Goals
Development of student creativity and engineering design and analysis skills in the process of meeting established project objectives with consideration of economic, safety, reliability, and aesthetics factors, together with ethical and social impact. Development of skills involved in: need identification, project definition and analysis, proposal formulation, project execution and evaluation, and presentation of results. Foster communication and collaboration between Energy Engineering and Sustainability to address current and future human needs.
Course Description and Objectives
The course consists on the complete development cycle of an engineering project in the context of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, from proposal preparation, tasks execution, critical evaluation, and presentation of results. The process aims to mirror professional project development in industry, government, and non-profit organizations.
Project topics should ideally fit the student career plans and vision within the context of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering. Therefore, the course strives to be highly individualized and structured. Students will work in teams of two or three individuals; the effort of the developed project should be proportional to the number of individuals in the team.
The specific objectives of this course include: selection of a topic, formation of a team, preparation of a proposal, structured execution of the proposal, and preparation of written and oral progress reports.
By the end of the course, the student will be able to:
- Apply the principles learned in other courses in the curriculum to the development of an Energy Engineering project.
- Develop and meet project goals through structured execution.
- Evaluate the economic, safety, aesthetic, reliability, ethical and social impacts of an Energy Engineering project.
- Present a compelling engineering project proposal.
- Critically evaluate other projects and provide constructive and clear feedback to peers.
- Write logical and concise progress and final reports.
- Make oral presentations about the project rationale, development process, and final results.