主要研究 今天

一个由主要研究工程和商业专业学生组成的团队赢得了美国大学生奖.S. 能源部的2024年 海洋能源大学竞赛 with a device that harnesses wave power as a reliable power source for ocean data collection buoys. It was the second consecutive year that a Wildcat team won first place in this national university competition.

12人的队伍赢得了 Drift-RMT, a renewable ocean data collection device that harnesses wave motion for self-sustaining power. Their innovation could extend the battery life of at-sea drifter buoys that collect valuable ocean and climate data by several years.

“海洋能源资源丰富, predictable and have immense potential to provide clean energy to our grid and the offshore economy,杰夫·马鲁提安说, principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy. “The students participating in this competition are paving the way for this burgeoning new industry, 我们期待着他们未来的成就.”

Competing against 16 other teams at the Pacific Ocean Energy Trust’s Ocean Renewable Energy Conference in Portland, 俄勒冈州, the 主要研究 team also won the competition’s business plan and technical design challenges. And they might need a bigger trophy shelf: This spring, Drift-RMT won the $15,000 保罗J. 霍洛威奖竞赛 and the top ocean engineering honor at the Undergraduate 研究 Conference.

“参加MECC确实具有变革性,25岁的队员卡拉·惠特曼说, noting that it shaped her professional aspirations and showcased the power of teamwork.  

“It was great to see the team come together around this idea and to watch iterations of the device being built and tested in the 主要研究 wave tank,团队导师马丁·沃斯尼克说, professor of mechanical and ocean engineering and director of the Center for Ocean Engineering. “Chase Ocean Engineering Laboratory provides the students with an ecosystem of support related to all things ocean, and the students really started to camp out here in the spring semester.”

沃斯尼克是该组织的负责人 大西洋海洋能源中心 (AMEC), a partnership of several East Coast universities funded by the Department of Energy. 艾琳·贝尔, professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering, also mentored the students.

Drift-RMT team members are mechanical engineering majors 威廉•摩尔 ’24, 马修·卡尔森24岁, 莱利Desmarais, 24岁, 内特·希克森，24岁, William Lindsay ’24 and 将Weete ’24; environmental engineering majors Jack Kearing ’24, Kara Wittmann ’25 and James Wood ’24; ocean engineering majors  Allison Kelley ’24 and Kevin Moriarty ’24 and entrepreneurial studies major 卡梅伦沃斯 ’24.