of 10 papers were selected for final publication in this volume.List of Conference Chair, Organizing Committee, Advisory Committee, Scientific Committee, Conference Session Chairs, Conference Publication Editors, Supporting Partners are available in this Pdf.