scholarly journals Project-based Renewable Energy Course for Undergraduate Engineering Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kala Meah ◽  
Phillip Barnett ◽  
Paul Deysher ◽  
K. Vaisakh
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 11727
Author(s):  
Shahryar Jafarinejad ◽  
Lauren E. Beckingham ◽  
Mandar Kathe ◽  
Kathy Henderson

The share of renewables in the U.S. electricity generation mix is increasing and one of the major obstacles to enhancing employment in the renewable energy (RE) sector is finding skilled/qualified labor to fill positions. RE systems engineer jobs mostly need bachelor′s degrees but there are few RE engineering-focused degree programs. Therefore, there are needs to accurately train undergraduate engineering students at universities and match the education system offerings to meet RE industry demands. This study reviews RE employment by technology, RE industry workforce needs, and engineering programs accreditation, and then suggests possible means, along with theoretical RE concepts, to enhance undergraduate engineering students′ RE learning at universities. In particular, RE industries require technology skills, including analytical, scientific, and simulation software programs or tools. These RE simulation and analysis tools can be used for teaching, training, techno-economic analysis, planning, designing, optimization, etc., and are the focus of this review.


Author(s):  
Ralph Buchal

-For the past several years, undergraduate engineering students at Western University have been working on the design of a sustainable personal mobility system (SPMS). The vision of SPMS is to replace privately owned conventional cars with a sustainable mobility system built around shared lightweight electric vehicles, powered by renewable energy. In the 2011-2012 academic year, 13 undergraduate engineering students worked in five teams to further develop SPMS. They examined the economic and business feasibility of SPMS, and developed conceptual designs for the car-sharing system and vehicles. They reviewed the issues around climate change and renewable energy, and added to previous work by exploring the literature from different disciplines to learn more about car-sharing systems, electric vehicles, traffic network modeling and simulation, Monte Carlo simulation, vehicle layout and ergonomics. The students learned to take a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to the complex sociotechnical problem of sustainable personal mobility. While many students were initially uncomfortable with the ambiguity and ambitious scope of the project, they came to appreciate the many sociotechnical factors involved in designing an SPMS. An important learning outcome has been to increase student awareness and understanding of the environmental challenges facing society, as well as possible sociotechnicalsolutions.


Author(s):  
Max Ullrich ◽  
David S. Strong

How undergraduate engineering students define their success and plan for their future differs notably amongst students. With a push for greater diversity and inclusion in engineering schools, it is valuable to also better understand the differences in these areas among different students to allow institutions to better serve the needs of these diverse groups.  The purpose of this research study is to explore students’ definition of success both in the present and projecting forward 5 to 10 years, as well as to understand to what level students reflect on, and plan for, the future. The proposed survey instrument for the pilot stage of this research includes 56 closed-ended questions and 3 open-ended questions. Evidence for the validity of the research instrument is established through a mixed-method pilot study. This paper will discuss the survey instrument, the pilot study, and outline plans for the full study.


Author(s):  
Rod D. Roscoe ◽  
Samuel T. Arnold ◽  
Chelsea K. Johnson

The success of engineering and design is facilitated by a working understanding of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In this study, we explored how undergraduate engineering students included such human-centered and psychological concepts in their project documentation. Although, we observed a range of concepts related to design processes, teams, cognition, and motivation, these concepts appeared infrequently and superficially. We discuss how this analysis and approach may help to identify topics that could be leveraged for future human-centered engineering instruction.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Aizpun ◽  
Diego Sandino ◽  
Inaki Merideno

<p>In addition to the engineering knowledge base that has been traditionally taught, today’s undergraduate engineering students need to be given the opportunity to practice a set of skills that will be demanded to them by future employers, namely: creativity, teamwork, problem solving, leadership and the ability to generate innovative ideas. In order to achieve this and educate engineers with both in-depth technical knowledge and professional skills, universities must carry out their own innovating and find suitable approaches that serve their students. This article presents a novel approach that involves university-industry collaboration. It is based on creating a student community for a particular company, allowing students to deal with real industry projects and apply what they are learning in the classroom. A sample project for the German sports brand adidas is presented, along with the project results and evaluation by students and teachers. The university-industry collaborative approach is shown to be beneficial for both students and industry.</p>


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