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Howdy!
Welcome to the April 2013 issue of News Briefs, the Texas A&M Energy Institute's e-newsletter. News Briefs is intended to keep you informed about all the good things going on in energy research at EI and Texas A&M University as well as state, national and international energy-related news that affects all of us.
Also, please note our new address as the Energy Institute has moved! We are now located in the Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Studies (TIPS) Building, 800 Raymond Stotzer Parkway, Suite 2020, College Station, TX. Come by and see us!
We encourage you to forward News Briefs on to your friends and colleagues. If you aren't already a subscriber and would like to receive our monthly e-newsletter, please click the "Join our Mailing List" button on the lower right.
We also invite you to visit the Energy Institute's web site at http://energy.tamu.edu.
If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future issues, please contact
Lisa Groce at 979.458.1644 or tamuenergy@pe.tamu.edu.
Thank you,
John A. Pappas
Interim Director, EI
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The GoWind Team - National Wind Resource Center (NWRC) - Texas Tech University | |
In December 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy announced investments in seven offshore wind projects including the GoWind project which will be led by the Texas A&M Energy Institute's Wind Energy Center. GoWind includes multiple university and industry partners. This is the second installment in a series about those partners and how their unique technologies, knowledge and abilities will contribute to the ultimate success of the GoWind project.
Under the direction of Dr. Luciano Castillo, the National Wind Resource Center (NWRC) at Texas Tech University serves as an externally focused platform for collaborations between industry, academia and national labs. Its primary goal is to bring talent from all sectors relating to wind energy for the purpose of promoting top scientific research, innovations, and technology development relating to wind energy.
The NWRC is currently developing incubator infrastructure which will allow for collaboration between students and experienced scientists for the creation of mini companies related to wind energy. In addition, the NWRC will host its first Summer Research Institute this year (summer 2013) where 22 students from Puerto Rico and USA mainland will engage in an intensive research program for eight weeks.
As a partner in the GoWind project, the NWRC and GoWind project objectives are: 1) development of multi-scale techniques for full-scale wind plant simulations at various scales with/without thermal stratification; 2) development of methodologies to assess wind turbine loading and performance based on characterization and simulation of wind inflow fields; and 3) parameterization of the wind plants & wind resource assessment for layout optimization.
To learn more about the NWRC team and their latest research developments, click here.
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Pappas on Team that Finds Workforce Shortage in Energy, Mining Sectors | |
John Pappas, interim director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute and director of the Wind Energy Center, was part of a team of experts who have found that the United States isn't producing enough qualified workers to meet the future needs of the mining and energy sectors, from coal digging and gas drilling to solar and wind power.
The team was put together by the National Research Council, an independent, non-profit council and the main operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences. The panel released their findings March 21 in a nearly 400-page report written by 14 experts from universities, government and the private sector.
The report urges new partnerships between industry, universities and community colleges to tackle the problem of retiring Baby Boomers who cannot readily be replaced. That includes a retooling of higher education to produce more young people competent in science, technology, engineering and math.
The report predicts a "bright present and future" for energy and mining jobs, with continuing demand for workers and good pay for those who are hired. But it says some industries already face labor shortages and others soon will because the nation's colleges and universities aren't cranking out graduates with the skills that growing companies need.
Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration data, for example, show 46 percent of the workforce will be eligible to retire within five years, but there are too few younger workers in the pipeline to replace them.
The oil and gas industry, meanwhile, has a workforce that's currently concentrated at both the older and younger ends of the spectrum, the report says, "creating a gap in experience and maturity" in between and making it difficult to replace retiring leadership. The report recommends several wide-ranging solutions, including outreach efforts to improve both the public's understanding and perception of energy-producing industries such as oil and gas.
Negative perception driven by concern over pollution, environmental damage and health issues, it says, "dissuades some from pursuing careers." It also notes that universities are seeing a faculty shortage that could affect oil and gas, mining and geothermal employers. "Unless this is corrected," the authors say, "the nation risks losing its capacity to provide new science and engineering professionals for the workforce."
It warns the higher education community that the traditional routes to degrees "do not adequately align" with industries' needs and says "they are increasingly not affordable and accessible" for prospective students.
Pappas, a study co-author said, "We have to find ways to correct the imbalances in our education system in terms of getting capable students into, and to stay in, pipelines where demand outstrips supply. At the same time, we have to have enough flexibility in those systems to adjust as demand changes. Strong partnerships between universities and community colleges could help both in controlling up-front investment and in making the tertiary system more nimble."
Community colleges are proving to be the best vehicle for delivering the technician-level, skills-based education the energy and mining industries need, the report says, offering programs ranging from one-year certifications to two-year associate's degrees. Schools and employers should form more partnerships like those, the report said, and federal agencies should consider more research funding to schools to help drive technological innovation and develop faculty.
According to Pappas, "Research universities in many ways operate like the rest of the economy. If industry and government fund more research in energy and mining, then there will be more graduate students working in those areas and, in turn, more faculty will be produced."
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Balog to Participate in Forum on Innovative Technologies
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Robert S. Balog, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, has been invited to participate as an expert in the 2013 U.S.-Turkmenistan Business Forum in Ashgabat April 30.
Balog will participate in a panel on the role of innovative technologies in education and energy markets. His expertise lies in the area of solar photovoltaic energy systems.
The forum aims to advance U.S.-Turkmenistan cooperation in the energy and agricultural sectors through a series of expert-level workshops and seminars designed to enhance meaningful interaction with the government of Turkmenistan's decision makers. The forum will convene speakers from academia, industry and the U.S. and Turkmenistan governments for expert-level panel discussions in the sectors of energy and agriculture.
It will include a morning session at Turkmenistan's Oil and Gas Institute and an afternoon session hosted by the Niyazov Agriculture University. Senior U.S. government officials will attend, including officials from the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of State, along with several key government of Turkmenistan's officials.
Balog is affiliated with the Electric Power and Power Electronics Group in the electrical and computer engineering department. He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University in 1996 and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2006. He has more than seven years of industry experience, including launching a technology startup company commercializing his work in residential scale solar inverters. He holds 14 issued and pending U.S. patents and is a licensed professional engineer.
Balog is the director of the Renewable Energy and Advanced Power Electronics Research Laboratory and is currently investigating novel balance of system technologies to holistically address the cells-to-grid interface challenges in solar energy. Honors include receiving the 2011 Rutgers University Distinguished Engineer Award, being named an Ernest A. Reid Fellow, the first IEEE International Telecommunications Energy Conference (INTELEC) Fellow and receiving two Grainger Outstanding Power Engineering Awards. He was recently selected for membership in the External Body of the Hungarian Academy of Science.
More information about the Renewable Energy and Advanced Power Electronics Research lab can be found at http://energy.ece.tamu.edu/reaper. For more on the forum visit http://turkmenistan.usembassy.gov/forum2013.html.
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Dr. Medina-Cetina (right) receives his certificate of elected Fellow from
Dr. W.D. Loth, President of SUT. |
Texas A&M Faculty Member Elected Fellow by the Council of the Society for Underwater Technology | |
The Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) is a multidisciplinary learned society that brings together organizations and individuals with common interests in underwater technology, ocean science and offshore engineering. Founded in 1966, SUT has members from around 40 countries, including engineers, scientists, and students working in a wide spectrum of energy-driven projects.
The Society held its AGM, annual awards ceremony and members' dinner on December 6, 2012, at the Trinity House, London (situated overlooking the Tower of London and River Thames).
The annual SUT awards ceremony honored those who have made "exceptional contributions to underwater technology." As part of the awards ceremony, Dr. Zenon Medina-Cetina, an Assistant Professor in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, received his certificate of elected Fellow by the SUT president Dr. W.D. Loth.
"Being an elected Fellow of SUT is a great honor that places Texas A&M University as a key player on research and development of underwater technology," reports Dr. Medina-Cetina. His research interests include risk assessment of energy developments by the integration of geology, geophysics, geomechanics, geotechnical Engineering and geomatics.
Dr. Medina-Cetina has been at Texas A&M since 2008 where he leads the Stochastic Geomechanics Laboratory (SGL). He currently serves as the Chair of the Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics Committee (OSIG)
for the SUT-USA branch.
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Focus on the Fellows
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With a generous donation of $40,000 from ConocoPhillips, the Energy Institute awarded eight fellowships to support outstanding graduate students doing energy research. Over 40 applicants from 16 departments were nominated for this competitive award. The award recipients are known as "Energy Institute Fellows."
Each month, a Fellow will be featured in the highlights section of News Briefs. This month's featured Fellow is Xiong Pu, a PhD student in the Department of Materials Science Engineering.
Xiong's research project is entitled "High Energy Density and High Power Density Materials for Next-Generation Li-ion Batteries." For a brief abstract of Xiong's research, click here.
To see the complete listing of EI Fellows, visit our web site at http://energy.tamu.edu.
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Do You Know who is Doing Energy Research on Campus? | |
You keep hearing about all of the energy research going on around Texas A&M University but do you know who is doing the research? That information, and more, can be found on the Energy Institute's web site at our new web address energy.tamu.edu.
Currently, there are nearly 150 faculty researchers listed by research area - Bioenergy, Electric Power, Energy Efficiency, Geothermal, Nuclear, Oil & Gas, Solar and Wind. Clicking on the desired research area will take you to a page specific to that area. Once there, click on the "Faculty Expertise" tab which will direct you to a listing of all of the faculty members doing research in that area and their areas of expertise.
If you are involved in energy research at Texas A&M University and are not listed on the EI web site and would like to be, please contact Robyn Pearson at rlpearson@tamu.edu. |
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The Energy Institute (EI) is addressing the world's energy challenges through research, development and deployment. The Institute matches researchers and world-class facilities with internal and external partners to define and solve energy problems and turn those solutions into useful global products. |
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Energy Institute Fellow
Xiong Pu
PhD Student
Materials Science Engineering
Department
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Research Abstract
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| Contact us | |
Texas A&M Energy Institute
3372 TAMU
Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Studies
(TIPS) Building
800 Raymond Stotzer Pkwy.
Suite 2020
College Station, TX 77845
979.458.1644
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