There is great interest in sustainable engineering and building amongst the cadets at the USAF Academy. This session will highlight undergraduate research by five cadets into sustainable building and energy topics. Recently, the Superintendent of the USAF Academy put forth a vision to make the installation a net-zero user of electrical energy by 2015. Besides instituting efforts to decrease electrical demand by 30% by 2015, the Academy is investigating the use of a wide variety of renewable energy technologies to produce electrical energy. These include hydroelectric power, photo-voltaic solar power, wind power, waste-to-energy, and a biomass cogeneration plant. Cadets are directly involved in producing proposals and business cases for these power production facilities.
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the USAF Academy has been involved in providing affordable housing solutions for the Navajo nation since the mid-90s. Each summer, two modular homes are constructed by cadets. These homes are usually transported to the Navajo reservation in New Mexico and dedicated during spring break each year. This year, one of our cadets is redesigning our modular homes to incorporate residential LEED elements. Another cadet is designing a home that would be built on-site at the reservation. This design will incorporate the use of local renewable materials available on the reservation.
This session will start with a brief overview by the moderator to put the research projects into context followed by 10-15 minute presentations by each of the cadets regarding the details of their research topic. |
