Embedding Global Energy Education into Engineering Technology Curricula: The Development and Implementation of Green Energy and Sustainability ET Minor

Irina Nicoleta Ciobanescu Husanu; Richard Chiou

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: Energy Efficiency and Capstone Projects
Tagged Division: Energy Conversion and Conservation
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--28216
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/28216
Download Count: 566

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Paper Authors

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Irina Nicoleta Ciobanescu Husanu Drexel University

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Irina Ciobanescu Husanu, Ph. D. is Assistant Clinical Professor with Drexel University, Engineering Technology program. Her area of expertise is in thermo-fluid sciences with applications in micro-combustion, fuel cells, green fuels and plasma assisted combustion. She has prior industrial experience in aerospace engineering that encompasses both theoretical analysis and experimental investigations such as designing and testing of propulsion systems including design and development of pilot testing facility, mechanical instrumentation, and industrial applications of aircraft engines. Also, in the past 10 years she gained experience in teaching ME and ET courses in both quality control and quality assurance areas as well as in thermal-fluid, energy conversion and mechanical areas from various levels of instruction and addressed to a broad spectrum of students, from freshmen to seniors, from high school graduates to adult learners. She also has extended experience in curriculum development. Dr Husanu developed laboratory activities for Measurement and Instrumentation course as well as for quality control undergraduate and graduate courses in ET Masters program. Also, she introduced the first experiential activity for Applied Mechanics courses. She is coordinator and advisor for capstone projects for Engineering Technology.

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Richard Chiou Drexel University

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Dr. Richard Chiou is Associate Professor within the Engineering Technology Department at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA. He received his Ph.D. degree in the G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. His educational background is in manufacturing with an emphasis on mechatronics. In addition to his many years of industrial experience, he has taught many different engineering and technology courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. His tremendous research experience in manufacturing includes environmentally conscious manufacturing, Internet based robotics, and Web based quality. In the past years, he has been involved in sustainable manufacturing for maximizing energy and material recovery while minimizing environmental impact.

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Abstract

Embedding Global Energy Education into Engineering Technology Curricula: the Development and Implementation of Green Energy and Sustainability ET Minor

Abstract

The world demand for energy is increasing while conventional energy resources are both fast depleting and contributing to increasing the carbon footprint leading ultimately to global warming, making the renewable energy resources the likely alternative, with emphasis on renewable green energy manufacturing. As a consequence, the renewable energy industry is experiencing a large expansion. Nonetheless, carbon tax and emissions trading legislation are paving the way for environmental accountability and sustainability in the industries. In the light of these demands and due to significant growth of the renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency and sustainability we have also an increased demand for trained engineers and technicians in these areas. This requires the adaptation of the existing engineering curricula to these demands from the perspective of the industry and society. There is a continued need of new courses and laboratories to educate students to work in these rapidly developing industries. Many engineering programs developed minors and even majors in renewable energy field as teaching sustainability and alternative energy on today’s engineering curriculum has become an essential feature. Therefore, it is imperative to create a highly educated workforce who can contribute to overcoming energy challenges. One method of supporting workforce development in future energy solutions is to incorporate new and emerging energy technology directly into required undergraduate coursework.

Engineering education moves into the twenty first century charged with an environmental agenda to respond to wider changes in the society. However, the educators are regularly modifying curriculum content to embrace technological changes into the learning outcomes. On the other hand, renewable energy and sustainability are highly interdisciplinary, crossing over between a numbers of research areas, which makes it quite difficult for it to be covered in one single course.

This minor aims to empower interested students to browse along the technological development in renewable energy technologies and sustainability and to conduct experimental work in these areas of science and engineering. This allows engineering and engineering technology students to explore the principles, characteristics and operation of various renewable energy sources, storage devices, and energy conversion systems. The new learning materials will allow our undergraduate students, to “see and feel” the emerging renewable energy technology through interactive laboratory experiments and learning modules. They also will be provided the opportunities to apply science and engineering principles (STEM) to renewable energy conversion and compare them to actual field test data. These renewable energy teaching modules will also help faculty instructors and teaching assistants to acquire new knowledge and skills in the rapidly growing field of renewable energy and distributed generation.

In this paper, we are discussing a series of developments and new courses included in the new minor developed in our Engineering Technology program, based on student feedback from existing courses and projects, including our senior project design capstone projects, power electronics and renewable energy courses. The Green Energy and Sustainability minor’s framework, new courses and learning modules development, structure and outcomes, lesson learned and future improvements are discussed in details. Design and development of renewable energy and sustainability projects allow students to work on projects that can be relevant to current leading edge research and technology. The development, content and structure of laboratory activities and project-based learning as part of this effort to embed renewable energy into our curriculum are also presented.

Citation
Format

Ciobanescu Husanu, I. N., & Chiou, R. (2017, June), Embedding Global Energy Education into Engineering Technology Curricula: The Development and Implementation of Green Energy and Sustainability ET Minor Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28216

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Embedding Global Energy Education into Engineering Technology Curricula: the Development and Implementation of Green Energy and Sustainability ET Minor 

Abstract

The world demand for energy is increasing while conventional energy resources are both fast depleting and contributing to increasing the carbon footprint leading ultimately to global warming, making the renewable energy resources the likely alternative, with emphasis on renewable green energy manufacturing. As a consequence, the renewable energy industry is experiencing a large expansion. Nonetheless, carbon tax and emissions trading legislation are paving the way for environmental accountability and sustainability in the industries. In the light of these demands and due to significant growth of the renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency and sustainability we have also an increased demand for trained engineers and technicians in these areas. This requires the adaptation of the existing engineering curricula to these demands from the perspective of the industry and society. There is a continued need of new courses and laboratories to educate students to work in these rapidly developing industries. Many engineering programs developed minors and even majors in renewable energy field as teaching sustainability and alternative energy on today’s engineering curriculum has become an essential feature. Therefore, it is imperative to create a highly educated workforce who can contribute to overcoming energy challenges. One method of supporting workforce development in future energy solutions is to incorporate new and emerging energy technology directly into required undergraduate coursework.

Engineering education moves into the twenty first century charged with an environmental agenda to respond to wider changes in the society. However, the educators are regularly modifying curriculum content to embrace technological changes into the learning outcomes. On the other hand, renewable energy and sustainability are highly interdisciplinary, crossing over between a numbers of research areas, which makes it quite difficult for it to be covered in one single course. 

This minor aims to empower interested students to browse along the technological development in renewable energy technologies and sustainability and to conduct experimental work in these areas of science and engineering. This allows engineering and engineering technology students to explore the principles, characteristics and operation of various renewable energy sources, storage devices, and energy conversion systems. The new learning materials will allow our undergraduate students, to “see and feel” the emerging renewable energy technology through interactive laboratory experiments and learning modules. They also will be provided the opportunities to apply science and engineering principles (STEM) to renewable energy conversion and compare them to actual field test data. These renewable energy teaching modules will also help faculty instructors and teaching assistants to acquire new knowledge and skills in the rapidly growing field of renewable energy and distributed generation. 

In this paper, we are discussing a series of developments and new courses included in the new minor developed in our Engineering Technology program, based on student feedback from existing courses and projects, including our senior project design capstone projects, power electronics and renewable energy courses. The Green Energy and Sustainability minor’s framework, new courses and learning modules development, structure and outcomes, lesson learned and future improvements are discussed in details. Design and development of renewable energy and sustainability projects allow students to work on projects that can be relevant to current leading edge research and technology. The development, content and structure of laboratory activities and project-based learning as part of this effort to embed renewable energy into our curriculum are also presented. 

AU  - Irina Nicoleta Ciobanescu Husanu
AU  - Richard Chiou
CY  - Columbus, Ohio
DA  - 2017/06/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Embedding Global Energy Education into Engineering Technology Curricula: The Development and Implementation of Green Energy and Sustainability ET Minor
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/28216
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--28216
ER  -