ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN ENGINEERING DESIGN CURRICULUM

The knowledge and skills for the future workforce of an energy efficient industrial society are not fully nurtured in our current educational programs. Energy efficiency and innovative design practices need to be an essential part of the learning experience in undergraduate engineering design programs. Current engineering design curriculum is reformed to teach the theoretical knowledge and hands-on practices in an integrated fashion. To study energy loss and overall energy efficiency of a system and its components, laboratory practices are introduced in sophomore level thermodynamics and junior level fluid mechanics courses. A multipurpose laboratory equipped with fluid process, sensors, data acquisition system, and application programs is being developed. A series of laboratory practices based on use of fluid mechanics principles in energy efficient industrial applications provide students a strong foundation of the subject. Later in the senior level engineering design classes, these learnings are utilized to practice innovative design of energy efficient products. Industrial collaboration is established to ensure student exposure to realistic energy efficient products and practices through capstone design projects and undergraduate research.