The Penn State Wind Energy Club (Happy Valley Energy Corporation)
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
Faculty Advisor
Mark A. Miller
Susan W. Stewart
Student Leads
Katherine Bowser
Maddison Brant
Conner Burger
Shana Hartwick
Juanita Jayaprakash
Satyam Patel
What is your team name, institution name, city, and state?
We are The Penn State Wind Energy Club from Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania.
Who are your faculty advisor and student lead(s)?
Our faculty advisor is Mark Miller, and our student leads are Katherine Bowser, Maddison Brant, Conner Burger, Shana Hartwick, Juanita Jayaprakash, and Satyam Patel.
Why is your team participating in the Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC)?
Eager to join the renewable energy workforce, as undergraduate students, we are an interdisciplinary team dedicated to promoting and innovating wind energy technology. We believe friendly competition fuels invention, and we value this opportunity to compete against like-minded students.
The Penn State Wind Energy Club includes (from left to right) in the back row: Kevin Schmiedel, Blake Wall, Kieran Cox, Erik Long, Devlin Day, Connor Burger, Ian Lin, Jiaming Wang, Folayemi Omogboyega, CJ Young, Jeffery Su, Bubune Owusu, Evan Yost, Gabriel Schaefer, Armend Berisha, Nathan Halford, Mark Young, and Kevin Claros; and in the middle row: Justice Boyd, Devlin Day, Jason Oh, Kan Petyim, Kyle Cronin, Victor Yang, Aditya Ghadigaonkar, Thomas McCue, Brian Truong, Ryan Manning , Kabilan Sugumaran, Katherine Bowser, Maddison Brant, Christopher Wozniak, Michael Fisher, Daniel Romero, Rochelle Xavier, Parth Kshirsagar, Katie Sharp, Harshil Jani, and Satyam Patel; and in the front row: Eric Sarbacker, Josh Bannon, Tara Presnall, Shana Hartwick, Hamdan Almarzooqi, Maliha Reza, Raheem Karima, and Juanita Karen Jayaprakash.
What is your vision for a clean energy future?
Our nation needs a transition to renewable energy to combat the devastating effects of climate change, such as severe natural disasters, water shortages, and worsening air and water quality. Sustainable, affordable wind energy holds the potential to transform our nation to a carbon-free electric grid.
Describe your project, objectives, and game plan.
Our game plan has been to form a very large and diverse team subdivided into three specialized subteams focused on each of the CWC’s contests: the Turbine Prototype Contest & Turbine Testing Contest, the Project Development Contest, and the Connections Creation Contest. Each individual subteam further subdivides into smaller teams. Our team has many leads and empowers new members by offering them impactful positions.
What are you doing to ensure your team is diverse and inclusive?
Our team’s mission is to recruit and empower groups that have been historically underrepresented in the clean energy industry. To accomplish this, we partnered with the Pennsylvania State University Society of Women Engineers and Pennsylvania State University Multicultural Engineering Program. In addition, we recruit members from the College of Liberal Arts to diversify our team’s educational backgrounds. Currently, our team includes students from a range of majors, including finance, business, communications, French, and various engineering disciplines.
What do you do for team building/to boost team morale?
We believe an interconnected team with a strong social network enhances trust and boosts creativity. That’s why our team hosts social events, group outings, workshops, and shared meals once or twice every month. These activities include hiking the beautiful Pennsylvania mountains, picking apples in the fall, having team dinners after subteam meetings, decorating cookies to de-stress from final exams, and conducting skill-building workshops, such as wood engraving.
This content was submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy by the team. Find more information on CWC 2023.