However, an environmentally friendly solution may emerge within the next decade with the help of a 麻豆原创 researcher.

Engineering Professor Subith Vasu is working with commercial truck manufacturer PACCAR, owner of the Peterbilt and Kenworth brands, to create a hydrogen-based combustion engine for heavy-duty vehicles. The project is funded through a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and is the agency’s first effort to develop hydrogen combustion engines for commercial trucks.

鈥淲e鈥檙e fortunate to be part of this project,鈥� Vasu says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very prestigious effort for 麻豆原创, to be part of this project that鈥檚 highly relevant in the decarbonization of transportation efforts around the globe. It will also be a great opportunity for students to get involved with an industry-funded project.鈥�

The Demand for Hydrogen

For decades, diesel has been the fuel of choice for large commercial vehicles. But in recent years, the government has pushed for a cleaner alternative. In 2021, President Biden appropriated $62 billion to the DoE, including $9.5 billion for clean hydrogen solutions as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Over this past year, the Environmental Protection Agency also tightened its NOx emissions standards for heavy-duty commercial vehicles beginning with 2027 model year equipment.

While Tesla has developed a semi-truck that runs on electric motors, Vasu says there are some limits to the weight it holds and the distance it can travel.

鈥淭esla is developing electric supercars and semi-trucks, but there are limits to the batteries,鈥� Vasu says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e fine for driving down to the nearest town but driving from Seattle to Miami, you need significant battery power, also you don鈥檛 have time to wait until it is fully charged since most of these freightliners are under time pressure.鈥�

Building a Better Engine

Hydrogen can solve the problem of a longer-lasting battery, but PACCAR currently has more questions than answers. How will hydrogen behave in the extreme temperature and pressure of an engine? Under what conditions will it ignite? Alternatively, what conditions will prevent ignition?

Vasu and his team of researchers will find these answers through experiments run in their state-of-the-art shock tube. The data collected will be used to create computational models to share with PACCAR.

Vasu received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and joined 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2012. He is a member of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research and is an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Vasu is a recipient of DARPA鈥檚 Director鈥檚 Fellowship, DARPA Young Faculty Award, the Young Investigator grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, American Chemical Society鈥檚 Doctoral New Investigator, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Dilip Ballal Early Career award, and the Society of Automotive Engineers SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational award. He has received many of the highest honors at 麻豆原创, including the 麻豆原创 Luminary and Reach for the Stars awards.

In the forum,聽Hydrogen: The Time is Now, 麻豆原创 President Alexander N. Cartwright and Mitsubishi Power Americas President and CEO Bill Newsom will discuss collaborative opportunities to achieve net zero by 2050. Keynote speaker Jennifer Wilcox, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Fuels and Carbon Management聽principal deputy assistant secretary, will address the government鈥檚 role and recent legislative progress. Panels of experts will discuss the challenges and opportunities in creating a national hydrogen economy.

The forum comes at a critical time, as nations worldwide seek clean-energy solutions. Scientists and engineers are turning to the most abundant element, hydrogen, as a clean energy source that could produce enough energy to serve growing populations while reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 鈥渘et zero鈥� by 2050.

The power generation industry鈥檚 transition to hydrogen, which involves large-scale production, storage and distribution, 聽is a complex challenge. Creating a hydrogen-based energy economy, according to Cartwright and Newsom, will require high-level collaborations and investments among academia, industry and government.

鈥溌槎乖� offers partnership opportunities through our multiple research centers that leverage faculty expertise in a variety of relevant areas 鈥� such as power generation and storage, combustion, modeling and simulation, energy grid technology, sustainability, aerospace and environmental engineering, and more,鈥� Cartwright says. 鈥溌槎乖� 鈥� among the nation鈥檚 largest producers of engineers and computer scientists 鈥� in partnership with Mitsubishi Power and others can play a key role in educating and training the talent pipeline required for a hydrogen-based energy economy.鈥�

Mitsubishi Power, a global leader in power generation, has made major investments in recent years to create the infrastructure required to produce and store hydrogen, and transition existing power plants to clean hydrogen.

鈥淲e have set an ambitious goal to reach net zero across all MHI Group companies by 2040,鈥� Newsom says. 鈥淚n order to help meet this goal we are elevating our partnership with the 麻豆原创 鈥� a proven research powerhouse in the energy sector. Through this partnership, we will focus on innovation, research, and education to advance the energy transition.鈥�

• 麻豆原创 and Mitsubishi Power are longtime partners. Approximately a third of the company鈥檚 engineering/manufacturing workforce are 麻豆原创 graduates.
• In the past 16 years, the company has provided internships for hundreds of 麻豆原创 students.
• In 2012, 麻豆原创 installed a Mitsubishi Power power plant on campus that in four years reduced 麻豆原创鈥檚 carbon footprint by 2,000 to 3,500 metric tons of CO₂ per year in carbon emissions.
• In 2021, 麻豆原创 and Mitsubishi Power developed and launched a nitrogen oxide emissions tracker
• Since 2021, Mitsubishi has been funding Professor Subith Vasu in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Systems to research and experimentally quantify hydrogen ignition safety boundaries for gas turbines. This effort is also supported by additional funding from the Florida High Tech Corridor Council.
• Mitsubishi is a collaborator on an $800,000 award to 麻豆原创 from the U.S. Department of Energy, also led by Vasu. The effort focuses on better understanding how to implement hydrogen in modern electricity-generating turbines, including exploring the best fuel blends and their combustion characteristics

麻豆原创鈥檚 Research and Academic Centers that Can Support a National Transition to Hydrogen-Based Clean Energy

CATER: Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research 鈥� led by Pegasus Professor Jayanta Kapat, 麻豆原创 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

FSEC: Florida Solar Energy Center 鈥� led by Professor James Fenton, 麻豆原创 Department of Materials Science and Engineering

RISES: Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems 鈥� led by Pegasus Professor Zhihua Qu, 麻豆原创 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

REACT: Renewable Energy and Chemical Transformations 鈥� led by Pegasus Professor Talat Rahman, 麻豆原创 Department of Physics

麻豆原创 School of Modeling, Simulation and Training 鈥� led by聽Director Grace Bochenek ’98PhD., former director of National Energy Technology Laboratory and former acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy

The DOE awarded $32 million to seven teams that will manage 30 demonstration projects nationwide. Finding effective ways to retrofit existing and older buildings to be more energy efficient is critical considering there are 130 million buildings in the United States today and about 75% of them are expected to still be standing in 2050, according to the DOE. Upgrading older homes is often expensive and intrusive, which makes homeowners less likely to make the investment. The pod system holds promise because it is expected to reduce energy use by 50-75% and is less disruptive to install, according to researchers.

at the 麻豆原创, in partnership with National Association of State Energy Officials and ROC USA, will retrofit eight manufactured homes and four single-family homes with the pod technology called PV-GEMS. The Photovoltaic (PV)-powered, Grid Enhanced Mechanical Solution (GEMS) consists of high-efficiency heat pumps for heating, cooling and water heating. This equipment is partially powered by a photovoltaic and battery backup system. Components are pre-packaged in a 鈥減od鈥� that is largely assembled off-site and installed outside of the home, minimizing disruption to residents.

鈥淲e have an opportunity to make a significant difference in reducing energy costs for people living in less-efficient existing homes, thereby making a lasting impact on people鈥檚 lives,鈥� says Eric Martin, principal investigator on the project and program director at 麻豆原创鈥檚 FSEC Energy Research Center. 鈥淭he PV-GEMS concept is especially effective when deployed alongside more conventional cost-effective, non-disruptive energy-efficient retrofit strategies.鈥�

The university will demonstrate the retrofit strategy in six states across different climate zones 鈥� Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon and Texas. A commercialization plan to manufacture and deploy the retrofit strategy at scale will be developed, as well as training materials for installers.

鈥淎 unique feature of this system is that it doesn鈥檛 need to send excess solar energy back to the utility grid and instead uses or stores the energy at the house,鈥� says Carlos Colon, co-principal investigator of the project. In addition to energy and carbon savings, the concept offers the additional benefit of resiliency by being able to operate when the grid goes down.

While PV-GEMS can work with most single-family attached and detached housing, the team is initially targeting older manufactured homes, which are often difficult to retrofit using traditional approaches. There are more than 6.7 million manufactured homes nationwide and 45% of residents who live in manufactured homes are highly energy burdened.

鈥淭he manufactured housing sector is in need of creative energy use and cost reduction strategies. We think PV-GEMS could be a game changer within the many of the communities we work with, and homeowners are already excited to see a pod installed in their community,鈥� says Kevin Porter, vice president of Loan Originations with ROC USA Capital, the lending arm of the nonprofit scaling resident ownership of manufactured housing communities nationwide.

Chini, who has been an assistant professor at 麻豆原创 since 2015 and earned his doctorate here in 2012, will receive $150,000 each year for the next five years to conduct research in the area of atomic, molecular and optical physics, which holds the promise of providing new ways to generate energy.

The highly competitive DOE awards are designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work.

To be eligible, a researcher must be an untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professor at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory, who received a doctorate within the past 10 years. Awardees were selected from a large pool of university- and national laboratory-based applicants. Selection was based on peer review by outside scientific experts, according to the DOE.

Chini was one of 54 university awardees nationwide and three in Florida.

鈥淪upporting talented researchers early in their career is key to building and maintaining a skilled and effective scientific workforce for the nation. By investing in the next generation of scientific researchers, we are supporting lifelong discovery science to fuel the nation鈥檚 innovation system,鈥� said . 鈥淲e are proud of the accomplishments these young scientists have already made, and look forward to following their achievements in years to come.鈥�

Chini鈥檚 area of expertise is ultrafast and strong-field laser interactions with solids, attosecond physics and coherent control. His research is also supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, which recognized him with a Young Investigator Program grant worth almost $500,000 in 2016.

The research Chini will conduct for the DOE focuses on using lasers to study and control chemical reactions that create or store energy. In principle, lasers can be used to induce chemical reactions by tuning the laser frequency to match vibrational frequencies of specific bonds, and depositing a large amount of optical power into a molecule. This way, bonds can be selectively formed or broken. However, the technique generally fails because energy naturally redistributes quickly within molecules. Ultrashort-pulsed femtosecond lasers provide a way to deposit the required energy before the molecule has a chance to react, and potentially a way to steer the chemical-reaction outcomes but that, too, poses challenges.

Chini鈥檚 work aims to track and control time-dependent electronic and vibrational motion in molecules exposed to very intense laser fields, such as those used to instigate molecular reactions. The research will provide new insight into the mechanisms behind strong-field laser-control techniques, and will help reveal the optimal conditions for laser-driven reactions.

The research is in a new area for Chini鈥檚 lab, which previously focused on attosecond dynamics in solid-state materials. But the topic is very familiar to Chini, whose doctorate research at Kansas State University and in the Institute for the Frontiers of Attosecond Science and Technology at 麻豆原创 focused on attosecond dynamics in gas-phase atoms and molecules.

鈥淚鈥檓 excited to get started. I hope my work will help advance our knowledge to develop new techniques for harnessing energy, something we all need every day,鈥� Chini said.

It has been a good year for the Chinis.

Chini鈥檚 wife, Jacquelyn, is an assistant physics professor at 麻豆原创. Her work focuses on enhancing physics education and earlier this year the National Science Foundation named her one of its early career grant recipients.

College of Sciences Dean Michael Johnson said he is fortunate to have such dedicated and talented faculty throughout the college.

鈥淭hey truly are a dynamic duo,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淭he work they are doing 鈥� in quite different areas of physics 鈥� is changing the world. I am grateful that we were able to attract two scientists of such high caliber to 麻豆原创.鈥�

Final details of the awards announced today are subject to grant and contract negotiations between DOE and the awardees.

Participation in the Solar Energy Innovation Network will assess cost-effective options to meet the city鈥檚 commitment to use 100 percent renewable energy for municipal operations by 2030 and citywide by 2050.

鈥淐ities are the front lines, where leading an effort like this can not only help to improve the health of our residents but also help preserve natural resources, ensure environmental protection, create new jobs in the growing clean-energy industry and drive even more economic growth to our region,鈥� Dyer said.聽鈥淲e鈥檙e committed to taking the steps necessary to make our city resilient and we are proud to have partners on both the local and national level to support these efforts.鈥�

Elizabeth Klonoff, 麻豆原创鈥檚 vice president for research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies, said: 鈥淲e are eager to work hand-in-hand with the City of Orlando to make our community a national model for renewable energy and sustainable living. Our researchers are already leaders in this field and I can鈥檛 think of a better place to implement some of our cutting-edge research than our own hometown.鈥�

Through Orlando鈥檚 participation in the Solar Energy Innovation Network, the solutions developed and demonstrated through the project will serve as a blueprint for other communities to implement.

鈥淲e selected teams that are experimenting with promising ideas to use solar power to improve the future of grid security and reliability in their communities,鈥� said Kristen Ardani, who leads the Innovation Network at NREL.

The team鈥檚 participation in the program will include financial, analytical and facilitation support services to help identify barriers and create innovative solutions to help Orlando ensure a reliable plan for power in the the future.

NREL is operating the Solar Energy Innovation Network with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies. For more information on the network, visit nrel.gov/solar/solar-energy-innovation-network.html.

The project, led by Kris Davis, a research engineer at 麻豆原创鈥檚 Florida Solar Energy Center, will largely take place at the university鈥檚 International Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research in Osceola County where the tool will be among the first to be installed when the building opens in spring 2017.

Making the research manufacturable was critical to getting the federal funding and having the state-of-the-art facility in Osceola County where process engineers will be on staff to manage the equipment was also imperative, Davis said.

鈥淭his is the future,鈥� he said of the process his team will use to ultimately produce thousands of solar cells an hour in and without the costly and cumbersome vacuum-based deposition processes typically used to convert silicon wafers into solar cells.

The partnership is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Sunshot Initiative and includes expertise provided by Germany鈥檚 Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and U.S.-based manufacturer, Suniva.

The Sunshot initiative is making solar energy systems cost-competitive with other forms of energy and has a goal of driving down the cost of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt hour by 2020.聽 In many applications, like residential rooftops, solar power in in the United States is still two to three times that price point.

Davis says the challenge can only be met by both increasing efficiency and reducing manufacturing costs.聽 His team plans to increase efficiency by incorporating metal oxide materials into silicon solar cells. The materials will result in less energy loss when the cells are created. Lower costs will be achieved by using a manufacturing process called atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) to deposit the metal oxide films.

鈥淭he ACPVD tool offers an inexpensive way to deposit metal oxide films that can make solar cells much more efficient,鈥� Davis said.聽聽 Essentially the tool eliminates the need to use expensive vacuum-based deposition equipment during the production process, instead relying on Nitrogen 鈥済as curtains鈥� to keep the substances separated until they combine at the silicon wafer surface, where they react to form the desired film.

Davis worked in Germany with SCHMID Group for two years developing APCVD processes and integrating APCVD films into silicon solar cells as optical coatings, passivation layers, and dopant sources. The APCVD tool is manufactured in the U.S. by SCHMID Thermal Systems, Inc., a subsidiary of SCHMID Group.

In this project, the team will use APCVD to form metal oxide materials that can act as contacts for silicon solar cells, eliminating the energy losses that can occur where metal and silicon interface. Fraunhofer ISE has demonstrated the effectiveness of these metal oxides on solar cells in a laboratory setting, and Davis said he is eager to work with Fraunhofer ISE to translate these metal oxide materials to large-scale manufacturing using APCVD.聽 Suniva, Inc., a U.S. manufacturer of silicon solar cells and modules, will also support the effort by providing insight into the transition from lab-scale cells to high-volume manufacturing.

In three years, the team plans to have demonstrated the capability of manufacturing with the ACPVD metal oxides, setting the path for achieving the Sunshot goal.

Winston Schoenfeld, the Director of the Solar Technologies Research Division of the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (PVMC) at the Florida Solar Energy Center and a co-investigator on the project, said the new manufacturing methods they will demonstrate will have application across industries.

鈥淲e are focused on solar but many, many other applications could benefit. At ICAMR we will have exposure to markets we don鈥檛 even know about,鈥� he said.

Chester Kennedy, ICAMR CEO, said the project is an example of the type of federal funding ICAMR was established to attract.

鈥淗aving this facility in Osceola makes the Central Florida region competitive in ways we could only have imagined before,鈥� he said.

Zhihua Qu, chair of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, received the award as part of the DOE鈥檚 Solar Training and Education for Professionals program. The award adds to 麻豆原创’s previous DOE award for the same program, allowing 麻豆原创 to expand teaching and innovation in power-system engineering.

Qu will continue leading the national, multi-partner consortium known as FEEDER, the . FEEDER brings together universities, electric utilities and energy-industry corporations to train engineers capable of managing and improving the nation’s integrated electricity-transmission grid.

FEEDER partners are upgrading and sustaining the power grid through research, training the current grid workforce, and recruiting and educating the future workforce.

“Our nation relies on a vital, robust power grid that integrates renewable energy sources to maintain basic societal and economic needs. But the current infrastructure needs to be upgraded with advanced ‘smart’ technology, and the current grid workforce needs to learn the technology,” Qu said. “It’s also critical that our nation’s engineering schools recruit students to the field to ensure an adequate supply of smart-grid engineers in the years to come.”

麻豆原创 is one of the nation’s largest producers of engineers, and its expertise in electrical engineering makes 麻豆原创 an ideal leader for the project.

The FEEDER consortium launched in 2013 with an initial award of $3.2 million from the DOE that brought together eight universities, eight utilities, 11 industry partners and two national labs. The new funding opportunity will enable the consortium to grow to more than 50 partners and continue to collaborate with stakeholders to modernize and sustain the nation’s power grid. are nationwide.

鈥淲e are excited to continue this national effort of reducing dependency on coal and other traditional energy sources as we increase solar and other renewables,” Qu said. 鈥淪table and sustainable energy generation 鈥� 聽specifically the electrical grid 鈥� 聽is one of the backbones of our economy. More partners will facilitate the work that is critical to our nation.鈥�

Researchers in FEEDER are analyzing the infrastructure inside the current grid to find ways to enhance its capacity and make it more efficient. They are also exploring ways to safely and efficiently process the amount of fluctuating energy fed into the grid from an increasing number of small, decentralized power producers, many of which generate power from renewable sources such as wind and solar farms. They are also envisioning and designing potentially new and better ways of integrating renewables.

On the education front, FEEDER universities will train and educate the nation’s current and future smart grid workforce by working together to develop and deploy updated, shared curricula, guest lectures and workforce-training activities.

FEEDER aims to attract and educate more students to become future power engineers, address research and development challenges, train existing workforce, speed up technology transfers, and realize smart grid implementation.

Research and Education in Renewable Energy Systems at 麻豆原创

麻豆原创’s many power and energy resources provide hundreds of electrical and computer engineering students hands-on, smart-grid experience that will help them in their careers. The university also offers robust research opportunities:

麻豆原创 is committed to green initiatives and supports the Climate Action Plan, an ambitious guide for the university to become climate neutral by 2050.

Qu is a nationally renowned expert in distributed control and optimization of smart grids. In 2009, he was elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for his scientific contributions in electrical and computer engineering. He joined 麻豆原创’s faculty in 1990 and was named chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2011. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Through the recently launched Cleantech University Prize (Cleantech UP), a new DoE-supported initiative to accelerate the rate of clean energy innovation in the nation, 麻豆原创 will serve as one of eight regional Cleantech UP competition sites and will facilitate a yearly collegiate challenge and cultivate an ecosystem to support the clean energy entrepreneurs from Florida and the entire Southeast United States. 聽Additional funding details and program activities are anticipated to be announced soon.

鈥淲e are excited to be selected by the DoE to serve in a leadership role in driving clean energy innovation,鈥� said Thomas O鈥橬eal, Ph.D., associate vice president at 麻豆原创鈥檚 Office of Research and Commercialization. 聽鈥淐leantech UP is an exciting new effort that will allow us to continue the momentum in building a clean energy infrastructure within the region and inspiring students in this field.鈥�

The (麻豆原创 ORC) has extensive experience coordinating cleantech-oriented programs and competitions and cultivating appropriate support networks and infrastructure. In addition, the university features a history of implementing high impact, entrepreneurially focused curricula.聽 聽Most recently, 麻豆原创 worked closely with the DoE on implementing two cleantech focused efforts 鈥揳n annual cleantech accelerator which was designed to identify and support promising cleantech technologies throughout the Southeast, and the Florida Cleantech Acceleration Network (FL-CAN), which created a statewide support network and 鈥減roof of concept鈥� center for cleantech entrepreneurs. 聽These programs served more than 200 ventures that went on to raise more than $5M in follow-on funding on their paths to commercialization.

As a result of the success of these previous programs and its reputation within the regional cleantech community, 麻豆原创 will soon launch its Cleantech UP effort, explained Jack Henkel, assistant director of the within the (麻豆原创 ORC).

鈥淥ur annual collegiate clean energy competition through Cleantech UP will be branded Megawatt Ventures,鈥� said Henkel, who is helping to coordinate the program.聽 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to draw upon our experiences and the best practices that we established with our previous efforts to successfully encourage student-led ventures to develop renewable energy and energy efficiency related technologies, to compete in this annual competition.鈥�

Each year, the Megawatt Ventures competition will recruit ten collegiate teams from throughout the Southeast to compete for $50K in seed funding and an opportunity to advance to a national competition and earn additional funding. 麻豆原创 will utilize its network of established relationships to promote the Challenge, gather industry and technology specific mentors and expand the network further to attract the most talented teams in the region.

Through their participation in the program, the teams will be provided educational and training materials to help commercialize their technology with a focus on startup and growth strategies for new energy ventures. Teams will receive personalized strategic business coaching, introductions to potential customers and partners, investment pitch guidance and technology transfer support services.

鈥淎 key aspect of Megawatt Ventures is its focus us on bringing together investors, experienced entrepreneurs, faculty-researchers, students, regional incubation programs and industry partners,鈥� said Dr. O鈥橬eal. 鈥淭his aggregation of relevant stakeholders, combined with the seed funding opportunities, will increase the likelihood of success for the companies, and will create a sustainable support infrastructure for participants that will extend beyond the competition.鈥�

麻豆原创 will work with the national Cleantech UP Hub, Spark Clean Energy, as well as the seven other regional Cleantech UP Collegiate Competitions hosted by the California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, Clean Energy Trust, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rice University, Rutgers and the University of California-Berkeley.

For additional information please contact Jack Henkel, MegaWatt Ventures coordinator at jack@ucf.edu or by phone 407-882-0663.

The team won the $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge, a competition of student business plans for companies focused on renewable energy and other “green” energy solutions. 麻豆原创’s team bested nine other southeastern regional finalists, including teams from Georgia Tech, Duke and the University of Virginia.

The 麻豆原创 team will now compete in the National Clean Energy Business Plan Finals in Washington, D.C. June 12-13.

Their winning business plan for a start-up company, Mesdi Systems, Inc., founded by Brandon Lojewski, a graduate student in 麻豆原创’s Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering (MMAE), centers on the use of electrospray technology to vastly improve the manufacturing process for making lithium ion batteries and other products to ultimately reduce production costs and increase product life. For example, an electric car battery made with the 麻豆原创 process would be able to travel for hundreds of miles on a single charge.

Many products and parts, such as solar cells and batteries, are made with coatings or particles that require materials to be uniformly distributed, or sprayed, during the manufacturing process. The technology that produces the spray can dramatically affect the end product. Current technology uses pressurized gas to spray the liquid resulting in large non-uniform droplets and significant manufacturing waste.

Electrospray technology uses electrical charge to create uniform, ultrafine droplets with precision control. The technology can be applied to making batteries, photovoltaic solar cells, as well as medical devices, pharmaceuticals and much more.

And 麻豆原创 is taking electrospray technology to levels never seen before, due to the pioneering research of Weiwei Deng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at 麻豆原创. Deng is renowned for his work in “multiplexed” electrospray techniques, which use thousands of tiny spray nozzles on a single chip. The patent-pending platform results in superb droplet deposition uniformity and high throughput spray production capable of meeting manufacturing demands.

Deng is the technical adviser for Mesdi Systems. He brought the multiplexed electrospray technology from Yale University. His work is an extension of the Nobel Prize-winning electrospray work developed at Yale by the late Professor John Fenn.

“We see huge potential for this technology and the great value of student entrepreneurship,” said Suhada Jayasuriya, MMAE department chair. The MMAE department sponsored the team with $1,000 to participate in the competition.

“We plan to invest our $100,000 prize money to help raise more money to launch our production facilities, hire a highly trained staff and garner our first customers,” said Lojewski, president of Mesdi Systems.

The company’s goal is to sell the multiplexed electrospray equipment to manufacturers and offer maintenance and servicing contracts.

Mesdi Systems’ launch in 2011 was a result of competing in a similar clean energy business plan competition, Megawatt Ventures, sponsored by DOE and 麻豆原创. In that event, Mesdi Systems won $10,000 as a finalist. The winning business plan was developed from tools that Lojewski learned in Tom O’Neal’s Technology Entrepreneurship class offered by 麻豆原创’s College of Business Administration.

As part of the Obama administration鈥檚 effort to support and empower the next generation of American clean energy entrepreneurs, the Department of Energy selected the ACC Clean Energy Challenge and five additional regional competitions in the U.S. as part of its inaugural nationwide network of student-focused clean energy business plan competitions during the next three years.

The day will include the Fourth Annual Senior Design Symposium on Renewable and Sustainable Energy sponsored by Progress Energy, as well as the college-wide Senior Design Showcase.

The invited speaker is Dan Arvizu, director of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

All projects will be displayed from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Engineering II building and the Harris Engineering Center on 麻豆原创鈥檚 main campus. A hot dog lunch will be available for purchase on the front lawn of the Harris Engineering Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The projects are the culmination of work by CECS undergraduate seniors. During their senior year, students work with their faculty advisors to develop innovative project proposals, conduct design analysis, design and build prototypes, prepare engineering reports and give presentations and demonstrations of their projects on Senior Design Day.

Senior Design Day is free and open to the public.

Fourth Annual Senior Design Symposium on Renewable and Sustainable Energy

Sponsored by Progress Energy, this event features 30 senior design projects related to renewable and sustainable energy. The projects 鈥�- many of which received industry funding -鈥� will be displayed in the Engineering II atrium. Student teams will deliver formal presentations about their projects in the Engineering II, Room 102 lecture hall.

Highlights of “green” projects include: a solar-powered filtration device that can clean oil from shallow water or environmentally sensitive areas; a water pump that uses energy created when wind moves tree branches; an energy conserving home that uses sensors to automatically adjust lights and thermostat settings; a kit that can fully convert a gas-powered vehicle into an electrically-powered vehicle; and an automated system that monitors abandoned oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dan Arvizu, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is scheduled to speak at 9 a.m. in Engineering II, Room 102 lecture hall. He is considered one of the world’s leading experts on renewable and sustainable energy.

CECS-Wide Senior Design Showcase

CECS will also showcase nearly 35 additional projects designed and built by its senior undergraduate students from all of the college’s academic departments. The projects represent the engineering and computer science skills the students have acquired during their rigorous academic coursework at 麻豆原创.

One project, “Hold Still,” is a video game for children designed to operate in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment. The purpose of the game is to encourage the child to stay motionless while undergoing an MRI procedure, to ultimately reduce or eliminate the need for sedatives. The game was designed by electrical and computer engineering students.

And for the age-21-and-older crowd, one team has designed the “Digital Competitive Precision Projectile Table Support Structure,” an electronic beer pong table that uses embedded sensors to perform automated tasks such as score keeping, ultimately reducing the potential for human error during competitive play of the popular game.