Our group provides opportunities for Graduate Students to visit Sub-Saharan African countries to learn about the design and development of appropriate and sustainable energy technologies. This exchange program provides mutually beneficial opportunities to compare and contrast energy related research in developing countries with research activity in the US. Students gain a unique and global perspective on energy issues and have opportunities to initiate and develop research initiatives. Graduate-level study programs provide an intellectual framework from which to discuss and evaluate differing approaches to the development of sustainable energy technologies.
This activity is sponsored by an NSF funded program entitled Research Collaboration Network: Sustainable Energy Systems. This program establishes a novel collaborative network in Sustainable Energy Systems for supporting research and graduate education related to the sustainability implications of innovation with regard to energy technologies. This RCN encompasses: 1) the development of new energy technologies for generation, storage and use, 2) the sustainability implications of manufacture, use and end-of-life at commercial scales, and 3) the relationship between access to secure, clean, and renewable energy and human development. This RCN brings together a multidisciplinary team including U.S. academics from Arizona State University, Northeastern University, University of Michigan and Rochester Institute of Technology, together with academics from Sub-Saharan Africa from institutes such as the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.
