The Energy Engineering Seminar Series, Fall, 2020
Professors Lindsay Alexander, David Hammer and Max Zhang
Thursdays at 12:40 – 1:30 PM online (by recurring Zoom meeting)
(ChemE 5870, ECE 5870, or MAE 5459)
Organizational meeting and first seminar: Thursday, September 3, 2020
Are you interested in energy-related topics, such as when (if ever) we might run out of oil, whether fuel cells are nearing economic viability, how we might be producing electricity 50 years from now, and what some of the environmental consequences of energy use are, including the possibility of climate change? Then consider spending one lunch hour per week during Fall 2020 listening to talks on these and other energy-related subjects at the Energy Engineering Seminar Series. Seminar speakers will be Cornell faculty members from several departments as well as engineers and executives from industry and government. Students from any department in Engineering or the Physical Sciences should find these talks understandable.
Students wishing to attend most or all of the weekly Energy Seminars are encouraged to register for ChemE 5870, ECE 5870 or MAE 5459, 1 credit, S/U (or letter grade). You will be asked to attend at least 8 (or 12) seminars out of 13 presentations and turn in 8 (or 12) brief summaries to receive a grade of S (or A). The summaries should give your overall impression of the seminar content as well as of the speaker in a one-page prose essay. Further information about the summaries and on requirements for a specific grade are given on the course Canvas web site in the course information tab. (Viewing the recording posted on Canvas within 1 week of the presentation will count as attending the seminar.)
The first meeting of the Energy Seminar will be Thursday, September 3, 2020, 12:40-1:30 PM online (recurring Zoom meeting listed on the Canvas Calendar). The seminar title is Energy for Planet Earth, an Overview and the speaker will be Professor David Hammer, Electrical and Computer Engineering. An abstract of the first seminar is given below.
Abstract: In this, the opening Energy Seminar of Fall 2020, we will begin with a brief discussion of the Energy Engineering Seminar Series as a Course. We will then have a look at the current energy portfolios of the World and of the United States and how we reached this point in energy resource history. How much energy we need versus how much we use, and some of the consequences of that use, will be part of the discussion. We will then offer possible options for World and US energy resource portfolios in the future based upon today’s capabilities, including fossil fuels, solar, wind, nuclear, etc., and tomorrow’s possibilities, such as fusion.
