This project aims to promote undergraduate education in wave energy for science, engineering, technology, and education majors. It is designed to produce a next-generation workforce that can meet the ever-increasing energy needs of this nation. A multi-disciplinary team of six faculty members is assembled to undertake this educational effort. It is serving the needs of a large number of students in three colleges (Sciences, Engineering, and Education) at Old Dominion University.
Building upon their on-going research on wave energy, the faculty members on this team are incorporating their expertise and research findings into the development of five innovative and self-sufficient course modules related to wave energy. Students are gaining knowledge, mathematical and computational skills, and hands-on experiences of wave energy through the learning activities inside and outside the classroom.
The intellectual merit of this project is the establishment of a pilot educational platform on wave energy that integrates curriculum development, computer simulation, educational design, field observation, and community outreach. The success of this project provides a model for multidisciplinary collaboration on renewable energy education that can effectively contribute to the national needs in STEM education and that can be widely adopted or implemented in other higher educational institutions.
The broader impacts of this project are represented by the strong STEM education community that involves nearby HBCUs, Virginia community colleges, local military bases and industries, and high school young scholars. Special efforts are made to attract a large and diverse body of students into this education program, especially those from underrepresented groups.
