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Held June 7-9, the 11th annual Appalachian Energy Summit convened hundreds of sustainability professionals, faculty, administrators, and students at App State for an immersive, solution-oriented experience focusing on clean energy and sustainability issues. The Appalachian Energy Center partnered with the Summit’s host, the Office of University Sustainability, to hold a popular summit tradition, the student poster competition. The competition offers students the opportunity to present their recent clean energy-related research activities and compete for cash prizes.
This year, students from 10 institutions of higher education in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee participated in the competition. On Thursday, June 8 students presented their posters to a judges panel, which evaluated the strengths of each entry’s presentation of research. The competition awarded the two highest scores of each academic level, undergraduate and graduate.
Organizing the poster competition is a genuine pleasure for us,” says Appalachian Energy Center Director Dr. Jamie Russell. “Nurturing and facilitating education and research around clean energy is a mission critical factor for the Energy Center. This year’s competition has attracted an especially interesting and diverse selection of multidisciplinary pursuits in student research.”
Grand prize winners and honorable mentions were announced during the summit’s closing plenary on June 9.
2023 AES Poster Contest Participants
Undergraduate Category
- Kimberly Cerone (Science) Rowan-Cabarrus Community College: “Campus Wide Plastic Wastes Management: Upcycling Plastics into 3D Printing Filament & Conversion to Instructional Tools”
- Ransom Cope (Construction Management) Appalachian State University: “Garwood Hall Distillation System Improvements”
- Joey Crews (Sustainable Technology) Appalachian State University: “Experiential Learning of Met Tower Instrumentation for Wind Energy Assessment”
- Luke Foster (Computer Science) University of North Carolina at Asheville: “Microgrid Vehicle Telematics System”
- Trevor Goldston (Mechatronics Engineering) University of North Carolina at Asheville: “Mobile Microgrid Vehicle Conversions”
- Peyton Lindogan (Environmental Science) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Project topic: “Estimating PEM Electrolyzer Costs for Hydrogen Production Through 2050.” Honorable Mention
- Kaylor Mead (Interior Design) Appalachian State University. Project topic: “Parkway Commons: A Net-Zero, Low-Carbon, Co-Housing Solution for Affordable Housing in the High Country” Grand Prize Winner
- Grace Waugh (Sustainable Technology) Appalachian State University. Project topic: “Waste to Riches: Testing the Viability of a Heated Vermicomposting Bin Made from a Repurposed Solar Thermal Collector” Grand Prize Winner
Graduate Category
- Olorunjuwon Ajayi (Electrical Engineering) North Carolina State University. Project topic: “Developing Home Power System (HPS) in Native American Community.” Grand Prize Winner
- Casey Ballard (Biosystems Engineering) Clemson University. Project topic: “Indoor Algal Cultivation for Air Purification”
- Ryan Barry (Sustainability Studies) Lenoir-Rhyne University, Asheville. Project Topic: “Enabling a NC Climate Resilience Network”
- HossamEldin ElSherif (Computational Data Science and Engineering) North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Project topic: “Header Shape Optimization Using Computational Fluid Dynamics.”
- Donald Gariepy (Applied Energy and Electromechanical Engineering) University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Project topic: “Retrofit Optimization Towards Zero Net Energy Student Housing at UNC Charlotte: A Case Study”
- Nils Horneff (Mechanical Engineering) University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Protect topic: “Simplified Modeling of a Point Absorbing Wave Energy Converter.” Honorable Mention
- Frank Jeffries (Biosystems Engineering) Clemson University. Project topic: “Techno-Economic Analysis of Biological Hydrogen Production Through Fermentation”
- Sohag Kumar Saha (Electrical and Computer Engineering) Tennessee Technological University. Project topic: “Peak Shaving using Battery Energy Storage Systems via Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL)”
- Vinson Williams (Aerospace Engineering) North Carolina State University. Project topic: “Radially-Azimuthally Discretized Blade Element Momentum Theory for the Prediction of Non-Uniform Loading and Power Extraction of Marine Hydrokinetic Coaxial Turbines” Grand Prize Winner
2023 Judges Panel
- Dr. Craig Becker, Professor, Health Education and Promotion, East Carolina University
- Lauren Bishop, Chief Sustainability Officer, Western Carolina University
- Dr. Chelsea Edward, Program Chair of Life Sciences & Physical Sciences, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
- Sophia Masciarelli, Sustainability Engagement Coordinator, Duke University
- George Santucci, Sustainability and Special Projects Manager, Town of Boone
- Dr. Selima Sultana, Professor, Geography, Environment, and Sustainability, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
- Jennifer Weiss, Co-Director, North Carolina Clean Energy Fund
Poster Contest 2023 Winners
