dailygamecock.com UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
VOL. 115, NO. 05 l SINCE 1908
WEDNESDAY, JULY 9 - 15, 2014
Program hosts international students
Kelley Kennedy / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Professor Charles Partlow engages students from Beijing International Studies University in a lecture on leadership in business and business strategy.
HRSM offers business courses for students from China and Curacao Natalie Pita
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After working for several years, the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management has taken a significant step towards globalization, a major strategic focus for the college by hosting the college’s first international summer program. International students from China and the Caribbean nation of Curacao are taking tourism and business classes at USC this summer. The 47 students and two teachers from Beijing International Studies University will be on campus for three weeks, while the 12 students and one teacher from the Inter-Continental University of the Caribbean will be at USC for five weeks. “The college of HRSM has been devoting energies to international collaborations for at least five years and what we try to do is establish relationships with countries and regions,” said Brian Mihalik dean of the College of HRSM. “We’ve been trying for years to come up with a mechanism to get more than just one or two students each fall or spring.” The students are not taking formalized, three credit hours classes, but instead are paying a fee for professors from the College of HRSM and
the Darla Moore School of Business to present to them. The program also includes visits to Charleston, Charlotte, Washington, New York and the Boston area, all with the goal of helping the students gain an understanding of the American tourism industry. “This is the first time we have had a large group of students coming and paying us a fee to organize their trip,” Mihalik said. “We’re excited about this because it’s been a long time in development.” Mihalik hopes that the international students, who are staying in South Quad, are able to get a feel for the full student experience through the “bigger and more inclusive” atmosphere of USC, made complete by facilities such as the student union and the Strom Thurmond Wellness & Fitness Center. “Our universities are very different from theirs,” Mihalik said. “They’re really getting a sense of how we look at education both inside and outside of the classroom.” Mihalik also hopes that these students experience what it’s like to be in America and get exposure to American business that they can incorporate later in their experiences in their home countries. He sees this as a way for USC to expand its outreach, potentially attract more students to come here and even possibly form dual-degree programs. “These students are all going to be going back and working in the ... tourism industry, so having
that connection to Columbia and the university is really important,” Mihalik said. He is especially excited about having the Chinese students on campus because of their large impact on the American tourism industry. China has a middle class bigger than the entire United States population, and Mihalik predicts they will become outbound tourists in the future. “We’re trying to get more Asian students in our fall and spring classes and we think this is one of the mechanisms to do this,” Mihalik said. “What’s going on over there will affect every single student that graduates from our units for the next 40 years.” USC has connections with these two particular universities, both of which have strong tourism and hospitality programs, through faculty exchange and academic research. “O u r col lege has a t rad it ion of reach i ng internationally to cooperate with other universities and colleges around the world,” said Lin Wang, international program coordinator of the College of HRSM. “I would say this part of [Mihalik’s] grand plan.” Although this is the College of HRSM’s first international summer program, Mihalik and Wang do not intend for it to be the last. “I hope that next year, with the help of our sister universities, we are able to have a bigger, better summer program for them next year.” DG
USC researchers receive $3.2 million federal grant Department of Energy to fund fuel cell research Kelley Kennedy
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A team of Un iversit y of Sout h Carolina researchers was recently awarded a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the development of a solid oxide fuel cell that could change the nation’s approach to energy. Mechanical engineering professor Kev in Huang and chemical engineering professors Ralph Edward White and Jason Hattrick-Simpers have been working on the fuel cell s y stem for t he past t h ree yea rs. T he g r a nt , f u nded t h rough t he new Reliable Electricit y Based on Electrochemical Systems (REBELS) will enable the team to apply their research by creating a prototype. On ly 13 R EBELS g ra nt s were distributed nationwide. “ It ’s v e r y c o mp e t it i v e t o g e t funding from ARP-E, and usually the funding goes to renowned, prominent universities. It’s a big push for our visibility to the community and across the nation,” Huang said. “It’s a big honor. A lot of people got excited, including me.” Solid oxide fuel cells are ceramicbased and convert chemical energy i nt o ele c t r ic a l e nerg y. T hou g h engineers have been developing the technology for decades, researchers continue to seek ways to implement the fuel cells on a larger scale. “Currently, the major barrier to the commercialization of this technology is the cost and the reliability,” Huang
said. “ARP-E’s target is to lower the operating temperature of the solid oxide fuel cell so that the reliability and the cost can be improved.” In addition to building a fuel cell that operates at lower temperatures, Huang and his team are working to give their prototype the potential to not only generate power, but also to store it. “The fuel cell, in general, is used for power generation. But if we add a new dimension, a new functionality to the fuel cell system, it could be very important for widespread renewable energy in the future,” Huang said. If f uel cells like t he one being developed by USC researchers were integrated into the nation’s power grid, they would provide supplemental power during periods of high demand. Currently, when demand is too high for power plants to meet — on especially hot days when many households run air conditioning — additional power is generated by smaller, auxiliary power plants that burn fossil fuels. Huang’s prototype is designed to replace these auxiliary plants as a secondary source of power. “Right now the fuel cell is modular, compact, and is not ready for the large, premium power generation,” Huang said. “Now, we’re in the hundred kilowatt range. So that is perfect for that auxiliary power generation and also distributive generation.” Solid oxide fuel cells are desirable alternatives to fossil fuel-burning au x i l i a r y p l a nt s b e c au s e w h i le auxiliary plants have low efficiency and high emissions, fuel cells have high efficiency and low emissions. To build a f uel cell protot y pe,
Kelley Kennedy / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
Dr. Youngseok Jee is part of Huang’s team of researches working on the development of a solid oxide fuel cell. If it succeeds, it will help lower carbon emissions. Huang and his team are collaborating with researchers from the University of Texas- Austin, Clemson University and the University of Maryland. If the prototype is successful, USC researchers’ solid oxide fuel cell will provide an efficient way to generate, distribute, and store electrical energy and could help lower carbon emissions, reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil
fuels, stabilize the power grid, and cut costs. “Right now, the whole nation is aware of global warming and climate c h a n g e b e c au s e o f g r e e n h o u s e emissions,” Huang said. “So pursuing a high efficiency with low emission power generating device is critically important to our clean energy future.” DG