Clean energy classes.A little more than a year ago, Daniel Abelson was, teaching classes at New York s New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Botanical Gardens A botanical garden is a place where plants, especially ferns, conifers and flowering plants, are grown and displayed for the purposes of research, conservation, and education. in the Bronx. He had a history degree from the University of Michigan (body, education) University of Michigan - A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. , but began to doubt his career direction. He started surfing the Internet, and discovered the Oregon Institute of Technology The Oregon Institute of Technology, also known as Oregon Tech or OIT, is an accredited university in the Oregon University System, and the only public institute of technology in the northwest United States. (OIT OIT Organización Internacional del Trabajo (Spanish: International Labor Organization) OIT Organisation Internationale du Travail (International Labour Organization) OIT Office of Information Technology )'s renewable energy Renewable energy utilizes natural resources such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power, and hydroelectricity to biomass and biofuels for transportation. systems program--the country's first bachelor's degree in the study of alternative fuels. "This program was exactly what I wanted," says Abelson. "Renewable energy is an urgent issue--economically, politically, environmentally." Many other non-traditional students have found a career path at OIT. The typical student is over 30, with a bachelor's degree in another field and a deep desire to find a workable alternative to fossil fuels. OIT's program, launched in 2005, is based on campuses in Portland and Klamath Falls. Course topics include photovoltaics, energy management and auditing, wind power, biofuels, transportation systems, green building and fuel cells. "It's a technical school, so naturally it's hands-on--and that's what I wanted," says Jerry "Mac" Lewis, who worked in the Amazon Basin as a research ecologist and spent a year volunteering for Americorps before he found OIT. Now midway through the four-year program, Lewis is working on a zero-energy building project. "The idea was to meet a demand not addressed by other schools in the state, or in the U.S., for that matter," says program director Robert Bass. To help students get jobs on graduation, OIT recently set up an industry advisory committee, which has found a high demand for technology students entering the workplace with an understanding of renewable energy systems. OIT is not alone. Some 70 students signed up for a University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). at Berkley graduate course in photo-voltaics, the largest course turnout in recent memory at the school's College of Engineering. A Stanford University renewable energy symposium attracted 1,400, nearly three times the expected turnout. "There is definitely a lot of interest in what we're doing," says Lewis. "Maybe it's like the computer boom of years ago." CONTACT: Oregon Institute of Technology renewable energy program, (503)725-5924, www. oit.edu. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion