Advances in the renewable energy technologies, green design and manufacturing combined with increased demands for graduates trained in these areas are requiring innovative curricula, new courses and laboratories to educate students to work in this rapidly developing industry and become acquainted with these new technologies. Moreover, the pace of change in engineering education is accelerating due to technology advances and administrative constraints. Educators are modifying curriculum content to embrace technological advances in the program or course learning outcomes. In modern world where everything changes at an extremely fast pace keeping up with technology changes is not only desirable but necessary. The renewable energy, green design and manufacturing are highly interdisciplinary, crossing boundaries between research areas, making difficult to cover each of them in a single course. However, they have a strong potential for multi-disciplinary and project-based learning approaches. The projects within sustainable engineering and renewable energy involve electrical, mechanical, civil, and chemical engineering aspects while still being accessible to undergraduate students. The paper presents the development, content and structure of a set of new courses and changes in several existing courses, as part a Department of Education sponsored project targeting the inclusion of such topics in our engineering and technology programs to increases the enrollment and retention of minority students. The motivation, outlines and content of the developed courses are discussed, as well as the outcomes, results and lessons learned with the inclusion of green energy projects. Materials presented herein may serve as template for other instructors considering offering similar courses, and their feedback is acknowledged and appreciated by the authors.
Dr. Radian Belu is Associate Professor within Electrical Engineering Department, Southern University, Baton, Rouge, USA. He is holding one PhD in power engineering and other one in physics. Before joining to University of Alaska Anchorage 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.
Dr. Richard Chiou is Associate Professor within the Engineering Technology Department at Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA. He received his Ph.D. degree in the G.W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. His educational background is in manufacturing with an emphasis on mechatronics. In addition to his many years of industrial experience, he has taught many different engineering and technology courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. His tremendous research experience in manufacturing includes environmentally conscious manufacturing, Internet based robotics, and Web based quality. In the past years, he has been involved in sustainable manufacturing for maximizing energy and material recovery while minimizing environmental impact.
Lucian Ionel CIOCA received the M.Sc. in Machine Tools (1993) and B.Sc. in Occupational Safety, Health and Work Relations Management (2010). In 2002, he becomes Dr. Eng. (Ph.D degree) of Petrosani University, Romania and now he is professor at "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu - Romania, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Romania. His teaching subjects are Ergonomics, Management, Human Resources Management, Occupational Health and Safety Management, Production Systems Engineering. His research fields of interest are linked with the impact of the knowledge based society upon the social / human dynamics / evolution and the production systems. He regularly publishes and participates on international scientific conferences. Lucian Cioca is the Administrator of the LBUS Department of Consulting, Training and Lifelong Learning, Doctoral Advisor in Engineering and Management, Member of the National Council for Attestation of Academic Titles, Diplomas and Certificates, evaluator ARACIS (The Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), and other (email: lucian.cioca@ulbsibiu).
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