These are the teams selected to take part in the inaugural U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition.
April 11, 2013
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The Energy Department is pleased to announce the teams selected to take part in the inaugural U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Collegiate Wind Competition.
The following 10 student teams were selected through a competitive process to compete in this inaugural competition:
Boise State University
California Maritime Academy
Colorado School of Mines
James Madison University (VA)
Kansas State University
Northern Arizona University
Pennsylvania State University
University of Alaska Fairbanks
University of Kansas
University of Massachusetts Lowell
The elite educational programs have committed to formulating an interdisciplinary team, integrating the three principal competition contests into students' coursework and senior design projects. The competition contests are designed to reach students from various engineering and business programs to provide them with engaging, real-world project experience as they prepare to enter the workforce. The selected programs garnered organizational support from their institutions as well as private-sector and community support.
The Collegiate Wind Competition is a forum for undergraduate college students of multiple disciplines to investigate innovative wind energy concepts; gain experience designing, building, and testing a wind turbine to perform according to a customized market data-derived business plan; and increase their knowledge of wind industry barriers. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is facilitating the inaugural competition, which will take place in spring 2014.
"Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing electrical energy options in the United States, and the industry requires a skilled workforce with talented people from engineering, business, and communications backgrounds. This competition will help attract students from a wide range of disciplines into this exciting industry," said DOE's WINDExchange initiative National Director Jonathan Bartlett.
The theme of the inaugural competition is to design and construct a lightweight, transportable wind turbine that can be used to power small electronic devices. A principal contest involves testing each team's prototype wind turbine in a wind tunnel under specific conditions. Each team's business plan and turbine will also be evaluated against other pre-weighted criteria. The third event of the competition will be a team-to-team debate relating to current wind market drivers and issues. Teams will be judged on the members' understanding of the issues posed to them, their communication of potential solutions, and their ability to promote constructive dialogue.
This competition is an opportunity for collegiate institutions to showcase student ingenuity and the programs that the students represent. In addition to this national recognition, the turbine from the college or university with the best overall score will be placed on temporary display at the DOE headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
The competition enables DOE to support innovative and forward-thinking educational institutions that incorporate renewable energy technologies, helping to foster the growth of the future wind energy industry and workforce.