REU-IREST
REU Student's on a field trip to ORNL
"This REU-IREST site hosted their final group of students in 2021. Thanks to all who participated and good luck in your future endeavors!"
REU-IREST: Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) - Immersive Research in Energy generation, Storage/conversion and power Transmission (IREST).
This NSF REU Site was funded by the Division of Engineering Education and Centers, and focused on providing cutting-edge research in the areas of energy generation (solar, biomass, piezoelectric, generation from salinity gradients, etc.), energy storage/conversion (lithium-ion and lithium-air batteries and formic acid fuel cells) and power grid integration (solar and electric vehicle to grid integration).
PROJECT OBJECTIVES
- Opportunities to conduct high quality immersive research in the areas of energy generation, storage and power transmission.
- Train top national research talent in key emerging areas of energy, critical for maintaining national preeminence.
- Nurture student professional growth and train them on intelligent research approaches including: maintaining a daily diary, interpreting data and information, effective research outcomes dissemination and ethical decision making.
- Encourage students in energy related careers and to pursue graduate studies through targeted field trips to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, guest seminars by industrial partners and cutting edge research immersion.
Activities
- Energy related cutting-edge immersive research and training
- Intelligent research and professional development seminars and workshops
- Hands-on training with real equipment
- Field trips to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and industrial partner sites
- Preparation of research papers and posters
- Saturday afternoon outreach session
Topic Areas
- Solar photovoltaics optical and electrical modeling
- Biomass pyrolysis, renewable and alternative energy resources
- Selectively gas permeable anode flow field for direct formic acid fuel cells
- High-energy-density lithium ion batteries
- Energy harvesting with embedded piezoelectric transducers in additive manufacturing
- Minimal-energy computational models
- Modelling the energy absorption behavior of mechanical metamaterials with viscous component in their base materials
- Modelling the energy absorption behavior of mechanical metamaterials with viscous component in their base materials.
- High-efficiency Wireless Power Transfer.
Cheers
Dr. Indranil Bhattacharya
Dr. Joseph Biernacki
