Technician
University improves sustainability Lauren Vanderveen Staff Writer
Countries across the world have mobilized their efforts on the front for sustainability with global events such as Earth Hour and the invention of ecofriendly technology and according to students, our University should be doing the same. Robert Bruck, a professor of plant pathology and forestry, believes the University is making huge strides. “The campus is making an effort about 1,000 times better than it did in the past,” Bruck said. “We have a good way to go, but being a science and technology campus, I think it’s our responsibility to not only be as ‘green’ as possible but to use it as an educational tool, to show people through demonstrations of real projects, that there are more efficient ways of doing things.” According to Bruck, students are making up a great majority of the sustainability efforts on campus. “We have student organizations such as WESA, the WolfPack Environmental Student Association, that are working hard. Some of our students in environmental technology are actually working on solarizing the campus, finding out what buildings that would be most suitable to have photoelectrical electricity on it,” Bruck said. However, some students are not aware of any sustainability efforts. Nada Elhertani, a sophomore in psychology, said, “I do not know about ‘going green.’ Unfortunately, I’m just not aware of any of that stuff. [But] I feel like I’m not the only person who doesn’t know. I feel like people should be [made] more aware of it.” Offices for energy and sustainability that are located on campus are just some of the endeavors made to provide information and teach students, Bruck said. “The building that I’m in, Jordan Hall, I was just informed this morning, will undergo an
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The University makes strides towards educating students and improving sustainability on campus.
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energy audit next week,” Bruck said. “I’ve been bulb purchase, unplug items when you are not here for 33 years and [have] never seen quite as using them, recycle, use reusable water bottles and use a backpack to store food bought much action as [seen] right now. So I’m from areas on campus inencouraged with what’s going on.” stead of the plastic bags Melissa Keeney, a sophomore in enthey provide,” Keeney vironmental technology, detailed said. how sustainability efforts are a “I am conmajor part of her life. v i nc e d t h at Keeney said, “I have aleven if we set ways been recycling and a goal of repicking up trash ducing it by found on the as much as street since I 20 percent, could walk, that it’s atbut t h roug h tainable,” studying enBruck vironmenadded. ta l tech“Part of nology here the way at N.C. State, of doI have learned ing that a b out m a ny would other ways to be is…solar green and help PV [photo the campus to be volt a ic s ] on sustainable.” ou r bu i ld i ngs Some of the efforts to supplement the made to implement sustainenergy use and get free ability include clearly labeling Graphic by sharon eshet electricity from the sun. The recycling bins, installing water price is so low and coming down all the fountains, which are specifically made to fill up watime that it almost seems silly not to ter bottles and setting up motion-censored lighting, have photovoltaics within our campus.” Keeney said. With the polar ice caps melting and our Ozone Whether these efforts are cost-beneficial is a major deciding factor for the University to continue use. depleting, it’s not hard to want the campus to “I think it’s more than cost-efficient. The fact is I further its sustainability efforts. Bruck said that am convinced we spend millions of dollars on this it is important for us to value our energy and campus on electricity, just using one example, that’s learn about how to be more energy efficient. Bruck said, “We have to start realizing that just completely wasted…I literally go around turning off thousands of light bulbs [at night] that are energy is not free, that our energy here mostly just simply lit up for absolutely no reason whatso- comes from coal-fired power plants that pollute the atmosphere…We should be doing the upmost ever,” Bruck said. Keeney provided a few pointers for other students to be able to minimize those effects, not only to be a good steward [to the earth] but also to to contribute to the movement. “Some easy sustainable tips I have are turn off simply show our students that’s what needs to your lights when you are not using them, buy energy be done.” efficient light bulbs next time you are making a light
ACC schools compete in energy challenge University organizations prepare for the annual ACC energy challenge. Sarah Dashow Staff writer
The University is gearing up to participate in the ACC Clean Energy Challenge. Two organizations from campus, the Entrepreneurship Initiative and the FREEDM Systems Center will be working together for this challenge. The challenge is part of the Obama administration’s campaign to promote entrepreneurship. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $2 million to six regions throughout the U.S. in an effort to create nationwide, student-focused clean energy business plans over the next three years. It is open to all schools in the Southeast region as well as other ACC universities. Some non-ACC universities are also participating through an online competition. The goal is to use the competitive nature of collegiate sports to fuel innovative clean energy research and entrepreneurship programs. Each school is encouraged to hold their own Clean Energy Challenge and choose the best business plans from the participating students and organizations to take to the regional and national finals. The University of Maryland’s Dean Chang and Kim Wallace head the southeast region. The University was
Energy continued page 3
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A sociological look at ‘the hookup’ See page 6.
Team from N.C. State innovates and develops ideas for use beyond the confines of campus.
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esigning a base on Mars is every aspiring astronaut’s dream, but for a select group of students, it’s just another homework assignment. This challenge confronted a team of students who competed in the NASA sponsored Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage contest in June. The interdisciplinary team comprised three students from textiles engineering and four from aerospace engineering. “The actual concept was to design a full mission plan to Mars with innovative parts,” Joseph Carter, senior in textiles and team member, said. The first part of their design was an inflatable habitat structure, built with multiple layers of different textile materials. “Rockets, which take people to Mars, are tall and thin, whereas we would like living quarters to be short and f lat,’ Warren Jasper, professor of textiles engineering, said. Jasper served as one of the faculty sponsors for the team. “Thus, we designed the habitat to be inflatable. The inner shell was designed to be cylindrical, and the outer to be oblique, like part of a
Story By Ankita Saxena | Artist’s rendering courtesy of nasa sphere, so that any meteorites hitting ation exposure, for which we tested Vectran by exposing it to radiations it would bounce off.” The habitat’s construction material in the Pulstar Nuclear Reactor at N.C. consisted of textiles such as demron, State.” Part of the contest was to incorpowhich served as a radiation shield, and rate the materials already present on vectran, included for strength. “A previous team guided by Dr. Mars into their survival tools. “The students also Jasper has designed planned on piling a blanket type struc‘Regeleth,’ which is ture for a habitat, the official name for but we wanted to do Mars dirt, on top away with the solid of the structure to structure and build provide additional something flexible,” protection from raCarter said. “We diation,” Jasper said. expanded on the The second part original idea we had, of their design was which was to build a a reactor that would tent like structure turn the carbon diabout eight inches oxide present on thick.” Andre Mazzoleni, associate Mars into water by professor of mechanical The team started engineering catalysis with hyout with a literature drogen. review and an ex“The idea was that tensive preliminary design review, followed by some simu- hydrogen could be got along from earth initially and used to catalyze lations. “We tried doing some of our own carbon dioxide,” Andre Mazzoleni, simulations for the inflated dome of associate professor of mechanical the habitat based on finite element engineering and co-adviser, said. analysis,” Carter said. “We also tested “The products of the chemical reacthe strength of materials to see how tion would be methane, which could much they would degrade with radi- be used as a fuel and water. The water
“The idea was that hydrogen could be got along from earth initially and used to catalyze carbon dioxide”
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could be used for drinking there, and the remaining could be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen could be used for breathing, and the hydrogen could be fed back again into the reaction to continue the catalysis.” The Sabatier Reactor is based on the concept that Mars has carbon dioxide as the main component of its atmosphere. It uses nickel as catalyst, and the most attractive feature of the team’s design was that it enabled a large area to volume reaction, which would speed up the reaction by a large degree. “Instead of using heavy nickel pellets as catalyst, we impregnated quartz fiber with nickel nano-particles,” Carter said. NASA was quite interested in the Sabatier reactor, and they continued correspondence regarding the development. The team also presented its designs at the AIAA conference in April at Alabama, and won the second prize there. According to Carter, working on the project was a good interdisciplinary experience, and it opened a lot of opportunities for all the students in the team.
Albadawi ‘still not satisfied’ See page 8.
Hill finishing college career on top See page 8.
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