Advancing Heliostat Design and Operation Education
MIE Professors Hameed Metghalchi (PI), Yiannis Levendis, and Emeritus Associate Professor Gregory Kowalski were awarded a $360,065 grant for “Advancing University Level Education on Heliostat Design and Operation” from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory Heliostat Consortium. The project will advance Heliostat education at Northeastern, and will lead to its inclusion in engineering curriculum, research, and related co-ops.
Abstract:
The purpose of this proposal is to advance education of Heliostat via new design and operation. It is also planned to institutionalize heliostat education by including it in as examples and homework assignments in many courses such as Freshman Cornerstone of Engineering I and II, Control, Robotics, Mechanical Design and Engineering, Financial Management for Engineers. This program will be developed during the proposed two-year project and afterwards it will become part of the Northeastern University curriculum. It will educate on, and/or familiarize with, heliostats a significant number of undergraduate and graduate engineering students (as many as 500 students/year), including under-represented minority students, in both Mechanical Engineering and graduate programs Energy Systems, Engineering Management. It is planned to educate engineers in industry and disseminate knowledge by presenting information in technical conferences and journal publications. These goals will be achieved by the following activities: involvement of engineering freshmen in Heliostat research, re-establishment of co-op program with NREL and Sandia, New Mexico, involvement of under-represented minority students from Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) group for summer research, involvement of upper-class undergraduate in research, presenting the concept of heliostat in both undergraduate and graduate courses and Capstone Engineering Design projects, improvement of the newly developed graduate course in Heliostat, MS projects/theses. Also, the evolution of the newly developed short courses for industry will continue. Presentations on the knowledge gained from research and on the courses development will be made in the annual ASME Advanced Energy System Division and Solar Energy Division conferences as well as in the annual American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE) conferences.