As students continue tweaking their schedules for the fall 2011 semester, Steve Borgelt, associate professor of biological engineering and agricultural system management, hopes they might take new courses dealing with sustainability into consideration.
Borgelt said the Powering America Undergraduate Topics Course Series enables students to take classes related to many different types of energy topics.
“Fossil fuels and nuclear energy and current distribution systems will be included in the courses,” Borgelt said. “We will cover a variety of topics from an objective and practical point of view. I will coordinate the courses but will not be the only instructor.”
Students interested in these courses are required to take Energy Systems Basics, a two-credit class, as a pre-requisite or co-requisite for other satellite courses. Then they are given the choice of one-credit-hour topics lectures including fueling transportation, energy transport, distribution and storage, supplying electricity and design for energy conservation. Students may enroll in two satellite courses per semester.
Pre-requisites for the energy systems basics class are college algebra, basic energy knowledge or an instructor’s consent. A co-requisite is one or more satellites. The Energy Systems Basics class will explore population and energy, energy supply and demand as well as fundamentals.
“The energy generation, transportation and distribution industries need well-trained people to work in these fields,” Borgelt said. “The courses are a step to help make students aware of the energy topics and issues and develop the ability to critically analyze them from a technical and financial standpoint.”
Fueling Transportation will cover topics ranging from natural gas and hydrogen to infrastructure challenges. Energy Transport, Distribution and Storage will discuss issues such as power quality and energy security.
In Supplying Electricity, students will learn about traditional resources as well as renewable resources. Design for Energy Conservation entails discussion on efficiency, such as building efficiency, industrial efficiency and transportation efficiency.
Mechanical Engineering Research Assistant Kyler Turner said students will gain formal knowledge on these issues that isn’t currently available.
“Having classes directly focusing on sustainability will allow students to learn about these issues in a structured setting from experts that have been working in these fields for many years,” Turner said, “something that is to my knowledge currently unavailable except in non-formal settings such as Sustain Mizzou.”
Borgelt said he hopes students develop a basic understanding of energy systems and gain the ability to analyze the subjects, both technically and economically. He suggests any students interested in the topics take the classes.
“Especially students who may be interested in pursuing further training and employment in the energy generation, transportation and distribution industries,” Borgelt said.
Student Sustainability Adviser Ben Datema said students will benefit enormously from the classes.
“Energy infrastructure is a huge component of energy efficiency and conservation, and these classes will allow for more informed consumers and citizens who can make better policy decisions and will provide future energy professionals who have the insight they need to design effective and efficient energy systems,” Datema said.
Turner said the addition of these classes is something that should have happened several years ago, but it’s nice to progress in this area.
“The classes will be very useful for anyone who is wanting to go into energy related issues, something that is only going to grow as a field in the future,” Turner said.
