education highlights
Student built solar “cars”
Girl’s camp
Girls Camp and MITES
Over the summer of 2015, CURENT organized two weeklong middle school events. We created curriculum for
the MITES8 (Middle School Introduction to Engineering Systems for Eighth Graders) program and organized
the 3rd Annual Girls-Only STEM Camp. Both camps explored the concepts of how the power grid operates by
using hands-on activities. The final project had the students creating a small power grid that included houses
with multiple LED lights, transmission lines spanning the width of the room, and wind turbines that provided the
power to operate the system. This project was created, as well as other activities explored, over the course of
approximately 14 classroom hours. The programs also included discussions with engineers to learn about their
careers, field trips to the American Museum of Science and Energy, and building tours of the Power Systems and
Power Electronics Labs.
Girls Camp: 25% satisfied + 75% very satisfied = A successful summer camp
What did you like most?
“I enjoyed interviewing people. Doing this helped me to realize how hard, confusing and fun engineering and
science can be!”
“I loved doing more hands on activities without instructions because it gives us more room for creativity.”
“Doing the solar car, wind turbine, and circuits. Because we got hands on experience, no help.”
“I gained knowledge on how the electric grid works in how the different forms of energy can help create mechanical energy into electrical energy”
“I’ve learned how other energy is made, how energy is transported and created”
congratulations
Three papers by CURENT students and faculty have named for best conference paper awards at the 2015 IEEE PES
General Meeting held on July 26-30 in Denver, CO. The paper titles and authors are listed below. Congratulations to
all the authors!
Paper #1: Universal Grid Analyzer Design and Development Authors: Lingwei Zhan, UTK; Jianyang Zhao, UTK;
Shengyou Gao, Tsinghua University; Jerel Culliss, UTK; Yong Liu, UTK; and Yilu Liu, UTK
Paper #2: Measurement Accuracy Limitation Analysis on Synchrophasors Authors: Jiecheng Zhao, UTK; Lingwei
Zhan, UTK; Yilu Liu, UTK; Hairong Qi, UTK; Jose R. Garcia, ORNL; and Paul D. Ewing; ORNL
Paper #3: A GPS-free Power Grid Monitoring System over Mobile Platforms
Zhan, UTK; Yilu Liu, UTK; and Wei Gao, UTK
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Authors: Haoyang Lu, UTK; Lingwei