U-M students in the Sustainable Energy Systems course (NRE 574/ESENG 599/PP 519) had two electrifying guests this past week, as a pair of 2011 Chevy Volts came to campus. The Volts, manufactured by General Motors, were used to demonstrate topics being discussed in the course taught by Greg Keoleian, the Peter M. Wege Professor of Sustainable Systems at SNRE and the director of its Center for Sustainable Systems (CSS).
Students had a chance to sit inside the cars, look under the hoods at the battery system and learn more about the special monitoring equipment installed by GM to assess the car's performance. Nearly 40 GM engineers are also taking the course via distance learning.
The CSS research group is collaborating on two major grants focused on improving the design and technologies for plug-in hybrid vehicles, such as the Volt. Grants supporting this research include:
"U.S. China Clean Energy Research Center, Clean Vehicle Technology." The sponsor is the Department of Energy.
"A Multi-Scale Design and Control Framework for Dynamically Coupled Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructures, with Application to Vehicle-to-Grid Integration."The sponsor is the National Science Foundation Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure (RESIN) Program.
CSS researchers involved in these projects include Professor Keoleian; Jarod Kelly, an assistant research scientist; SNRE assistant professor Ming Xu; SNRE clinical professor John DeCicco; SNRE doctoral students Hua Cai and Anne Marie Lewis (joint with SNRE and the Department of Mechanical Engineering); SNRE master's student Nathan MacPherson (pursuing a dual degree in the Engineering Sustainable Systems program with the College of Engineering); and Brandon Marshall (pursuing a dual degree in Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise with the Ross School of Business).