Development and Implementation of a Power and Energy Engineering Minor with Limited Resources: First Results and Lessons Learned

Abstract

He is holding one PHD in power engineering and other one in physics. Before joining to Southern University Dr. Belu hold faculty, research and industry positions at universities and research institutes in Romania, Canada and United States. He also worked for several years in industry as project manager, senior engineer and consultant. He has taught and developed undergraduate and graduate courses in power electronics, power systems, renewable energy, smart grids, control, electric machines, instrumentation, radar and remote sensing, numerical methods, space and atmosphere physics, and applied physics. His research interests included power system stability, control and protection, renewable energy system analysis, assessment and design, smart microgrids, power electronics and electric machines for non-conventional energy conversion, remote sensing, wave and turbulence, numerical modeling, electromagnetic compatibility and engineering education. During his career Dr. Belu published ten book chapters, several papers in referred journals and in conference proceedings in his areas of the research interests. He has also been PI or Co-PI for various research projects United States and abroad in power systems analysis and protection, load and energy demand forecasting, renewable energy, microgrids, wave and turbulence, radar and remote sensing, instrumentation, atmosphere physics, electromagnetic compatibility, and engineering education.

Board 69: Project-based Teaching Approach of a Combined Undergraduate and Graduate Course in Power Electronics

“…Second reason was the initial lack of adequate educational laboratory infrastructure, insufficient fully operation laboratory workstations, obsolete, incomplete and old equipment making all power engineering, electric machines or power electronics settings, being no exception hard to set, run and perform. However, the things are about to change due to a $2,000,000 generous donation for our college from the Entergy Corporation, with in addition the commitment of our state governor to match the donation [34][35][36]. About a quarter of this gift is designed to support the power and energy minor laboratory and research infrastructure.…”

“…In our view, power electronics and renewable energy are two important topics for today power and energy engineering students. In many cases, the two topics are inextricably intertwined [31][32][33][34][35][36]. As the renewable energy sector grows, the needs for engineers qualified to design such systems grows as well.…”

A Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Course in Energy Engineering

“…The overall objective of this course is to provide students with both the science and technology of different energy sources, alternative and renewable sources, power system operation, as well as the policies that heavily influence this industry. The course main goals involve student in-depth understanding of the energy sources, their characteristics and operation, types of the used fuels, energy system components, structure, configurations, types and characteristics of the common generation units, grid integration issues of the renewable energy and distributed generation units, major types of alternative energy sources, their characteristics and performances, assessment and analysis, the infrastructure of existing energy systems, economic and environmental issues of the current energy generation, transformation and uses [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Notice that during the first week, students must read the syllabus, acknowledge the fact that they read it and understood what is expected of them.…”

“…We are realizing that this is one of the most challenging courses to set, design and offer due to the need of the student to have an expertise and background in many engineering and applied sciences disciplines, from power engineering, electric machines, to thermal sciences, electrochemistry, fluid mechanics to computer science and lack of easily accessible relevant information. Moreover, during recent years, the traditional education systems have witnessed significant transformations aligned to research related to how learning occurs, new educational technologies, and the resurgence new standards to design learning environment and delivery modalities to foster deeper learning competencies and accommodate students with various learning needs [18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. In the recent years, the adoption of innovate the learning process and to increase college affordability and success through online and e-Learning, or zero-textbook-costs has been at the core of 21st century curricular revisions agend.…”

A Smart Grid Implementation for an Engineering Technology Curriculum

“…Kerestes et al reported an enhanced workforce development study through a consortium that includes twelve universities, seventeen industry partners, and two national labs in order to enhance curriculum development and education in the study of electrical power and distributed energy resources [13]. Belu et al suggested methods to revitalize a power engineering program with an enhanced major and a new minor program development, while promoting new concepts of smart grids, energy management, and renewable energy systems with support from local and regional industry [14]. Powell and Hayt developed a low-voltage microgrid for experiments in renewable energy distribution that exposed undergraduate engineering students to power generation, grid, and distributed related topics early in a power curriculum that enhanced the students' understanding of both renewable energy integration as well as conventional grid [15].…”