Alternative Energy Education

I think one can learn much more on the net these days.

NT

The "bulk text" is there. The index is there. There is no table of contents. There is no guided study, no theme. There aren't much in the way of practice materials.

You almost have to know it to find, retain, and "trigger" it for future use.

David A. Smith

yes, and goes far beyond any degree course IME. Not that I've done all degree courses of course. :)

Well... yes and no. There are lots of sites with a table of /their/ contents, and by following links from one good site to another you ca compile your own table of contents and have it be better than you'll get at uni.

By following good sites you can see what each site/teacher thinks is important, and get the differing views, and lots of extra tidbits, which imho is a lot more valuable than just a single tutor's input. I accept its not as neat and tidy.

I make my own table of contents as I go, so any time I want info, I just consult that. It works for me anyway.

There is study direction guidance if you go from one site to another, though its looser. I find that an advantage as I can learn what bits I need to when I need to, in what order I need them, and when I want. I find the rigidity of conventional study a major downside.

Hey theres loads, subject newsgroups provide endless opportunities for worked examples, discussing cases to test your knowledge and acquire more. This is especially true with alt energy, a big topic in ngs.

Thats easy, start with google and once you hit a good site, read it then try the links... keep going. Also do the ngs.

Maybe it wont suit you, but what I learnt in 3 years online, just discussing casually in the evenings only when I felt like it far outstripped what I learnt in a full time degree course, many times over. Plus it picked up on the bugs in my knowledge that a degree never did.

I cant imagine choosing to learn by doing a degree now. Its good to show qualification, but to learn, not particularly.

NT

...

So your degree did what it was supposed to. You learned how to learn. You also learned how to qualify your sources. I think you are heart right, but the basics aren't something we are all built with.

Something will change in the years ahead. We are still somewhat dependent on the master-apprentice model, aren't we?

David A. Smith

Here's a sugestion: design your own "structure" that produces electricity from wind, waves and tides for the Bay of Fundy in NS and NB. The tides there are the highest in the world and have a potential to produce large amounts of electricity using Tidalmills-simalar to windmills only for use in strong under water currents. Tidal energy is probaly the most dependant and environmentally sound of all the renewable sources(tides rise and fall twice a day)and with a density

800X that of air has the potential to produce large amounts of energy. The structure could extend above the water and also extract energy from the wind and waves. Your market is the North Eastern United States-the largest in the world- and only a short distance away- readily in need of alternative sources of electricity. If you can come up with an efficient, reliable and durable design you will have people contacting you for advice.

learn.

not from the degree course though.

again not from the degree course. I'd got those 2 sorted out long before giong to uni, as have lots of folk.

I'm trying to think just what I did learn... not sure really. I do however rmember being surprised that after years of lectures, most of the students asked to do a simple practical exercise had no idea where to even begin. I guess thats when I began to realise just by how far the target was being missed with this whole approach to learning.

I'm still trying to work out what you mean there :)

NT

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Used to be, that a Master would take an apprentice, train them in the "black arts" (whatever that might be), then send them out as "journeymen" to make their way in the world. Hopefully where they would not outshine or otherwise cut into the Master's source of income.

School is much like this, only substitute Master=teacher, Apprentice=student, Journeyman=graduate.

I find that I cannot understand the next order of mathematics, without someone holding my hands to the tools. Maybe it is the way I was raised...

David A. Smith

I suggest doing a master research in wind turbine. All the mechanical engineering department will have a research field in Fluids and most probably in aerodynamics. That's where the game is for the wind turbine (I mean, research in aerodynamics applied to wind turbine). I strongly recommend working with Dr. Parschivoiu at Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal (Montreal, Canada,

Since he has written the only reference book so far in Wind Turbine Design and he still doing research in that field. He had worked in wind turbine research since more than 25 years by now and he's now refered from Japanese university. And he is a nice professor (he was my advisor when I was doing my Master)

In the U.S., that research is more sponsored by private companies such as Boeing and General Electric, it might be harder to get sponsored for your studies by the private sector (since you don't have a Master yet).

Good luck!

Actually, there are quite a few programs if you want to specialize. If you want to do fuel cell type research, there are quite a few places. Queen's Univeristy in Canada has a fuel cell research centre, and there are a lot in the states...pretty much every univsity has one. If you're looking for something more general, then it might be tricky. There was a post at theWatt.com about Wayne State University in Michigan starting up a degree program in Alternative Energy (see link below).