Experience with Enhancement of Green Energy Manufacturing Learning in Course and Laboratory Development

Abstract

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. Experience with Enhancement of Green Energy Manufacturing Learning in Course and Laboratory Development AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to share the experience and early results from an interdisciplinary project that integrates theory and practice in green energy manufacturing with course and laboratory development. This project links new courses in renewable energy, clean energy, and energy efficiency with specialized laboratories that fuse green energy into manufacturing engineering education. Two main components are used to incorporate sustainability into the green energy manufacturing project, including: (1) renewable energy and (2) manufacturing energy efficiency. This paper presents how long-term sustainability and support are established through a variety of mechanisms including the energy mission, the awards of federal grants, design projects, partnership, and online learning community. This paper also shows the development process, design and content of an interdisciplinary sustainability curriculum that integrates manufacturing with the green energy while enlivening campus-community relationships through student projects. Capitalizing on the success of the implementation of green energy manufacturing in the curriculum through the support of federal grants since 2012, the quality of curriculum, course offerings, and laboratory facilities are improved to meet the project mission. The project outcomes help prepare students to: apply discipline-specific theory, conduct experiments, and use real-world experience to interpret, analyze, and solve current and emerging technical problems in green energy manufacturing.

Embedding Renewable Energy Concepts into Engineering Curriculum

“…Our engineering and engineering technology curricula cover fields such as electronics, electric machines, mechanics, robotics, manufacturing, mechanics, energy conversion, power electronics, instrumentation, materials and control. In order to prepare our graduates for 21 st century industries it is necessary to learn about the renewable energy systems and their applications, sustainability, efficient energy use and sustainability [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . Due to continuous growth in the use of renewable energy-based electricity generation and the needs of keeping students abreast of the current technology developments and trends, it is our strong beliefs that it was timely to develop and deliver courses on renewable energy technologies, energy management and industrial energy systems.…”

“…A multi-level approach was taken in our curriculum changes to incorporate sustainability, green design and renewable energy subjects 9,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . A first level such topics, subjects and problems were introduced by the faculty involved in this project in their courses, where it is appropriate.…”

“…This course was first offered in Fall 2014 quarter as a special topics course 17,18 . It is a 3-credit course with an enrollment of 28 students.…”

“…Senior or capstone design courses fill a critically important role in the engineering and technology curriculum, forming a bridge between school and the workplace, being extensively discussed in the literature [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . These courses bring to the forefront many of the ABET outcomes such as lifelong learning, design, teamwork, and contemporary issues 11 .…”

“…5) Provide opportunity to think critically about environmental aspects and communicate effectively. 6) Give opportunity to develop writing and presentation skills [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . A search for a textbook for these courses found that no one textbook covered all the topics included in any of these three courses, a textbook includes often, only a subset of the intended topics.…”