Educating 21st Century Power Engineers

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will develope a curriculum that will show the exciting, challenging prospects to undergraduate engineers of working in the electricity industry. Lack of undergraduate interest in mature industries generally, and the electricity industry in particular, is due in part to a failure to present the interdisciplinary challenges that an engineer selecting this industry for a career would face. Building on Carnegie Mellon's Information Network Institute (INI) Educational Programs (CMU), we will 1) establish guidelines for this advanced-undergraduate/MS level program, referred to in this proposal as the MS Program in Electric Power Systems (MSEPS), 2) develop a sequence of two semester courses specific to electric power, to be available interactively through the web, and 3) design and implement an advanced Computer Laboratory in support of MSEPS. The INI Educational Program aims to give future industry leaders broad knowledge, emphasizing the Business/Managerial and Policy Cores, in addition to the Technology Core. The main intellectual merit of this project lies in using fundamentals from engineering, computer science, economics, policy and business to address the pressing challenges in the evolving electric power sector. By carefully drawing on these fundamentals, which engineering students acquire in the early stages of their undergraduate education, this program will prepare students to think about complex network industries, including both engineering and business components. By preparing students to think about the electric power sector in a qualitatively different manner than power engineering subjects have been taught in the past, this program will prepare qualified students to engage in doctoral programs and prepare undergraduates to enter the workforce in this rapidly changing field. Having an educated workforce that appreciates the benefits of advanced technologies on industry performance will create a major application for computers and communications in this seemingly mature industry sector. If done correctly, this could provide stimulus in moving the overall economy forward. In addition to developing this five year engineering program at CMU, the CMU faculty will provide interactive teaching of the two courses specific to electric power to the undergraduate and first year graduate students at MIT, Smith College and University of Pittsburgh. The CMU faculty will work closely with the point faculty and researchers at these schools to provide an environment in which the courses offered at CMU would be beneficial to their students. In particular, the CMU faculty will organize the two courses in a modular structure so that members from other schools can teach particular subjects of their expertise as the need and opportunities for this arise.