It has been a very busy semester at Penn State. I’ve served as the faculty director for the Solar Decathlon 2009 effort (Natural Fusion project), I’m developing a course in solar energy conversion, I’m establishing my materials research laboratory, and I’m the outreach and recruiting coordinator for my department. Even so, one of the fun aspects of my job is that so many things overlap each other, and there seems to be an unusually high rate of “moments of synchronicity”. The class overlaps with the project, and the project helps with recruiting, and I’ve gotten to know more people on campus than I ever would have hoped for in my first year at University Park. What a blast!
In the Natural Fusion project, I have 15 amazing students serving as project managers from multiple colleges. They all have the vision and energy to turn this competition into a brilliant learning experience for integrated design, green building, and entrepreneurship. We also already have a team of over 100 (!) students that are helping in our design and marketing process.
I am also fortunate to have two other experienced faculty members deeply involved in the mentoring experience, and several more faculty available for support in the future. The team has been out to several industries seeking support in mentoring, materials, and direct funding–and things are looking very good. Even in the first four months, it appears that we will be testing and deploying many new technologies in photovoltaics and energy efficient materials. It’s not without its stressful periods, but I feel that we have a really great thing going that will be both memorable and valuable to all of our futures.
