Piloting an Energy Specialist Training Program: Lessons Learned

Piloting an Energy Specialist Training Program: Lessons LearnedEngineering undergraduate students at the junior and senior level are exposed to many technicalelectives that are related to topics in energy. Traditionally, these classes have been limited toclassroom instruction, however, making it dif...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAssociation for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 23.968.1
Main Authors Kim, Sungwon S, Tebbe, Patrick A
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 23.06.2013
Subjects
Energy
Energy consumption
Environmental engineering
Exposure
Green buildings
Maintenance
Mathematical analysis
Students
Teachers
Training
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Summary:Piloting an Energy Specialist Training Program: Lessons LearnedEngineering undergraduate students at the junior and senior level are exposed to many technicalelectives that are related to topics in energy. Traditionally, these classes have been limited toclassroom instruction, however, making it difficult for students to obtain experiences that arecloser to real world situations. Instructors have found it difficult as well to include outside of theclassroom experiences for students.This paper describes the implementation of a state funded project to provide an outside of theclassroom opportunity for students to receive training on calculating building energy efficiencythrough exposure to Energy Star, Portfolio Manager and brief content on the Leadership inEnergy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Students studied the energy consumption ofseveral buildings in the vicinity both on and off campus and calculated their respective energyefficiency ratings, which they reported back to the building facility managers. Through thistraining, students received real world exposure to building operations and maintenance activities.Assessment of student experiences through this project was conducted through surveys whichrevealed that the students had an overall positive experience, including an increased interest inthe energy efficiency field. As a pilot program this project demonstrates how such a buildingenergy efficiency training program could be continued in the future on a periodic basis, andprovides directions for further expansion of this type of training program so that engineeringstudents who are interested in continuing their careers as energy specialists have the opportunityto expand on their classroom instruction to real world applications. Lessons learned during theorganization and delivery of the Energy Specialist Training Program, in addition to the lessonslearned about student needs and interests in such a program and the impact to the students arepresented.