Major Energy Generation Technologies in the U.S. National Energy Policy: Fossil Fuel, Fuel Cell, Nuclear, Renewable
Engineering Freshman Academy
Professor Najmedin Meshkati
Fall 2003
University of Southern California
Engineering Freshman Academy students (Fall 2003) beside Doheny Memorial Library at the USC Campus.
Introduction and Overview
The following students’ projects were inspired by the National Energy Policy of the United States, a Report of the National Energy Policy Development Group which was organized by the White House and Chaired by Vice President Dick Cheney (May 2001). Four major energy generation technologies were selected: Fossil Fuel, Fuel Cell, Nuclear, and Renewable. Four teams of USC freshman engineering students, each studied one of such technologies and their environmental impacts, wrote a report and made a power point presentation which are posted on this site.
This project was part of the new Engineering Academies course at the University of Southern California (USC). The Engineering Academies were created to help our freshmen understand the political, societal, historical and ethical aspects of engineering. In addition, students get a taste of the problem-solving and teamwork skills they’ll need by completing either a library research project such as this one or a project in the local community. Starting in Fall 2004, all new USC engineering freshmen will be assigned to an Academy of 20-25 students. As you will see, this pilot group of talented USC freshman engineering students did an excellent job and, I think, thoroughly enjoyed the class, and we are excited that the program will be expanded in the future.
For further information concerning Engineering Freshman Academies, please contact Dr. Maura Jenkins, Student Affairs Office, USC Viterbi School of Engineering.
Please feel free to send your comments directly to us via email or, if you want it to be posted, to sign the following project’s Guest Book (which is as an open bulletin board).
Thanks! for visiting our class project’s web site.
Najmedin Meshkati
Email: meshkati@usc.edu
Website: viterbi-web.usc.edu/~meshkati
The entire project was a class research conducted by engineering freshman students attending the University of Southern California. The research was completed under the guidance of Dr. Najmedin Meshkati.
Acknowledgment: We would like to acknowledge all Engineering Freshman Academy students’ effort for this project, especially Mr. Alparslan Gurbuz for assembling the group reports and designing the website. We would also would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Shahla Bahavar, Information Services Coordinator, USC ISD – Leavey Library, for her instructions and assistance in searching electronic sources.
Letter from Vice President Dick Cheney: Reply to Participants of this Project
