Conference Session

Design Experiences in Energy Systems

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Mullin, Virginia Tech; Jinsoo Kim, Korea National University of Education; Vinod Lohani, Virginia Tech; Jenny Lo, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

design to select threefinalists. The three winning designs, “Best in Show” and two “Honorable Mention” werechosen according to the design criteria stated in the design assignment.Given the open-ended nature of the assignment, the student’s final designs reflected adiverse range of potential solutions. These designs ranged from playful to practical to Page 12.1336.5conceptual. A few examples included a solar powered drink mixer, a solar powered cellphone charger, a wind powered light tower, a hydro-powered drawbridge, and asubmerged bottom feeding hydropower plant. The modest expense constraint inspiredfurther resourcefulness for many teams

Conference Session

Project-Based Education in Energy Conversion

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Margaret Bailey, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

Figure 1 for a complete listing). In creating the courseABET syllabus for ME 413, the course learning objectives reflected many of these sameobjectives due to the inclusion of the project. The technical book review project therefore can beshown to assist engineering students attain attributes defined through ABET Criterion 3 ProgramOutcomes and Assessment which are challenging to reinforce in a conventionalThermodynamics course. These ABET criterion include (d) regarding teamwork, (g) regardingcommunication, (h) relating to impact of engineering solutions, (i) discussing life-long learning,and (j) regarding knowledge of contemporary issues [13].Resembling the technical book review, the team-based presentation project assigned in ME 680allows

Conference Session

Teaching Courses in Renewable Energy Systems

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arthur Haman, University of Detroit Mercy; Robert Ross, University of Detroit Mercy; Mark Schumack, University of Detroit Mercy; Will Wittig, University of Detroit Mercy; David Chew, University of Detroit Mercy; Krysten Dzwigalski, University of Detroit Mercy; Chris Keimig; Meghann Mouyianis, University of Detroit Mercy; Tim Rourke, University of Detroit Mercy

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

amount of reflected light. The light from the Sun that is not reflected is absorbed insidethe active region of the device. The active region in a solar panel consists of several very thin layers,some only a few atoms thick, of various types of semiconducting materials. The absorbed light generatesequal amounts of positive and negative electric charge inside the semiconductor and a built-in electricfield drives the charge through the circuit as direct electric current. The direct current (DC) is supplied toan inverter that converts it into alternating current (AC). The alternating current is supplied to the existingelectrical power grid of the building thus reducing the need for external power generation.ADVANTAGES OF SOLAR POWER:RENEWABLE

Conference Session

Project-Based Education in Energy Conversion

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yaw Yeboah, Pennsylvania State University; Sarma Pisupati, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

environment; puzzles, homework and exam format2. What did you like least about the course? Tedious/lengthy homework; fast pace sometimes; too much material (but interesting); no book; math and equations; exam format3. What suggestions do you have for improving the course? More movies/films, videos, and in class demonstrations; have textbook; less homework; less math; make it more challengingSome of the comments sound contradictory. This reflects the mix and wide range ofbackgrounds of the students. In particular, non honors students are allowed to register for Page 12.1196.6the course after registration of honors students. Clearly

Conference Session

Teaching Emerging Energy Technologies

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arunachala Nadar Mada Kannan; Lakshmi Munukutla, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

usingcarbon nano-tubes that introduce the current literature and research in fuel cells.Figure 5. General Schematic representation of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell. Module 4 deals with nanotechnology that offers several benefits when makinginexpensive and efficient solar cells on a large scale. In this context, nanostructured layersin thin film solar cells offer three important advantages. First, due to multiple reflections,the effective optical path for absorption is much larger than the actual film thickness. Second,light generated electrons and holes need to travel over a much shorter path and thusrecombination losses are greatly reduced. Third, the energy band gap of various layers canbe tailored to the desired design value by

Conference Session

Experiences in Teaching Energy Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Slobodan Petrovic, Arizona State University; Lakshmi Munukutla, Arizona State University; John Robertson, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

for overcoming the lack of fundamental knowledge of electrochemistry for thosestudents with little or rudimentary understanding of electrochemical principles while notsacrificing the ultimate outcomes of course, which are to provide practical, industry ready skills.These methods introduce equally challenging concept of designing an engineering course withultimate integral quality expressed through a complete, interconnected understanding of theoverall main objectives rather than fragmented knowledge acceptance typical for students withnot well defined foundations. The paper also reflects the experience from working with limitedstudent population and can only claim qualitative importance and informative character. As thealternative energy

Conference Session

Novel Applications of Computers/Software in Energy Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carl Spezia, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

graphing into a single, easily mastered environment. The program displaysmathematical symbols in standard form on the screen, so developed documents are similar to aprinted book except that any change in a numerical value will reflect throughout the document.This makes the format ideal for exploring cause and effect relationships between problemvariables and solutions2,3. The electronic book was developed using Version 2001 and isupwardly compatible with newer releases and is intended for student use.A Mathcad electronic book is a collection of hyperlinked Mathcad documents which open in aseparate window from the main program. A table of contents links the user to topics andcalculations. Electronic book users can cut and paste solution templates

Conference Session

Experiences in Teaching Energy Courses

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy Skvarenina, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

it. They are being heldresponsible for coming to class every time and participating in class. They would much rather befree to skip class when they want to and get the notes off the web or from a friend. With the firstclass I taught using clickers, this was a major issue and was reflected in the end-of-termevaluations. In the conclusions section, I will describe how I tried to deal with that with mysecond class.The final disadvantage, that I have found is that it takes time to develop good questions andmultiple choice responses for use in class. The numeric format of the clickers only allows asingle number to be entered, so numeric problems must be structured to allow the students toenter the numbers in a reasonable format (e.g., rather than

Conference Session

Outreach Projects and General Energy Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth DeBartolo, Rochester Institute of Technology; Margaret Bailey, Rochester Institute of Technology; Melissa Zaczek, Cummins; Timothy Schriefer, Rochester Institute of Technology; Patrick Kelley, Carnegie Mellon University; Mallika Ramaswamy, Rochester Institute of Technology; Nicholas Ryczko, Pratt & Whitney

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

, and a take-home activity; details for each are included below.Within a set of activities, the middle school students should be exposed to educational activitiesranging from basic comprehension to design and evaluation to reflecting on what they’ve learnedat home. The design team used Bloom’s Taxonomy7 as a guideline in this, and similar goalshave been set for other middle school engineering modules8. Kits developed to date include HeatTransfer, Chemical Energy, Electrical Energy, Solar Power, and Wind and Water Power.Instruction Manual: The instruction manual consists of a guide sheet, lesson plans, handouts,and assessment forms. The contents of the Instruction Manuals are available online so teacherscan browse and decide which kit(s) to use

Conference Session

Design Experiences in Energy Systems

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Lau, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

. Gears Motor Spool with fishing line Weights Figure 6 Small motor dynamometer.Knowing the torque/speed output characteristic of the motor as a function of I/V input allows usto combine the motor and solar panel I/V output to get the torque/speed characteristic of thesystem. The process is as follows: 1. First the I/V motor characteristic curve for each of the tested loads (torque) is plotted along with the solar panel I/V curve, see Figure 7. Note that the motor data in Figure 7 reflects additional data taken to investigate the stalled motor and subsequent start

Conference Session

Developments in the Energy Laboratories

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Gerhart, Lawrence Technological University; Philip Gerhart, University of Evansville

Tagged Divisions

Energy Conversion and Conservation

alearning tool, according to the students. They reported that their knowledge of the Rankine cycle(and its associated thermodynamic concepts) increased. They indicated that discussing andoperating the RC are more valuable than performing calculations with the data. The level of thematerial was appropriately challenging for upper-level engineering students. A few keys to Page 12.1002.5successful use of the RC were also given in the paper.Second, a parametric study of the effects of component losses on RC thermal efficiency wasperformed. The results showed that the range of component losses used in the parametric studyaccurately reflects experimental