collegian kansas
Turn to Edge, page 5, to learn how a recent volcano eruption disrupted a K-State student’s European travel plans.
state
tuesday, april 27, 2010
www.kstatecollegian.com
Vol. 115 | No. 146
New panels lend power, can educate
Solar Energy
Ashley Dunkak | Collegian The engineering complex of Rathbone, Durland and Fielder Halls now has two solar panels and will soon sport a wind turbine on the roof, thanks to a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. The project provides an opportunity to expose students to sustainability and prepare them to be better employees in the future because of the rising awareness of sustainability on a global and national scale, said Anil Pahwa, professor of electrical and computer engineering and principle investigator for the project. The money from the grant goes to installation equipment, salaries for the electrical engineering students involved in the project and a small support for the professors, Pahwa said. Students participating include Christopher Eldridge, graduate student in electrical engineering; Jeff Schuler, senior in electrical engineering; and Scott Geier, junior in electrical engineering. Eldridge and Geier worked on the circuitry and installation of the solar panels and Schuler is the Web master for the project. The solar panels produce direct current power and the power grid for the building takes alternating current power. In layman’s terms, DC is battery power and AC is what comes from an electrical outlet in the wall. However, the team has managed to convert the DC energy into the AC form so the solar panels and wind turbine provide another power source for the building.
Rathbone Hall, as well as Durland and Fiedler Hall, will be using two newly-installed solar panels to promote sustainability. “We’re using inverters; gridtie inverters I guess would be kind of the key word, and that’s how the power that’s produced is put into the building,” Eldridge said. The maximum energy the panels produce per day is about 400 watts, which is the equivalent of four to six light bulbs. “In terms of the economic evaluation, if you look at the cost of what it would take to produce that, it might not be quite there right now, but the technology is there, so our goal is to demonstrate to the public and the students a little bit of technology and what’s coming in the future in terms of sustainability,” Pahwa said.
One of the ways the department can demonstrate the technology is the project Web site, Sustain.ece.ksu.edu. The solar panels have a communication link to the Web site, so visitors can view how much power the panels are producing at that moment and what the amount produced in a day could power. “The data is archived, so it can be used for classroom projects; it can be used for research projects,” Pahwa said. He also said it was scheduled to be on display at the K-State Open House on April 24. Eldridge said she thinks the panels and turbine are going to accomplish the goal they set
out to do. “It’s going to be an experimental educational platform,” Eldridge said. The department has integrated the project and topics of sustainability into the engineering curriculum in numerous ways, including a new student assembly that focuses on what sustainability means overall. In the introduction to electrical engineering, professors give more details on solar and wind energy, and students do some experiments on efficiency of solar panels and such. Also, the department offers upper-level classes on solar and wind energy, Pahwa said. Pahwa said if one lives in
Donated supplies help Iraqi and Afghan children Ashley Dunkak | Collegian Boxes will be placed in the residence halls and sororities of K-State to allow students to donate leftover school supplies to the non-profit organization Help Us Learn...Give Us Hope beginning May 3 and 4. The organization collects supplies and sends them overseas to Iraq and Afghanistan for U.S. soldiers to distribute to children. The organization began with a soldier in Vietnam who walked into a hut and saw a little girl crying because she was scared of the soldiers. He felt there was something wrong with this, and began working to build relationships with the children of the area and asked his community back home to send school supplies for them. It was then he first experienced the benefits of having a peaceful and educational relationship with the youth in Vietnam. That man was Gary LaGrange, now a retired colonel from Fort Riley and a Manhattan resident. LaGrange now works 75 hours a week on the volunteer organization he founded. These days, he receives over 200 requests monthly from troops who would like supplies sent to their areas to help the children and build relationships with them. The organization has been so successful that it now works with the U.S. Embassy and National Library Association and has been asked to open 15 libraries overseas and to include Africa in its programs. Nicole Cook, graduate stu-
Tommy Theis | Collegian
southern California, Arizona or places with similar climates where sunshine is much stronger and the cost of electricity is higher, then solar and wind energy start to make sense. However, it is not particularly practical for Kansas residents at the time. “Unless you really want to be a green person and are willing to spend a little bit of extra money to do that, I think in pure economic terms it might not be very viable,” Pahwa said. Eldridge said the technology might become more efficient and affordable in the future if
See SOLAR, Page 8
City Commission
City to discuss transit plan, survey report Natalie Birzer | Collegian
Photo Illustration by Tommy Theis dent in apparel and textiles, had donated to Help Us Learn... Give Us Hope in the past, so when her graduate class in nonprofit management assigned her to follow an organization and work on a project with it, it was the perfect opportunity. Cook is the wife of a deployed soldier, 1st Lt. Captain Promotable Shawn M. Cook. “It makes me feel a little closer to him to know that we’re doing everything we can here to help our soldiers overseas, who are doing all that they pos-
sibly can, and so that makes me feel closer,” Cook said. “And I’m hoping that it engages the community to feel closer.” Cook submitted a proposal to Nick Lander, assistant director of residence life, suggesting how K-State could work with the organization. “We get approached often by groups that want to do sort of collection of items during move-out time, and for us, it’s just a great opportunity to support those groups and for those items that students don’t want
to take home with them to be reused,” Lander said. Cook also visited with Heather Houchen, director of community and internal relations of the Panhellenic Council, regarding collection of items like pencils and notebooks at sororities on the K-State campus. “We are very fortunate to be in college for sure, and those are things that we’ve never had to worry about, so to be able to help them out so they don’t
See SUPPLIES, Page 3
The Manhattan city commissioners will meet for a work session at 5 tonight in City Hall, 1101 Poyntz Ave., to discuss the transit plan update and the archeological survey commenced in 2008. The commissioners will address plans for mapping out new zones and routes for the city ATA buses. The zones were last updated in 2001. ATA Bus is a nonprofit organization operating primarily with funds from various local, state and federal grants. The city of Manhattan contracted with the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at K-State in 2008 to undertake an archeological inventory and survey of the Manhattan urban area to identify and evaluate archeological resources in areas of development. At the work session, the commissioners will discuss looking at areas of potential urban development and consider residential sites for new growth. “In the past, potential urban development sites we weren’t aware of have been destroyed,” said Manhattan Long Range Planner Cam Moeller. “We need to make sure this doesn’t happen now.” All citizens are encouraged to attend the meeting, which will be televised on local Cable channel 3. A live feed of the meeting will also be available on the City of Manhattan’s Web site at Ci.manhattan.ks.us.