Energy and the Environment: Design and Innovation (2015-2016)

To explore the breadth of issues that confront our society in its need for clean, affordable and reliable energy, members of this project team worked in small groups to identify, design and prototype new energy technologies, systems or approaches. Groups addressed the trade-offs among technological design choices, environmental impacts, economic viability and other issues related to use, and developed sustainable business plans to accompany their products.

Projects include a human-powered water purification system and an urban electric vehicle, which were design projects with prototypes, and facilitating advanced materials for energy, which was a report-oriented project with resulting recommendations.

Following a semester of research and discussion, one group designed and constructed a hyper-efficient electric vehicle; a second group created a human-powered bicycle pump that feeds a slow sand filter to be used around urban water systems in order to improve water quality in Baltimore’s polluted Inner Harbor; and a third group assessed technological advances in all facets of the hydrogen economy as well as economic, political, safety and public perception factors in order to produce strategy recommendations on hydrogen production.

Timing

Fall 2015 – Spring 2016

Team Outcomes

Josiah Knight, Team Projects in Energy Design ($10,000 grant awarded from North Carolina State University, 2015)

Bass Connections in Energy: Duke Electric Vehicle Team (poster by Kate Abendroth, Max Feidelson, Charlie Kritzmacher, Henry Miller, Abraham Ng’Hwani, Anny Ning, Evan Savell)

Harbor Clean Up: How Can We Build a Human-powered Device to Clean Baltimore Harbor? (poster by Kirsten Lew, Gi Jung Lee, Cheng Ma, Megan McGufficke, Daniela Radvak, Liam Regan, Molly Rosenstein)

Strategy Recommendation for Encouraging Hydrogen Economy (poster by Collin Allen, Daniel Ketyer, Alex Klonick, Josh Lariscy)

Reflections

Collin Allen

This Team in the News

Meet the Members of the Bass Connections Student Advisory Council

Faculty Perspectives: Emily M. Klein

Interdisciplinary Teams Take a Hands-on Approach to Energy Innovations

Collin Allen, Environmental Sciences ’16

See related teams, Energy and the Environment: Design and Innovation (2014-2015) and Energy and the Environment: Design and Innovation (2016-2017).

Team Leaders

  • Emily Klein, Nicholas School of the Environment-Earth and Climate Sciences
  • Josiah Knight, Pratt School of Engineering-Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

/graduate Team Members

  • Christopher Dougher, Business Administration-MBA, Master of Environmental Management, Energy and Environment
  • Liam Regan, Master of Environmental Management, Energy and Environment
  • Alexander Klonick, Master of Environmental Management, Environmental Economics/Policy

/undergraduate Team Members

  • Gi Jung Lee, Mechanical Engineering (BSE)
  • Evan Savell, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Molly Rosenstein, Earth & Ocean Sciences (BS)
  • Daniela Radvak, Mechanical Engineering (BSE)
  • Anny Ning, Mechanical Engineering (BSE)
  • Abraham Ng'Hwani, Mechanical Engineering (BSE)
  • Henry Miller, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Megan McGufficke, Int Comparative Studies (AB)
  • Cheng Ma, Mechanical Engineering (BSE), Computer Science (AB2)
  • Kirsten Lew, Environmental Sciences (BS)
  • Kathryn Abendroth, Environmental Sci/Policy (AB)
  • Joshua Lariscy, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Charles Kritzmacher, Mechanical Engineering (BSE)
  • Talha Bin Javed Khan, Economics (BS), Computer Science (BS2)
  • Daniel Ketyer, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Maximilian Feidelson, Public Policy Studies (AB)
  • Zhaochu Chen, Economics (BS)
  • Collin Allen, Environmental Sciences (BS)

Theme(s):