Collaborative Research: REU Site: The Great Lakes Wind Energy Challenges (REU-GLWind)

Cleveland State University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Abstract

Wind energy, an affordable renewable energy source, has great potential to meet the growing energy demand, mitigate climate change causes and contribute to a cleaner, sustainable, domestic energy generation portfolio. Despite the demand for wind energy research and development nationally and globally, many undergraduate students of non-R1 universities have limited opportunities to participate in active wind energy research. To tap the nation's diverse student talent pool and broaden participation in science and engineering, there is a critical need to provide these students access to wind energy research early in their career and motivate them to pursue graduate education or research-oriented jobs in the wind energy sector. The Great Lakes (GL) Wind REU site aims to provide a diverse group of undergraduate students with an authentic, engaging learning and research training experience and professional growth opportunities in the broad areas of wind energy. The Great Lakes Wind REU site will support ten undergraduate students for ten-week summer research co-hosted by the Cleveland State University, a public urban university, and Case Western Reserve University, an R1 private university. It will leverage Icebreaker Wind, the first freshwater offshore wind farm in Cleveland, Ohio in Lake Erie and the Great Lakes region as the testbed. REU students will be exposed to a summer research experience that consists of (i) participation in ongoing wind energy research in inclusive learning and research communities, (ii) weekly seminars of research frontier and professional development, (iii) field visit of a utility-scale wind turbine site at the Great Lakes Energy Institute, and (iv) research communication/dissemination in workshops and conferences. The GL Wind REU project particularly emphasizes recruiting women, underrepresented minorities, and students from community colleges and universities without research programs in engineering. This project is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) and the Department of Energy (DOE), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.