Leigh Ann Conn Fellows Program

Conn Graduate Fellowships

Overview. A number of Supplemental Graduate fellowships will be awarded by the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research at the University of Louisville.

These fellowships are designed to supplement existing support for Ph.D. students who plan to conduct research in energy related areas that are part of the mission of the Conn Center.
Fellowships are intended to provide additional funds for travel, equipment purchase, or a supplemental stipend.
Two to three Graduate fellowships will be awarded each year depending on availability of funding and requests.

Awards. Each award will be for a maximum of $10,000 and will be renewable for three years contingent upon availability of funding and the fellow's progress.

Criteria. Students in good standing may apply from any university. The fellowship work will be performed at the University of Louisville under the mentorship of a faculty member associated with the Conn Center. Awards will be judged based on qualification of applicant and intellectual merit of proposed research work.

Applications. Awards are highly competitive. To apply, submit your curriculum vita and a statement of research interests or a specific topic you plan to address (three pages maximum length). In this description include a statement of how the fellowship funding is to be used for each year. In addition, submit university transcript(s) and three academic references (including the faculty member who will be guiding the proposed research work). Send your package via email with contact info to conn.center@louisville.edu with "2012 LAC Grad Fellow application" in the subject line.

Outcomes. By the end of the Graduate Fellowship experience, the student will be expected to have made a significant research progress, e.g., journal publications, development of a working prototype, or some other substantial contribution of similar value. For multi-year awards, a yearly progress report will be submitted to the Conn Center Faculty Advisory Committee. These progress reports will be reviewed to ensure adequate progress has been made, before yearly funding will be renewed.

See conncenter.org for more information on the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research's capabilities, personnel, and programs.

Conn Undergraduate Fellowships

Download Conn Undergraduate Fellows PDF

Overview. Six undergraduate fellowships will be awarded annually by the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research at the University of Louisville.

Three fellowships will be for summer co-op positions with the Conn Center. The applicant will work on a project related to one of the following: solar, energy efficiency, biofuels, energy storage, or advanced energy materials.
Three fellowships will be for the Team Kentuckiana Solar Decathlon team. More info: http://conncenter.org/energy-education/solar-decathlon/

Awards. A $7,500 stipend will be awarded for each co-op position plus $500 for supplies, which requires a 16-week commitment at 37.5 hours/week. $5,000 will be awarded to each student working with the Solar Decathlon team.

Applications. Students may apply for up to two specific projects posted on the Conn Center website. Awards are highly competitive. To apply, submit a statement of research interests and abilities, name of the project, university transcript(s), and two academic references with contact info to conn.center@louisville.edu with "2012 LAC Undergrad Fellow application" in the subject line. Applications are accepted anytime, but should be for a specific term, i.e., Summer (May 15 - Aug 15), Fall (Sept 1 - Dec 15), and Spring (Jan 15 - May 1).

Outcomes. By the end of the co-op experience, the student will be expected to have made a significant research impact, e.g., a contribution to a journal publication, development of a working prototype, or some other substantial contribution of similar value.

See conncenter.org for more information on the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research's capabilities, personnel, and programs.

Undergraduate Research Projects

Solar Decathlon Co-ops

Space Conditioning Energy Use Demand Optimization
Conduct an energy study of the 1000 ft2 solar decathlon home, using eQuest, BEopt, or other dynamic holistic energy analysis software. The purpose of this study will be to investigate the effects of changes in the building envelop, fenestrations, HVAC systems (ground coupling and thermal mass systems as well), and lighting systems on the overall energy used in the home. The intent will be to develop relationships between changes in the building systems listed previously and the energy used in the home. These relationships will be used to support design optimization with least cost for minimal energy used as the ultimate goal.

Least Cost PV Energy System Design
Conduct a PV power generation and cost study for a PV system for of the 1000 ft2 solar decathlon home. The purpose of this study will be to investigate a variety of PV systems, determine the power generation capabilities of the systems, their cost, and the advantages and disadvantages of each (connections to the roof, durability, etc). The analysis will be used to support a cost optimization for providing 30-40% more power than demand on a daily basis for the design conditions in Kentucky and southern Indiana. A further analysis will be conducted on each system using the range of conditions possible in Irvine, California to evaluate the system performance under competition conditions. The ultimate goal will be a least cost PV and power system design that will meet our design criteria and be zero net energy under all possible conditions during the competition.

Learning Building Automation and Control System
Investigate how learning algorithms might be used in a whole building control system to reduce energy in the Solar Decathlon home. Review the state of the art in building automation systems, HVAC control systems, and power control systems. Determine which systems can be controlled, investigate the range of control strategies that have been used for each system, what sensors are needed and where must these be placed. Determine what inputs are critical for maintenance of indoor environmental comfort and reduced energy consumption. Investigate potential learning algorithms and develop a control program. Train the program using whole building energy simulations. The end result will be a program that can control the major energy systems in the home to minimize energy use while maintaining indoor comfort levels.

Solar Manufacturing R&D studies

Manufacturing solar cells with light
The manufacture of solar cells typically uses high temperatures that are not compatible with plastics. Our recent work has shown that we can manufacture solar cells using short duration intense light pulses (much like flash photography). This project will involve an undergraduate student to assist the Solar Manufacturing R&D group in determining the optimal formulation and processing for a high efficiency cell. The student will be involved in preparing formulations, adjusting process variables, making solar cells, and characterizing. The outcome will be an optimized process for a flexible solar cell that can be translated into the roll-to-roll equipment at the Conn Center.

Nanocomposites for Flexible Solar Cells
Transparent conducting films are used extensively in smart phones and tablets, but also have a very important roll in a number of renewable energy devices, especially photovoltaics. The current technology involves very expensive materials and processes that are not very flexible. There is an opportunity to use thin film nanocomposites as a replacement technology that would be both inexpensive and flexible. This project will involve an undergraduate student to assist the Solar Manufacturing R&D group in investigating a number of nanocomposite systems as a transparent flexible conductor. The student will be involved in preparing samples, adjusting processing variables, and characterizing the films. The outcome will be novel thin films that can be processed using the roll-to-roll equipment at the Conn Center.

Biofuels/Biomass R&D studies

Surface characterization of fibers during acid hydrolysis
Fibers contain cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. Acid hydrolysis is done to convert the carbohydrates in the fibers to sugars. We can selectively hydrolyze the sugars with a proper design of the hydrolysis process. Understanding the surface condition of fibers during the hydrolysis process can help design a better hydrolysis process. This project involves developing the hydrolyzate process to effectively produce biofuels from biomass.

Hydrolysis characterization and purification
In order to produce biofuels from biomass, carbohydrates in the fibers are hydrolyzed to sugars to produce a hydrolyzate. Composition of the hydrolyzate varies depending on the process used. A thorough understanding of the composition and further purification of sugars in the hydrolyzate are critical to produce biofuels from the hydrolyzate. This project involves reviewing and developing the appropriate analytical methods and purification techniques to increase the purity of sugars in hydrolyzates toward biofuels production.

Materials Characterization studies

Informatics- and Computational-Inspired Materials for Solar Hydrogen: Synthesis and Characterization
Providing enough energy to power the planet and at the same time reduce CO2 emissions is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Among several technologies considered, hydrogen production via photoelectrochemical (PEC) (direct solar) water splitting seems to be one of the most promising, as it uses an abundant energy source to produce a clean fuel. However, the main challenge of practical implementation of this technology is finding a material that will satisfy a number of requirements including a direct band gap between 1.7 eV and 2.2 eV, band edges that straddle H2/O2 redox potentials, and high corrosion stability. Currently, the Conn Center is involved in a multi-institutional collaboration on the discovery and development of promising PEC materials. The discovery of these materials is done through an extensive computational modeling and high throughput statistical analysis followed by the experimental verification. The experimental part of the project will involve an undergraduate student to assist the Conn Center's Materials Characterization group in the synthesis and characterization of materials identified by the computational and informatics methods. Experimental methods will include (but will not be limited to) high-pressure synthesis using diamond anvil cells and photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy.

In situ Heating TEM Studies of Advanced Energy Materials
Advanced materials play an increasingly important role in the development of renewable energy solutions and a variety of nanoscale technologies. The development of advanced materials takes place at the interfaces between: (1) design (modeling); (2) fabrication (processing); and (3) characterization. Traditionally, the characterization has been a post-fabrication, ex situ, process. However, in recent years, the rapid development of research instrumentation has enabled an increasing number of in situ techniques, where real time observations of the interplay between processing and material properties are possible. In this project, systematic in situ heating experiments of a number of advanced energy-related materials will be conducted in the transmission electron microscope (TEM). The real time changes of material properties will be monitored as a function of annealing temperature and/or time to provide feedback for better material design. An example study will involve in situ heating experiments of palladium-based nanoparticles, which are used for high-temperature applications such as combustion catalysts or automotive emission catalysts. The effectiveness of these catalysts depends on the size and shape of nanoparticles. Therefore, our in situ TEM heating experiments will focus on (1) shape transformations and (2) thermal stability of these Pd-based metallic nanoparticles. The project will involve an undergraduate student to assist the group in conducting these experiments and data analysis. In particular, the student will quantify the shape and size distributions of nanoparticles and correlate them with experimental conditions such as annealing temperatures and times, as well initial nanoparticle size and distributions.

Mother Nature Takes a Part: Wind Energy

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