Ten weeks of research, group projects, industry trips and more culminated Aug. 4 for eleven students at Iowa State University’s Wind Energy Science, Engineering and Policy Symposium, held in 3014 Coover Hall.
Each student presented his/her topic, ranging from the materials of wind turbines, to the environmental impacts of wind farms to how wind will become a major U.S. energy source.
For one student, wind energy research is a lifelong passion and thousands of miles in the making. Cristian Lopez, a senior in a five-year electrical engineering program at University of Puerto Rico, was one of the eleven chosen for ISU’s Wind Energy Science Engineering and Policy Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU).
“We are developing our whole (energy) future now through wind energy research,” said Lopez, who focused on solar/wind hybrid research at University Puerto Rico before coming to Ames this summer. He spent ten weeks at ISU studying the effects of wind power, and how it affects investment in America’s power grid for the next 40 years.
Dr. Gene Takle, ISU professor of geological and atmospheric sciences, and Dr. Jim McCalley, ISU professor of electrical and computer engineering, led the REU this year.
“Our goal here is to produce both undergraduate and graduate programs in wind energy. Students must understand the political, scientific and engineering aspects of wind energy to make it a major energy source,” Dr. Takle said.
Students who participated in this year’s REU class include Jessica Bruce from Humboldt State University (California), Randy Dupuis from Louisiana State University, Matthew Galeano from Louisiana State University, Christine Kirpes from ISU, Lopez, Chad Macziewski from ISU, Luke Mitchell from Penn State University, Anna Robertson from South Dakota School of Mines, Aaron Rosenberg from ISU, Zachariah Rueger from ISU and Sarah Woolf from Rochester Institute of Technology (New York).
ISU Engineering faculty who mentored students on their REU were James McCalley, Venkat Krishnan, Michael Kessler, Mahendra Thunga, Erin MacDonald, Le Chen, Sri Sritharan, James Alleman, Grant Schmitz, Dionysios Aliprantis, Hao Chen, Frank Peters, Matthew Frank, Fanqi Meng, Lisa Brasche, Dayal Vinay, William Gallus, Jr., Adam Deppe, Gene Takle, P.P. Sarkar and Zifeng Yang.
The REU was funded by the National Science Foundation.