Rowan University's Clean Energy Program
- Conference
- Location
-
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
-
June 22, 2008
- Start Date
-
June 22, 2008
- End Date
-
June 25, 2008
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Engineering and Public Policy
- Page Count
-
11
- Page Numbers
-
13.1060.1 - 13.1060.11
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--3799
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/3799
- Download Count
-
460
Paper Authors
Joseph Gillespie Rowan University
Joseph Gillespie is a rising senior Electrical and Computer Engineering student at Rowan University. Prior to attending Rowan University, he attended Gloucester County Community College. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi and the Golden Key International Honor Societies. He anticipates a future in the renewable power industry.
Krishan Bhatia Rowan University
Krishan Kumar Bhatia has been an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering at Rowan University since 2005. His research broadly encompasses the energy efficiency and alternative transportation area. Bhatia is currently funded in the areas of biodiesel emissions characterization from engines and home heating equipment, wind measurement and assessment, and methanol fuel cell flow field design and visualization. Before joining Rowan, Bhatia actively studied reformate gas carbon monoxide poisoning of hydrogen fuel cell catalyst layers for automotive applications as well as hybrid and electric vehicle power train design.
William Riddell Rowan University
William Riddell is an Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Rowan University. His research and teaching interests include design, structural mechanics, transportation safety, energy efficiency and clean energy generation. Prior to Rowan University, he worked for the US Department of Transportation Research and Special Program Administration, and was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mechanics of Materials Branch at NASA Langley Research Center.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
Rowan University’s Clean Energy Program
Abstract
Rowan University has established a clean energy program (CEP). This program utilizes undergraduate students working for credit during the semester, and for pay during the summer months, as well as graduate students – all clean energy interns, to promote energy efficiency and clean energy sources within the state of New Jersey. The CEP has been funded through various sources, allowing equipment, travel, graduate tuition and stipends, as well as summer salary for undergraduate students. Services rendered have included hosting symposia, wind and solar resource evaluation, energy audits, participation in grassroots efforts, as well as website maintenance. The strong belief that this program provides valuable services to the community has led to outstanding efforts on the part of the students.
The clean energy projects have been an excellent way to address many of the ABET A-K criteria. These team-based, multidisciplinary projects have been especially effective at driving home the importance of environmentalism and the need for engineers to be leaders and communicators during policy discussions. The projects also reinforce and expand on core academic subjects through hands-on experience. While homeowners, businesses, farmers, schools and municipalities have benefited from the collective experience of the clean energy program, the participating students, including the lead author on this paper, are preparing for the modern practice of engineering. This paper will present the societal and pedagogical benefits of the project.
Introduction
Rowan University’s project-oriented curriculum allows students the opportunity to develop abilities related to the ABET A-K criteria throughout their engineering studies. The hallmark of the curriculum is the Engineering Clinic sequence1,2, which allow students to apply technical content they learn in class to real-world applications. The clean energy program (CEP), discussed herein, is one of the many opportunities for junior and senior level engineering clinic projects that students are afforded. Through the engineering clinics, paid summer internships, and in some cases graduate studies, students support the goals of the New Jersey Clean Energy Program (NJCEP) and the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJHEPS)
These programs aim to increase and improve the local economy, reduce both the dependence of fossil fuels and imported fuels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce air contaminant emissions. Rowan University’s CEP has been focused on encouraging small-scale changes through awareness and implementation of clean energy and conservation alternatives. The hope is that these grass roots efforts will eventually help facilitate large-scale changes. To this end, students have organized and run Clean Energy Symposia; performed energy audits for small business owners and farmers; erected and maintained 20- and 30-meter-tall wind measurement systems throughout New Jersey; analyzed the resulting wind data and calculated payback periods
Gillespie, J., & Bhatia, K., & Riddell, W. (2008, June), Rowan University's Clean Energy Program Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3799
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2008 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015