A student team navigates taking part in the national Collegiate Wind Competition during a global pandemic
麻豆淫院 at the University of Colorado Boulder have built a team to compete for the first time in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Collegiate Wind Competition (CWC).听
The competition challenges interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate students to offer a unique solution to a complex wind energy project. The elements of the competition include designing, building and testing a wind turbine. The wind turbine is tested in a wind tunnel for about five different tasks dealing with safety, reliability and power transmission. Teams must also design a hypothetical wind farm and analyze its community and financial impacts. This aspect of the competition includes locating a potential wind farm in South Dakota.听
Team member and mechanical modeler Emily Zuetell said, 鈥淸It] makes a lot of sense for CU to be getting involved with CWC now. We have NREL [National Renewable Energy Laboratory] right down the road鈥ind energy is really growing in Boulder and showing that even at the undergraduate level, there鈥檚 opportunities for students to learn about wind energy and start to interact with that industry that鈥檚 growing here in Boulder, is really important. We鈥檙e hoping to lead that charge.鈥�
Thirteen teams will be competing in the 2021 competition along with two 鈥渓earn along鈥� teams, one of which is the CU Boulder team. This is the first year the CWC is allowing 鈥渓earn along鈥� teams. The CU Boulder team is hoping the DOE will be impressed with their work, enough to include them in future years of the competition.听
The interdisciplinary team is composed of mechanical and electrical engineers. The recruited engineers were interviewed on their qualifications and are working on this as their senior design project.听
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has never met in person. Yet, despite this and other challenges, they have successfuly built a solid working relationship using the virtual tools available to them. However, uncertainty surrounding the competition remains. Will it be in person or remote; will it ever happen? Flexibility has thus been key for the team, and they have built it into their plan. David Imola, an electrical and computer modeling engineer on the team, has been hard at work developing virtual models, which can be tested completely remotely. David says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 really helpful in this situation because you don鈥檛 have to physically be there to assemble actual components, you can just put it in a computer and see what happens.鈥�
The team meets at least once a week and has prioritized communication so they can adapt their plans as needed. Additionally, the CWC has added a 鈥渞isk management鈥� category to the scoring in order to account for the current, unusual work environment.
Regardless if the competition ends up being virtual or not, Austin Kim, the Project Manager, said, 鈥淲e all made it a personal goal to continue with the turbine.鈥澨�
Being the smallest team in the competition, with only eight members and one director, could be viewed as a downside, but Austin sees it as one of the team鈥檚 biggest strengths. 鈥淚t kind of gives us an edge鈥t helps us make our own rules and being a 鈥榣earn along鈥� team as well, even though we鈥檙e not technically competing, we鈥檙e still treating it like we are.鈥� Being a 鈥渓earn along鈥� team, they hope to build a solid representation for CU without 鈥渞isking anything in the competition,鈥� says Austin.听
The hope is that this communal effort will set CU up to effectively compete in the CWC in the future. Their group charter exemplifies their team-oriented attitude. While most of their goals have little to do with the CWC itself, focusing instead on collaboration and motivation, they remain focused on the competition at hand. After all, their main goal is, as Austin put it, 鈥渢o put CU on the map (in terms of the CWC).鈥�
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Photo courtesy of the CU Collegiate Wind Competition team.