News Mike Lovell, Associate Dean for ResearchSpearheads $1.25 million power and energy initiative to unite Pitt School of Engineering with industry
Today, driven by a surge in global demand for electricity, there is a need to revitalize these industries, and quickly. Thanks to $1.25 million in grants from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Heinz Endowments, and industry partners, the University of Pittsburgh School of Engineering will play a leading role in this revitalization. Under the Power and Energy Initiative, the Pitt School of Engineering is collaborating with industry leaders such as Westinghouse Electric Co. (nuclear energy), CONSOL Energy (coal mining), KEMA, and Allegheny Power (electric power), with the common goal of reinforcing the workforce and restoring research and development gaps. The school has developed new courses and certificate programs in nuclear engineering, mining engineering, and electric-power engineering and has initiated several cutting-edge research projects in collaboration with its industry partners. Says Mike Lovell, the Pitt engineering school's associate dean for research, "Our goal is to help fill the needs of these industries, both in the way of workforce development and R&D. We can do this by educating future engineers and by seeding student and faculty research projects." Lovell cites Westinghouse's need to hire 1,000-2,000 nuclear engineers within the next few years and Pitt's response in developing a nuclear engineering curriculum. "They've expressed the need and we want to help fill it, to help revitalize the region and contribute to exciting research," he says. The Pittsburgh region is home to a number of leading power-industry companies. Some of the foremost technical experts in nuclear-, mining-, and electric-power engineering work for these companies—and they represent a great resource for Pitt's engineering school to tap into. For example, Gregory Reed, who is senior vice president of KEMA, teaches Pitt's Introductory Power Systems course as an adjunct faculty member. These industry experts bring real-world perspectives to the classroom and serve as a natural bridge between the school and industry. "Pitt is a leader in education, a pioneer in research, and a partner in our region's economic development," says Don Shields, the engineering school's director of corporate relations, "and we've hit all three of these roles with the Power and Energy Initiative." |
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As recently as two decades ago, changes in industry trends required the electric-power, nuclear-energy, and coal-mining industries to downsize and to decrease their investments in research and development.Benedum Hall
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