Harnessing computing applications and data, particularly with regard to materials and devices, is an important approach for solving our national contemporary power and energy challenges. This work synergistically brings together experts from a number of engineering disciplines that share a common goal of using computing resources and data to address major power and energy challenges. The primary goal is to provide more efficient use of resources and a deeper understanding of their role in cultivating alternative energy use and resources. The REU Site hosted at Drexel University provides a holistic view of the power and energy challenges to undergraduate researchers by addressing:
1. The old: Existing power grid and the computing needs for a smarter grid, 2. The new: Recently emerged power dissipation challenges on data centers and microelectronic devices (e.g. cell phones), 3. The renewable: Alternatives such as graphene sheets, photovoltaic cells and fuel cells to provide short and long-term solutions.
To this end, projects from the electrical, computer, mechanical and material engineering disciplines at Drexel University are providing an individual REU experience to each student while simultaneously educating the next generation of U.S. researchers in the interdisciplinary and contemporary power and energy challenges.
Intellectual Merit: The REU Site serves as a microcosm at Drexel University for computing-based projects in various engineering disciplines to carry out power and energy research. Demonstrated in an urban setting with state-of-the-art research facilities, the students are exposed to the motivations of these research projects and are gaining valuable hands-on research experience.
Broader Impact: The undergraduate researchers are learning the impacts of computing technologies in formulating and addressing power and energy challenges. Computing for power and energy is generating excitement in students and their parents, teachers, peers and siblings. This recognition is positively impacting the recruitment and retention of students in science and engineering. One of the big goals is to leverage an emerging and growing interest in ?a green planet? to promote engineering to a wider demographic at the pre-college level. The researchers are promoting the REU studies (web site, poster sessions and research papers) through Drexel collaboration with over 30 high-school STEM teachers and 20 middle school students in the School District of Philadelphia, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Pre-College program.
This is a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site Project that hosted a total of thirty (30) students over three years for a 10-week intensive summer research and career development program at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. The theme of the REU site was on Computing for Power and Energy: The Old, The New and the Renewable: "The Old" consists of research on the nation's electrical power grids at the major scale, "The New" consists of research on the power dissipation of data centers and the design of ultra-portable communication and computation devices. "The Renewable" consists of research on reusable energy storage systems. The intellectual merit is to expose undergraduate students, particularly those form unrepresented minorities and from institutions where research opportunities are limited, to various engineering disciplines to address computing for power and energy challenges. To this end, the site had participants from directly targeted, local universities such as Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, Cooper Union (2), Rowan and UMBC. There were non-traditional U.S. citizen participants, some of whom were heavily recruited by multiple REU Sites, from international schools such as Jordan University of Science and Technology, Middle East Technical University and An-Najah National University. Finally, there were participants from big and small universities around the nation: Columbia, Cornell, Drexel, NCSU, Portland State, RPI, UCSC, UVA, Olin College, FSU, CMU, Goshen College, Penn, Maryland, Boston, UPRM. The ethnic breakdown of 30 total participants were: 16 Caucasian (53%), 5 Hispanic (17%), 4 African-American (13%), 5 Other (17%); leading up to 30% participation from underrepresented ethnic minorities. Out of 30 students, 9 are pursing PhD degrees, 12 are in industry employment, and the remaining are still in school. There are two (2) recipients of NSF GRFP, one (1) recipient of a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and one (1) recipient of DoD NDSEG fellowships. The research products of the work, so far, include ten (10) journal papers co-authored by three (3) different REU students (two are NSF GRFP recipients), as well as one (1) conference paper by a fourth REU student. The 30 students were involved in computing-based projects in various engineering disciplines that include electrical engineering, computer science, computer engineering, mechanical engineering and material science and engineering. The broader impacts are to have undergraduate students learn the impact of computing technologies on contemporary power and energy challenges. Additional impacts include promoting higher education and research careers. In summative and formative assessment, there were high-rated outcome gains, including i) operate in the unknown (open-ended problems), ii) Use evidence to draw conclusions, iii) convey ideas verbally and informal presentations iv) demonstrate originality and independent thinking, v) conduct and simulate an experiment, vi) analyze and interpret data, vii) use feedback from an experiment to improve solutions to a problem, viii) apply computation and numerical tools to solve problems, ix) recognize intrinsic interest in learning/intellectual curiosity. Highlights to mark include that only 11% of the learning overall learning outcomes were rated highly in the pre-surveys in comparison to 64% in the post-survey. At least 70% of the students marked the high grade in the post-surveys, demonstrating significant learning experience for a big majority.
