What is this program about?
This program will educate and train Alabama students about clean energy practices and career opportunities. For our initiative, we will rely on a cross-sector collaboration including Energy Alabama (nonprofit organization), researchers (University of Alabama faculty across various disciplines), Alabama Industrial Assessment Center (AIAC), and other educational institutions in AL.
First, by leveraging Alabama Industrial Assessment Center’s programs on student training and industrial energy assessments, we will provide college students with industrial energy assessment training via a peer mentoring system and an opportunity to participate in energy assessment projects for industry clients, including small, rural businesses.
Second, we will provide educational outreach for energy technology/management and workforce training for both high school and college students.
Finally, we will organize an Energy Entrepreneurship seminar series and field trips to businesses to showcase sustainable energy entrepreneurship vision and practice to our student participants. In recruiting student participants, we will deliberately focus on low-income, racial/ethnic minority students from Alabama Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) partner institutions as well as schools from Tuscaloosa and majority-minority Alabama counties, such as Eutaw and Aliceville.
Our initiative will build a regional network to provide energy and entrepreneurship training for students underrepresented in STEM and, therefore, support their career opportunities in clean energy fields.
We are 1 of the 18 organizations winning the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize. This American-Made Challenges prize supports the Biden-Harris Administrations Justice40 initiative to put environmental and economic justice at the center of America's transition to a net-zero economy by 2050.
The Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize (IEIP) is designed to enhance climate investment benefits to disadvantaged communities and, at the same time, inform equitable research, development, and deployment within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This prize seeks to enable and enhance business and technology incubation, acceleration, and other community and university-based entrepreneurship and innovation in climate and clean energy technologies.
First, by leveraging Alabama Industrial Assessment Center’s programs on student training and industrial energy assessments, we will provide college students with industrial energy assessment training via a peer mentoring system and an opportunity to participate in energy assessment projects for industry clients, including small, rural businesses.
Second, we will provide educational outreach for energy technology/management and workforce training for both high school and college students.
Finally, we will organize an Energy Entrepreneurship seminar series and field trips to businesses to showcase sustainable energy entrepreneurship vision and practice to our student participants. In recruiting student participants, we will deliberately focus on low-income, racial/ethnic minority students from Alabama Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) partner institutions as well as schools from Tuscaloosa and majority-minority Alabama counties, such as Eutaw and Aliceville.
Our initiative will build a regional network to provide energy and entrepreneurship training for students underrepresented in STEM and, therefore, support their career opportunities in clean energy fields.
We are 1 of the 18 organizations winning the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize. This American-Made Challenges prize supports the Biden-Harris Administrations Justice40 initiative to put environmental and economic justice at the center of America's transition to a net-zero economy by 2050.
The Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize (IEIP) is designed to enhance climate investment benefits to disadvantaged communities and, at the same time, inform equitable research, development, and deployment within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This prize seeks to enable and enhance business and technology incubation, acceleration, and other community and university-based entrepreneurship and innovation in climate and clean energy technologies.
Click here to see the Inclusive Energy Innovation Prize:
americanmadechallenges.org/challenges/inclusiveenergyinnovation/index.html
Photos from our fall 2022 trip to Washington D.C. for the Inclusive Energy Prize Summit!
Source: U.S. Department of Energy (twitter.com/ENERGY/status/1529145072444481538?s=20&t=MaHCH-tHotTrHyJM0MmTxw)
Click here to watch our video!
Publications
Journal article
Conference papers
- H. Ji, A. B. Coronado, M. A. Mueller, L. J. Esposito, D. Tait, A. Salazar, and H. J. Kim, “A learning ecology perspective of energy literacy among youth,” accepted, Sustainability. [Access Online]
Conference papers
- H. Ji, A. B. Coronado, L. J. Holmes, M. A. Mueller, and H. J. Kim, “Building inclusive and just pathways to a clean energy economy through youth education of clean energy,” Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Research Conference, Atlanta, GA, Nov. 9 - 11, 2023.
- H. Ji, S. G. Shettles, M. A. Mueller, C. N. Putman, A. Salazar, and H. J. Kim, “Engagement in practice: building inclusive and just pathways to a clean energy economy through youth education of clean energy,” American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD, June 25 - 28, 2023.