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IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid
Experience Using Programmable Devices
Mihaela Radu, Ph.D.
Assist. Prof. Electrical & Computer Engineering Technology Department
Public Seminar Coordinator, Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center
Farmingdale State College
Chair of WIE Affinity Group IEEE Long Island
Marjaneh Issapour, P.E., CCNA Professor Electrical Engineering & Computer Engineering Technology
Director, Renewable Energy and Sustainability Center Farmingdale State College
Chair of the Educational Activities committee of IEEE Long Island Section
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable Devices
• Motivation (arguments) for this presentation: – Smart grid and programmable devices
– Ethical and social aspects of engineering
– The engineer of 2020
– ….
• Universities - Improving Design Experience for undergraduate students by creating new avenues – Project Based Learning
– Design Competitions: regional, national
– ….
• Current and future efforts in the EET department to attract students to develop Smart Grid related projects using programmable devices
• Conclusions/Discussions
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
Smart grid and programmable devices
• Smart grid” generally refers to a class of technology people are using to bring utility electricity delivery systems into the 21st century, using computer-based remote control and automation. They offer many benefits to utilities and consumers -- mostly seen in big improvements in energy efficiency on the electricity grid and in the energy users’ homes and offices [www.energy.gov].
• Over the last decades ,the idea of a “smart grid” has taken center stage — an evolution of advanced technologies that make the availability of a smarter, more efficient electrical power grid possible. At the heart of these advanced devices for the smart grid lies the powerful technology of the Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and SoC(System on Chip).
• Once seen as technologies only available to engineers with a deep understanding of digital system design, the dramatic advancements in the capabilities and levels of integration of these technologies are changing the rules of development for smart grid applications. As the capabilities and levels of integration of FPGAs have increased, several smart grid applications have incorporated an FPGA or an SoC to implement all of these blocks, affording better flexibility, reliability, maintainability, and cost.
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
Ethical and social aspects of engineering
• In one of her presentation at ASEE conference, Leah H. Jamieson,
Past President of IEEE, presented data about the public perceptions of engineering which showed that engineering is viewed as a profession that creates economic growth but is not sensitive to social, environmental, and quality of life issues.
• While the data did not show a negative public perception, Jamieson presented irrefutable data that the public did not view engineering as a profession that was going to make a difference.
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
Ethical and social aspects of engineering
• There is extensive literature on the perception of the engineering discipline
in general. Typically, elementary school children perceive engineers as
people who fix things like auto mechanics, drive trains or build or test or
work on equipment. Once again the students perceive engineering as an
impersonal, objective discipline with no real relationship to society. In order
to attract the next generation of high school graduates to engineering, it is
necessary to portray the excitement, satisfaction and reward of
engineering.
• Many of this generation want to make the world a better place but may
not perceive that they can do this with engineering. This means in order
to recruit them it is necessary to educate them on the social relevance of
engineering.
• To recruit and keep students to engineering you must reconnect it to the
community and state how technology enriches lives.
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
The Engineer of 2020
With the publication of The Engineer of 2020: Visions of engineering in the New Century, The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Committee on Engineering Education (CEE) aimed to identify the opportunities and challenges for the 21th century, anticipating and shaping the future practice of engineering, the characteristics of the engineering workforce and their education.
To enhance the nation’s economic productivity and improve the quality of life worldwide, engineering education in the United States must anticipate and adapt to the dramatic changes of engineering practice. Engineering schools should attract the best and brightest students and be open to new teaching and training approaches.
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
The Engineer of 2020
• Trends that are likely to redefine the boundaries of engineering and the composition of engineering forces:
– A global population approaching 10 billion with a steadily aging demographic and a growing demand for diversity for diversity in engineering force
– An imperative for “ sustainability” in the face of global population growth, industrialization, urbanization, and environmental growth
– …….
– The growing concerns about the social and political implications of rapid technological advances
– Increasing opportunities for incorporating technology into the education and work life of engineer
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
Universities
• Improving the design component in the undergraduate
engineering education is a concern for educators, professional
societies, industrial employers and agencies concerned with
national productivity and competitiveness
• Design experience develops the students’ lifelong learning
skills, self-evaluations, self-discovery, and peer instruction in the
design’s creation, critique, and justification.
• Students’ design projects at all levels are increasingly focused
on the renewable energy sources and systems, smart grid due
to the increased emphasis in the U.S. on clean energy
innovation, generation, manufacturing, and commercialization.
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
Universities
• Incorporate projects (Project Based Learning) at different
levels in the undergraduate education, developing:
– Creativity and the spirit of innovation
– Critical skills
– Problem solving
-Entire curriculum based on PBL
-Project Design Competition (from the course level to
regional and national level),
-Senior Design Projects, Capstone projects
-small projects incorporated in various courses
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
Current and future efforts in the Electrical and Computer
Engineering Technology Department to attract
undergraduate (and possible future graduate) students to
develop Smart Grid related projects using programmable
logic devices (FPGA, microcontrollers, ), as part of their
research experience, project based learning, senior design
projects, and/or participation in Design competition.
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
• Steps (Tasks):
• Acquiring state-of-the art equipment and CAD tools to
develop these projects, seeking industry donations
(Digilent, Xilinx etc.) and funding opportunities from
NSF and other national agencies
• Developing a list of potential projects in the areas of
Smart Grid; Energy Smart House System, Monitor
Small Wind Turbines, … etc..
• Contacting local industry representatives for possible
Smart Grid projects
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
• Restructuring the digital design and
microcontrollers/microprocessors sequence of courses to offer
students the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to develop
these projects
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
• Attending and organizing Workshops dedicated to FPGA and
Microcontrollers (sponsored by NSF)
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
• Giving students more opportunities to develop practical
applications (“take at home” laboratory, based on platform-PC
based equipment); sponsored by a title III grant project: “Developing Hands-On Experiments to Improve Students
Learning via Activities outside the Classroom“
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
• Enrolling students in National and Global Competition (Diligent Design Competition)
• Encouraging students to select “Smart Grid “ projects for the Digilent Design
Competition and/or Senior Project
• Recruiting motivated students for these activities in their first or second year in college
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
Plans for the future
• Use the projects to develop experimental modules for
K-12 STEM education and demonstration, summer
camps for students and instructors, exhibitions, public
awareness.. etc.
IESC 2014
Enriching Students’ Smart Grid Experience Using
Programmable
Conclusions
Discussions