Troy High SchoolFellow: José Lebrón

Teacher: Andrew BaitingerProfessor: Luciano Castillo

• Ph.D. Student in Mechanical Engineering– Thermal-fluid Science

• Dissertation– Experimental modeling of the interaction between

wind power plants and the atmosphere

About the Fellow

• Andrew Baitinger

• B.S. in Chemical Engineering

• M.S. in Chemical Engineering

• 20 years U.S. Navy Nuclear Power Program

• Troy High Faculty• Design and Drawing for Production

• Part-time Faculty– Hudson Valley Community College

About the Teacher

• Resources– Desktop computers for

each student– Access to internet, and

Computer Aided Design (CAD) software

– Printer– Projector– Drafting Tables

Design and Drawing for Production

Students Statistics

Students Statistics

Students Statistics

INNOVATION PROCESS

Invention TechnologyDiscovery

Product Development

Product Manufacturing

Product Marketing

PhD PhD/MS MS/BS BS

Marketplace

GoodsSecurityJobsCures

BETTER LIFE QUALITY

Long Term Project• Atmospheric Study

– Study interaction between wind farms and both nature and man-made features (Albany)

• Design and build a scaled down model of a city and a wind farm and place them inside of a wind tunnel

• Students will:– Gather information of the

city from the internet– Design 3-D models of

features using Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools

– Build models using 3-D printing

– Test different wind turbine arrangements in a wind tunnel facility

RWDI USA LLC

Long Term Project

The Johns Hopkins University

22

33

44

55

66

77

88

Boundary Layer (Friction Zone)

Wind

Free-stream

(Frictionless Zone)

11

25 mph

25 mph

20 mph

15 mph

10 mph

5 mph

0 mph

25 mph

Distance

Velocity

Activities: Teamwork

Students built towers out of spaghetti and marshmallows to learn the importance of teamwork while learning some basic engineering principles

Students are working in subgroups of 4 students

Activities: The lift that drives WT

Students learned that air particles move faster over the airfoil than under it. This, in turn, causes a difference in pressure that “lifts” aircrafts and make wind turbines rotate.

Students ran around an “airfoil” to learn the concept of lift (basic concept used to make airplanes fly and wind turbines rotate)

Activities: City ModelingStudents sketched a wind turbine model and using hotwire foam cutters to make scale building models

Wind Speed and Altitude

20 m/s

0 m/s

40 m/s

10 m/s

5000 ft

2000 ft

300 ft

Altitude (ft) Wind Speed (m/s)

Wind

0 ft

Velocity

The Atmosphere

Wind

Current Status & Future Plans• Currently, students are drawing the 32 highest buildings

in Downtown Albany.• In January, students will finish CAD drawings of buildings.• In February, models of buildings will be built using “3D

printing”, while students design the experiments to be carried

• During March students will conduct the experiments at RPI’s wind tunnel

• By April, they will analyze the gathered data and will draw some conclusions

• During May, they will prepare an oral presentation to report results, plots and conclusions.

Concluding Remarks• Our main goal is that students impacted by DAEE

will:– Get a good idea of how research is carried out– Start developing teamwork skills– Start developing critical thinking– Learn how humans learn from nature– Be exposed to current real world problems (i.e., energy

crisis)

– Learn how to research the web for information to answer unfamiliar questions

– How to relate personal experiences to science and engineering concepts

– Learn Fluid Dynamics!!!!

Acknowledgements

• Andrew Baitinger• GK-12 Grant Investigators

– Professor Timothy Wei– Professor Luciano Castillo – Professor Diana Borca-Tasciuc, – Tammie Borland

• Staff at Troy High School• Sheilla Torres, RPI Student• Michelle Torres, School Psychologist