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Show William Chatwin Department of Chemical Engineering Keith Roper HYDROGEN SUSTAINABILITY SERVICE-LEARNING SEMINAR CHE 4975 William Chatwin, (Keith Roper, Edward Trujillo) Department of Chemical Engineering This two semester course is a multi-layered collaboration that combines research with a unique classroom experience (See p.92 for research abstract). The impetus came when the primary instructor, Dr. Keith Roper, received an EPA P3 Award. These grants support projects working to integrate People, Prosperity, and Planet. The collaboration involves AMES high school, the Academy for Math, Engineering and Science. AMES students are enrolled and equally participate in this one credit seminar along with a group of interdisciplinary undergraduates. Chemical Engineering is also receiving team-building support from the Center for Engineering Leadership (CLEAR). CLEAR stands for Communication Leadership Ethics and Research. The Lowell Bennion Community Service Center has also assisted in strengthening these partnerships. The fall semester had a technical orientation, revolving around the production of a solar-hydrogen generator. This took the form of a design process with cross-functional teams responsible for discrete components of the prototype. The teams not only had to be knowledgeable about their own element, but also how it would interface with each of the other groups' modules. The research groups included distillation, photo-voltaic, electrolysis, purification and storage. Undergraduate Research Assistants funded by UROP, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, finalized the design, ordered components, and fabricated the prototype. Spring semester focused on the societal impacts of this technology. Guest lecturers covered aspects including biology, economics, political science, communication, writing, and philosophy. The class developed a website to encompass the interrelations of hydrogen sustainability. Subsections of the website are: energy sources stocks and sinks, current US energy policy, global efforts, hydrogen applications, and the solar hydrogen economy. In May 2005 all of the AMES and University students will be presenting their prototype on the Mall in Washington D.C. This is a competition for a second round of funding. The next round will attempt to put the new technology into use. A proposed project is a hydrogen powered golf cart, to tour around campus showcasing the technology and increasing awareness about hydrogen sustainability. |