Industry and Interdepartmental Collaboration at MIT

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:30:49 GMT

A brief discussion by Stephen Connors, director of the Analysis Group for Regional Energy Alternatives (AGREA).

What is the smart grid(s)

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:30:46 GMT

A brief discussion by Stephen Connors, director of the Analysis Group for Regional Energy Alternatives (AGREA).

Keynote Fireside Chat with David Crane

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 21:30:46 GMT

Recorded March 1, 2013

Artificial muscles at MIT

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:30:16 GMT

MIT researchers at the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research have developed a new material that changes its shape after absorbing water vapor.

LGO Webinar: Aaron Fyke, Energy Cache

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:06:04 GMT

Amidst a perfect storm battering funding for renewable energy companies, Aaron Fyke, LGO ’02, was able to model a grid-level energy storage system that would satisfy risk-averse customers by leveraging the cheapest, densest materials and a proven technology. The company Fyke founded, Energy Cache, stored renewable energy using “gravel on ski lifts” in a California pilot installation that has attracted worldwide media attention and funding from such investors as Bill Gates.

Hoyt Hottel Lecture

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:30:18 GMT

A talk by Dr. Eric Toone, principal deputy director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).

Jake Jurewicz : Finding a sustainable energy source

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:09:10 GMT

“So what exactly could you do with a bachelor’s degree from NSE?”

Read more at the Nuclear Science & Engineering website.

Sara Ferry : Finding a sustainable energy source

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:09:10 GMT

“So what exactly could you do with a bachelor’s degree from NSE?”

Read more at the Nuclear Science & Engineering website.

Alex Salazar : Powering developing nations

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:09:09 GMT

“So what exactly could you do with a bachelor’s degree from NSE?”

Read more at the Nuclear Science & Engineering website.

Derek Sutherland : Powering space voyages

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 07:09:09 GMT

“So what exactly could you do with a bachelor’s degree from NSE?”

Read more at the Nuclear Science & Engineering website.

Identifying Architectural Modularity in the Smart Grid - Brad Rogers, Navigant

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:30:12 GMT

About the Presentation

One significant challenge facing a broader deployment of modern grid technologies is integrating with legacy systems while driving toward elegant, interoperable solutions in future grid integration efforts. This challenge is compounded by the de facto approach of customizing point-to-point integration solutions, resulting in an "accidental architecture" of the existing grid.

The Design Structure Matrix methodology is applied to two publically available architecture models to demonstrate how this approach can help define smart grid architectures and to help identify architectural groupings that can lead tobetter modularization of smart grid systems and standardization efforts. The analysis concludes that initial smart grid architectural efforts can be improved upon by identifying areas of modularity and organizing around them.

Full paper available here.

About the Speaker

Brad Rogers is a Managing Consultant in the Energy Practice in Navigant's Boulder, Colorado office. Brad's work at Navigant has encompassed grid modernization efforts including developing smart grid business cases for specific advanced meter investment decisions and regional deployment strategies, designing metric tracking systems for smart grid demonstration projects, recommending tailored approaches for developing grid interoperability standards, popularizing an approach that produces more modularized intelligent grid architectures, andstatistically evaluating the accuracy of deployed smart meters with sophisticated econometric methods.

Before working at Navigant, Brad worked for Summit Blue Consulting, Spirit AeroSystems, Nuvera Fuel Cells, and the United States Peace Corps. Brad earned an M.B.A. and an M.S. in Engineering Systems with a concentration in Energy and Sustainability at MIT in the Leaders for Global Operations program. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, summa cum laude, with a minor in BusinessEngineering Technology from Auburn University.

About the Series

The MIT System Design and Management Program Systems Thinking Webinar Series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges.

Using Systems Engineering Tools to Design a Smart Energy Box - Jonathan Hickey SDM '12

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:30:12 GMT

About the Presentation

A network that distributes power generated by Renewable Energy Supplies (RESs) will require a "smart box" in each home in the network to meter power and to connect to and communicate with other elements of the network. These smart boxes will also have to function as control devices to ensure safe and reliable operation of the grid. Use of systems engineering tools such as stakeholder analysis and axiomatic design and STAMP (Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes) was effective for development of initial customer attributes and associated functional requirements, design parameters, and process variables, respectively. Inclusion of system-level safety analysis such as STPA in conjunction with the aforementioned systems engineering tools in the conceptual design phase is highly effective in capturing key functional requirements early in the design and development of complex socio-technical systems.

About the Speaker

Jonathan Hickey is a Commander in the United States Coast Guard (USCG). He holds a bachelors degree in civil engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, a masters in civil engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a masters in project management from George Washington University, and recently completed his masters in engineering and management from MIT's System Design and Management Program.

About the Series

MIT Energy Conference 2012: Electric Grid-Scale Energy

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Video from the seventh annual MIT Energy Conference, this year focused on Insight and Innovation in Uncertain Times.

MIT Energy Conference 2012: Electric Transmission

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Video from the seventh annual MIT Energy Conference, this year focused on Insight and Innovation in Uncertain Times.

MIT Energy Conference 2012: Keynote Address

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Video from the seventh annual MIT Energy Conference, this year focused on Insight and Innovation in Uncertain Times.

MIT Energy Conference 2012: Large Scale Energy Decisions under Great Uncertainty

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Video from the seventh annual MIT Energy Conference, this year focused on Insight and Innovation in Uncertain Times.

MIT Energy Conference 2012: Managing Shale Gas Revolution

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Video from the seventh annual MIT Energy Conference, this year focused on Insight and Innovation in Uncertain Times.

MIT Energy Conference 2012: Welcome Roundtable Perspectives

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 07:03:50 GMT

Video from the seventh annual MIT Energy Conference, this year focused on Insight and Innovation in Uncertain Times.

Cambridge Science Festival - What's Your Question? - Rivers of Ice

Thu, 31 May 2012 17:30:11 GMT

From the high Himalayas to the poles, the world’s glaciers are melting. What does this mean for your community and our shared Earth? David Breashears presents his stunning new images of the Himalayan glaciers to mark the MIT Museum’s opening of its special exhibition by GlacierWorks: Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya.

Along with David Breashears, the symposium brings together scientists and community members to debate your questions about our climate, environment, water supply and much more.

Speakers:
Graham Cogley, Professor of Geography, Trent University
Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society
Susan Solomon, Professor, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Ellen Swallow Richards Chair, MIT
James Wescoat, Aga Khan Professor, Department of Architecture, MIT
Moderated by: Marco Werman, host of PRI's The World

Part of the Cambridge Science Festival: http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2012Festival/2012ScheduleofEvents/RiversofIce.aspx

Tammy Thompson on "Evaluating Energy Policy: Quantifying Air Pollution and Health Co-Benefits"

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:03:20 GMT

Researcher Tammy Thompson attended the American Geophysical Union's Science Policy Conference this month. In this video, Thompson explains the research she did that the conference highlighted.

To view Thompson's poster from the conference, click here.

In her research, Thompson, along with researchers Noelle Selin and Sebastian Rausch, evaluated the co-benefits of potential US energy policy options with respect to regional ozone and particulate matter concentrations and air pollution-related health and economic impacts - focusing specifically on a US-wide Clean Energy Standard. They also evaluated a market-based carbon policy motivated by recently-proposed cap and trade policies. The researchers used a modeling framework linking three tools that each model one aspect of the interplay between the U.S. economy, regional air quality, and human health. In this way, they enforced consistency in assumptions and allowed for critical feedbacks to be represented when assessing the co-benefits and distributional implications of energy policies affecting air quality. The linked models included: the MIT-developed United States Regional Energy Policy (USREP) economic model, extensively used for energy and natural resource policy analysis; the Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions (CAMx); and MIT-developed health impact software. Thompson and the other researchers assessed the changes in economic variables such as GDP, energy use, sectoral output and consumption due to energy policy, as well as emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutant precursors. Future scenarios of ozone and PM2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter < 2.5 µm) were then modeled using CAMx for the continental U.S. to determine the impact on ground level pollution and the potential for human exposure in major urban areas in the US. Results evaluating the Clean Energy Standard indicated this policy would lead to nationwide seasonally averaged decreases in eight hour averaged ozone of up to two parts per billion with localized maximum decreases an order of magnitude larger. Fine sulfate particulate would also decrease by two to three µg/m3 across the US with localized decreases an order of magnitude larger. The researchers estimated mortalities and morbidities associated with ozone and particulate matter, and quantified the economic impact of these damages. Results were compared with the cost of climate policies.

Stay tuned to read the full report.

Distinguished Lecture: Professor Moniz, Director, MIT Energy Initiative

Tue, 22 May 2012 07:03:12 GMT

Ernest J. Moniz is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and the Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. Professor Moniz served as U.S. Under Secretary of Energy from 1997 to 2001 and as Associate Director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President from 1995 to 1997. He currently serves on President Obama's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST). His principal research contributions have been in theoretical nuclear physics and in energy technology and policy studies on the future of nuclear power, coal, nuclear fuel cycles, natural gas, and solar energy in a low-carbon world.

This event was hosted by Sidney-Pacific Graduate Residence's Committee on Scholarly Interactions and sponsored by the MIT Presidential Fellows Program.

Biofuels - MIT Club of Northern California

Wed, 09 May 2012 20:30:10 GMT

Biofuels: How Biotech is Changing the Energy Industry

MIT Club of Northern California

Featuring the top executives of the Bay Area's leading Biofuels companies.

John Melo - CEO, Amyris
Jonathan Wolfson - CEO, Solazyme
Bob Mayer - CEO, Cobalt Technologies
Noubar Afeyan - Chairman, LS9
Moderator: Don Keller - Partner, Orrick SV

Despite widespread interest in electric cars, the EIA projects that liquid fuels will provide more than 90% of US transportation energy through 2035. There is an urgent need to find renewable sources, to provide a reliable supply for US consumers and to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions created by fossil fuels.

Biofuels look well-positioned for this role, but face daunting challenges in raising capital for facilities and competing with volatile commodity prices. Biotechnology offers firms the promise of meeting these crucial challenges by improving the yields of feedstocks, reducing processing costs and producing high-value outputs. But will this be enough?

* How effectively will biofuels compete with other transportation fuels, such as ethanol or natural gas?

* What are the major challenges biofuels firms face as they attempt to scale up to compete with petroleum and what are their strategies to deal with them?

* What federal policies are most important to the industrybfuture?

Hear first-hand how these executives will tackle these and other key challenges to build their companies for success!

Lester: Education and Nuclear Energy at MIT

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 07:02:41 GMT