The Appalachian Energy Summit returned in 2022 after a three-year hiatus. Held June 8-10, the Summit welcomed sustainability professionals, faculty, administrators, and students across the Carolinas to AppState for an enriching immersion in key sustainability topics. Once again, the Appalachian Energy Center partnered with the Summit’s host, the Office of University Sustainability, to hold the student poster competition, a tradition and highlight of the Summit.
This year, students from eight universities across North Carolina and South Carolina submitted 18 poster concepts illustrating their recent research activity. Students invited to participate in the competition presented their posters to a team of judges, and to Summit participants throughout the day. The competition awarded the two highest scores of each academic level, undergraduate and graduate.
2022 AES Poster Contest Winners
Undergraduate Students
Grand Prize: Corey McVay, University of North Carolina at Asheville. “A Feasibility Study of Solar Energy Production and a Microgrid on the University of North Carolina Asheville Campus”
Second Grand Prize (tie): Frank Jeffries, Clemson University. “Sustainable Biohydrogen Production”
Second Grand Prize (tie): Christopher White, Clemson University. “Sediment MFC with Mussels”
Honorable Mention: Alexander Kasko, Clemson University. “Rate of CO2 Diffusion and Inorganic Carbon Concentration with BG-11 Medium”
Graduate Students
Grand Prize: Taylin Spurlock, Appalachian State University. “A Spatially Explicit Analysis of Extreme Weather Risk on Vulnerable Populations in the Southeastern United States”
Grand Prize: Vinson Williams, North Carolina State University. “Tethered Coaxial Turbines for Hydrokinetic Energy Harvesting”
Honorable Mention: Gregory Carlton with Sheila Jebiwot, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. “Where are the AFV’s and Environmental Pollution? A Geographic Analysis of the Socio-Spatial Mismatch in the Decarbonization of the Transport Sector in Maryland”
