Just how immersive is project-based learning at the School of Engineering?
One team of fourth-years is figuring out how adding $50,000 in upgrades to a floor plan today could make a house net-zero for decades. Another is devising a monitoring system that allows homeowners to know how much water they’re using at a glance. A third, determining which roof angle will result in the most solar power collection.
And they, along with a group of 35 other Vanderbilt undergraduates, graduate students and professors, recently returned from a weeklong trip to Sterling Ranch, Colorado — the 5-square-mile, $4.3 billion planned community where their research will be put to use.
The group also visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Siemens, Lockheed Martin, Xcel Energy and Douglas County offices, hearing from economic development experts, elected officials, homebuilders and engineers from across the disciplines so they could better understand the development’s context.
They’re enjoying Senior Design project and advanced research opportunities thanks to a unique partnership between Vanderbilt University and the developers of a smart, sustainable city being built from the ground up just south of Denver. Sterling Ranch is the brainchild of Colorado entrepreneurs Harold and Diane Smethills and their son, Brock, a Vanderbilt engineering alumnus working as the project’s COO.
Hugh van Heesewijk (EE’16) said seeing Sterling Ranch in person made all the maps and housing plans he’d reviewed more relevant.
“On top of that, listening to the Smethillses and seeing what they’re hoping to get out of this community was really interesting – seeing their passion and seeing the future of sustainable energy in America was really a great takeaway,” he said.
Funded by a Trans-Institutional Program grant from Vanderbilt with a match from the developers, the partnership provides a test bed for a host of emerging technologies involving rainwater harvesting, water quality monitoring, the Smart Grid, net-zero housing and solar power.
Alongside the engineers, a team from Peabody College of education and human development is working to envision next-gen schools for the community – which will have 31,000 residents at its completion in 20 years – and a team from Arts & Sciences is investigating water quality on the site.
The grant’s principal investigators are David Kosson, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering, and Claire Smrekar, associate professor of leadership, policy and organization at Peabody College.
Contact
Heidi Hall, (615) 322-6614
Heidi.Hall@Vanderbilt.edu
On Twitter @VUEngineering