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New Courses in Clean Energy Science & Technology

Projects:
Clean Energy for Green Industry at UCLA
Institution:
University of California at Los Angeles
Primary Strategic Goal:
Learning: Build the Nation's research capability through critical investments in advanced instrumentation, facilities, cyber infrastructure, and experimental tools.
Secondary Strategic Goal:
Discovery: Foster research that will advance the frontiers of knowledge, emphasizing areas of greatest opportunity and potential benefit and establishing the Nation as a global leader in fundamental transformational science and engineering.

Achievement/Results

This academic year saw the introduction of new courses at UCLA in clean energy developed by IGERT faculty advisors. The first in the series, Introduction to Clean Energy Science and Technology, was offered in Fall 2010 as Electrical Engineering 279AS and Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering 236. This lecture course covered energy policies and business, energy generation, energy storage, and energy efficiency. The second course in the series, Advanced Clean Energy Science and Technology, will continue these topics in more depth and is being offered as MAE 298 in Spring 2011. The third course is a laboratory course with experiments in clean energy technologies and is set to be offered in the 2011-2012 academic year.

Address Goals

These new courses in clean energy focus not only on the science and technology but also on policy and business. The courses are uniquely taught by several IGERT faculty, each covering their area of speciality, as well as guest lecturers from campus and Los Angeles. This allows the students to not only learn broadly the issues of clean energy but also in depth from experts in the field. These courses are required for IGERT trainees and are open to other graduate students as well. Out of 24 enrolled in Electrical Engineering 279AS in Fall 2010, only 13 were IGERT trainees. The course was offered a special topics course and is not yet part of the curriculum, however the enrollment shows that it is already making an impact outside of IGERT. Clearly such a course is in demand by engineering graduate students and its creation was necessary to cultivate tomorrow’s engineers today.

This course has had further impact on campus as well. The work of the trainees from the course will be the basis for a special issue of the Bruin Business Review, a publication run by MBA students. Topics will include micro wind technology, energy storage, solar thermal, high performance photovoltaics, as well as policy features in carbon trading and California’s AB 32. This project is being led by trainee Omar Asensio (advisor Prof. Magali Delmas) and Christopher Young (BBR).

Posted By:
Diana Huffaker
Posted:
November 21, 2011