CEAS Blue Ribbon Committee Energy and Environmental Sustainability Final Report

Transcription

1 CEAS Blue Ribbon Committee Energy and Environmental Sustainability Final Report To help address the global need for secure and sustainable energy and clean air and water, we aspire to be a world leader in research and student training in energy systems and environmental sustainability. (Engineering 2020 CEAS Strategic Plan) Committee Charge: (1) Reviewing and summarizing the current status of the college initiative in Energy and Environmental Sustainability and its relation to RASEI and other campus efforts, and (2) Making recommendations on the next steps for advancing this initiative. Committee Members: Keith Molenaar (Chair), Ryan Gill, Karl Linden, Dragan Maksimovic, Shelly Miller, Joe Ryan and Jeff Sczechowski Process: The committee met on May 29 and August 9, The first meeting focused on a discussion of our current CEAS activities in the areas of energy and environmental sustainability. The committee conducted a brainstorming activity to map out what we are doing and what are our current strengths. We organized this mapping against national research initiatives. 1 Figure 1 at the end of this report provides a diagram of this discussion. For the second meeting, each committee member was charged with the task of identifying opportunities for research and education in this area. We discussed these opportunities and formed the recommendations for this report. College Initiatives: The college has a diverse set of programs and research initiatives relating to energy systems and environmental sustainability. The Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering has a stated strategic focus on energy with initiatives in photovoltaics and wind energy generation, power electronics, energy efficiency and energy storage. The Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering has 17 faculty members participating in their energy-related research. The Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering department has multiple programs relating to energy in the built and natural environments. The building systems program works in building energy controls, utility grid interactions and energy efficient building designs. The Environmental Engineering faculty members explore environmental sustainability and the effects of energy use on water and air quality. The Mechanical Engineering department has a research thrust in fluid and thermal sciences for energy applications and air-quality engineering. The Departments of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Computer Science are less focused on energy and environmental sustainability, but opportunities exist for them to participate at a higher level with remote sensing and data analysis. The Environmental Studies Program is the key focus of energy and environmental sustainability initiatives outside the college. At the campus level, faculty from the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and the Mechanical Engineering departments participate in the Environmental 1 Our committee referenced the National Science Foundation s FY 2013 budget as a benchmark for national research initiatives and opportunities. December 8,

2 Studies Program through the Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and the Mechanical Engineering departments. The Architectural Engineering faculty have benefited from a long-standing relationship with the Environmental Design program, which is currently going through a major restructuring. All of the departments have some level of participation in the Renewable and Sustainable Engineering Institute (RASEI). There is also college participation in the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) with the tenure line and teaching activities of multiple faculty members from these institutes in the colleges. All of these initiatives align well with the National Science Foundation (NSF) funding opportunities in the strategic areas of Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability (SEES) and Cyber-Enabled Materials, Manufacturing, and Smart-Systems (CEMMSS). These two NSF investment areas include research in clean energy, resilient and sustainable buildings and infrastructure, energy systems manufacturing, and energy efficient materials and processes. Mapping the college and campus activities with the national research thrusts provides five themes within our energy and environmental sustainability initiative. The college can leverage these five areas to enhance our interdisciplinary research and educational efforts. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Water-Energy Nexus Air Quality and Atmospheric Impacts Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Monitoring and Crisis Management Recommendations: The themes of energy and environmental sustainability are far-reaching and touch many of our education, research and service programs in the college. The committee is recommending a broad investment in our areas of strength in alignment with local, state and national research needs in research and development. These recommendations are made in alignment with the college s Engineering 2020 Strategic Plan. People 1. Invest in new faculty with an energy focus through RASEI. The blue ribbon committee supports the college s approach to hiring 10 new faculty lines in the next several years in the area of renewable and sustainable energy. The approach involves a campus commitment to RASEI of five lines in CEAS and a college commitment of five matching lines energy through its current and upcoming department searches. The committee recommends that the college be aggressive in hiring its energy-related positions as soon as possible to leverage our current initiatives and activities, thus helping to form RASEI s evolving identity. While the committee discussed that the RASEI startup has gone more slowly than expected, the committee believes that there is strong merit in hiring energy-related faculty through this process. The committee recommends that current CEAS faculty work vigorously to identify interactions with strong December 8,

3 NREL-CU fellow pairs. Hiring in these areas will leverage our strengths with NREL s and help to define and fulfill RASEI s long-term strategy. Places 2. Continue investing in environmental and energy-related research infrastructure. The college has recently moved the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering to the east campus and has re-purposed this space in the Engineering Center for the energy and environmental sustainability. The college has made modest investments in laboratories to support research and educational activities relating to this theme. As new faculty members are hired, the committee recommends that the college continue to invest in infrastructure improvements in this wing that are consistent with this theme. The Environmental Sustainability cluster of laboratories is taking a multiple investigator approach to its laboratory layout. It has created laboratories for environmental microbiology, advanced analytical chemistry and other broader research areas that will be shared by multiple investigators. The committee recommends that this approach be taken with new laboratory expansions in the areas of energy and environmental sustainability. Programs 3. Create a graduate degree in Environmental Engineering. The college has a top 20 undergraduate Environmental Engineering program. It has experienced rapid growth since its establishment in This undergraduate education program is supported by faculty who are very active in research in their respective departments. Students who graduate from the undergraduate Environmental program must migrate to graduate programs in Civil or Mechanical Engineering to pursue advanced degrees. The Civil Engineering graduate degree program is in fact ranked 26 th in environmental engineering graduate programs. The establishment of an environmental engineering graduate degree program would provide additional research opportunities for the faculty and students who support this degree. The committee recommends the establishment of an environmental engineering graduate program. The process should begin with a visioning committee to discuss both academic and administrative matters in the spring of 2013 with a proposal to the college in the fall of The current undergraduate program is supported by a faculty director and 1.25 FTE staff. The development of a graduate program may not necessitate much new curriculum development, but it would create the need for new staff (i.e., a graduate coordinator) and new resources (e.g., teaching assistantships, graduate fellowships, etc.). 4. Leverage the new graduate degree in Material Sciences and Engineering. The college s new graduate degree program in Material Sciences and Engineering offers a unique opportunity to leverage existing research and establish new faculty lines with research at the nexus of materials science, energy and environmental sustainability. The synergy of materials, energy and environmental sustainability expertise would allow the college and CU to be a leader in the fundamental development of new greener materials. It is much less expensive to introduce environmentally benign precursors and processes in the fundamental development of new December 8,

4 materials. Further research into new processes like additive manufacturing generate significantly less waste and require less energy than conventional subtractive manufacturing processes. Polymer research could lead to more versatile unzipperable polymers allowing the fundamental polymer building-blocks to be reclaimed and reused in new polymers. Materials researchers could work with environmental researchers to develop waterless materials manufacturing. Leveraging research and new faculty lines in these areas will strengthen the energy and environmental sustainability theme. 5. Take a leadership role in the restructuring of the Environmental Design degree program. The administration, management and governance of the undergraduate Environmental Design Program return to the Boulder campus in the fall of Although it is physically located on the Boulder campus, it had been administered as a part of the College of Architecture and Planning at CU Denver since The program is beginning a visioning process to explore how to fully integrate environmental design into the wide array of related programs on the Boulder campus. The committee recommends that the college take a leadership role in the restructuring process. New research-active, tenure-line faculty will be hired to support the program and there are obvious opportunities for collaboration in the areas of energy and environmental sustainability as it relates to the built environment. The college s Architectural Engineering program has enjoyed a long-standing academic relationship with the Environmental Design program. JoAnn Silverstein, former chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and Environmental Engineering professor has been appointed as the first faculty director of the program and three CEAS faculty have been appointed to the visioning committee. Possibilities exist for new graduate programs or even a new college in combination with the Environmental Studies Program. We should participate in the development of these programs to ensure alignment and leverage the strengths of programs in our college. 6. Expand relationships with CIRES, INSTAAR, NOAA and NCAR. The college should seek to leverage its relationship with the institutes and local Federal laboratories in the area of energy and environmental sustainability. The new Joint Research Center between the USGS National Research Program and INSTAAR being led by Diane McKnight is a prime example. The College of Engineering and Applied Sciences can play a key role in these relationships. There is a concurrent blue ribbon committee that is developing recommendations for how the college and the departments can improve their relationships with institutes. One of those recommendations is for the Office of the Associate Dean for Research (ADR) to analyze the research portfolio of the campus institutes individually and determine how the college can best align or partner itself with each institute. The ADR office will then work with department chairs, institute fellows with tenure homes in the college and interested faculty to develop a plan to market the college s research expertise to the institute. This group will seek annual strategy meetings with each institute to look for collaboration opportunities via research funding opportunities and via researchers relationships (i.e., fellows, faculty, future fellow hires done collaboratively, matching or joint, between the college and the institute, etc.). The topic of energy and environmental sustainability can be a cornerstone, or at least a theme, for these meetings. December 8,

5 Figure 1: CEAS Activities in Energy and Environmental Sustainability Mapped to National Research Initiatives December 8,