Embedding Renewable Energy Concepts into Engineering Curriculum

Abstract

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.