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Session Description

Free ticketed event
This workshop was developed as part of the NSF ATE Center on Renewable Energy (Project CREATE). The workshop uses the widely available mathematical software tool MATLAB® from MathWorks to provide the participants with a variety of simplified mathematical expressions and analytical models for renewable energy systems (often derived from much more complex and advanced source material). The presentation gives clear explanations of the concepts involved and their relevance to a particular alternative energy application. After completion of the workshop, instructors will have a set of modules (documentation on the methodology, PowerPoint lectures, MATLAB® files) on the mathematics of renewable energy and a working knowledge of those features of MATLAB that will allow them to modify the modules developed during the workshop and merge them into their existing course material.

Topics will include:

Mathematical Modeling and Analysis with MATLAB - Script Files and User-Defined Functions, Basic Plotting and Programming with MATLAB.

Mathematics of Wind Energy Systems - Wind Velocity Profiles and Wind Power Calculations, Wind Turbine Rotor Dynamics, Lift vs Drag Forces in Rotor Blade Airfoil Design.

Mathematics of Solar Energy Systems - Collecting Sunlight using Altitude and Azimuth Angle Computations, PV Cell Operating Characteristics and Load Analysis, Solar Installation Efficiency Criteria and Calculations.

Speaker

1. Dr. Alan Paul Ross

   Cuesta College

   The speaker is a tenured professor of Engineering and Technology at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, Calif. For the past 18 years he has been a faculty member of NSF Project CREATE (California Regional Alliance for Technical Education), which is now the NSF Advanced Technology Education Center for Renewable Energy. Before joining the faculty at Cuesta College he was a Sr. Project Engineer at Northrop Grumman, Space and Defense Systems Group, in Redondo Beach, Calif., where he worked on the design, development, simulation, and mathematical modeling of a wide variety of complex dynamic systems. His current interests include the application of mathematical modeling and computer simulation to the dynamics and control of alternative energy systems. He received his B.S. (summa cum laude), M.S., and Ph.D. in Engineering, from the University of California at Los Angeles. He is a member of IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Tau Beta Pi (the National Engineering Honor Society), and ASEE (the American Society for Engineering Education). He was born in Santa Monica, Calif.