Comet Wind
The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas
Faculty Advisor
Todd Griffith
Student Leads
Dan Bouzolin
Jose Marquez
What is your team name, institution name, city, and state?
We are Comet Wind, and we’re from The University of Texas at Dallas in Dallas, Texas.
Who are your faculty advisor and student lead(s)?
Our faculty advisor is Todd Griffith, and our student leads are Dan Bouzolin and Jose Marquez.
Why is your team participating in the Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC)?
Our team is participating in the CWC because our members are passionate about wind energy and building a sustainable future. The CWC is the perfect opportunity for students to explore careers in the wind energy industry, and the groundbreaking wind energy research at University of Texas at Dallas provides a great environment for us to work in.
Comet Wind includes (from left to right) in the top row: Allison Pham, Vinhson Ho, Robin Reeves, and Colin Chaney; in the second-from-top row: Pranav Marthi, Nithila Shenoy, Sahi Chundu, Jacob Wolf, and Brendan Go; in the second-from-front row: Ethan Ferguson, Ethan Winchell, Kevin Largent, Lana Vu, and Erick Sandchu; and in the front row: Todd Griffith (the team’s faculty advisor), Jose Marquez, Dan Bouzolin, Fernando Harmjanz, and Thor Westergaard.
What is your vision for a clean energy future?
We envision a future where sustainable energy is affordable, dependable, and provided to all without disruption to the environment. We see careers in green energy increasing, with the wind energy industry pioneering this growth, and communities thriving, not just surviving, while being empowered by clean and sustainable energy sources.
Describe your project, objectives, and game plan.
Our team is designing a small-scale wind turbine that will be built to maximize power production, siting a wind farm project to efficiently produce electricity, and reaching out to our local community to engage others in our work and wind energy as a whole. Our plan is simple: start early and test often!
What makes you most excited about participating in the CWC?
The most exciting part of the CWC is finally testing our wind turbine prototype at the end-of-year competition. Having worked hard all year long, iterating through the design process, nothing can rival the satisfaction of seeing our turbine in that wind tunnel and telling ourselves that we did it.
What does your team do exceptionally well? How will you use your team’s strengths to your advantage in the competition?
Anyone can pull together a group of skilled engineers, but we understand that the teams that perform the best have great synergy. That’s why we facilitated an environment for our team in which members motivate each other to excel—and to have fun while doing so. With a high-commitment project like our CWC project, it’s important that we make the experience both enriching and low-stress for our members.
If you had to choose a catchy slogan for your team, what would it be and why?
Our team slogan is: “If there’s a wind, there’s a way!” We know that things aren’t always easy breezy, but with a bit of hard work, our team can accomplish anything.
This content was submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy by the team. Find more information on CWC 2023.