Experience with Enhancement of Green Energy Manufacturing Learning in Course and Laboratory Development

The purpose of this paper is to share the experience and early results from an interdisciplinary project that integrates theory and practice in green energy manufacturing with course and laboratory development. This project links new courses in renewable energy, clean energy, and energy efficiency with specialized laboratories that fuse green energy into manufacturing engineering education. Two main components are used to incorporate sustainability into the green energy manufacturing project, including: (1) renewable energy and (2) manufacturing energy efficiency. This paper presents how long-term sustainability and support are established through a variety of mechanisms including the energy mission, the awards of federal grants, design projects, partnership, and online learning community. This paper also shows the development process, design and content of an interdisciplinary sustainability curriculum that integrates manufacturing with the green energy while enlivening campus-community relationships through student projects. Capitalizing on the success of the implementation of green energy manufacturing in the curriculum through the support of federal grants since 2012, the quality of curriculum, course offerings, and laboratory facilities are improved to meet the project mission. The project outcomes help prepare students to: apply discipline-specific theory, conduct experiments, and use real-world experience to interpret, analyze, and solve current and emerging technical problems in green energy manufacturing.