Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 1 session / week; 1 hour / session

Labs: 1 session / week; 3 hours / session

Course Description

This course links clean energy sources and storage technology to energy consumption case studies to give students a concept of the full circle of production and consumption. Specifically, photovoltaic, organic photovoltaic, piezoelectricity and thermoelectricity sources are applied to electrophoresis, lab on a chip, and paper microfluidic applications–relevant analytical techniques in biology and chemistry. Hands-on experimentation with everyday materials and equipment help connect the theory with the implementation. Complementary laboratories fabricating LEDs, organic LEDs and spectrometers introduce the diagnostic tools used to characterize energy efficiency.

Acknowledgements

The instructors of this course would like to acknowledge the following individuals for their contributions:

• Prof. Rajeev Ram, for co-developing the lab-based pilot of this seminar (first taught in Fall 2010), and for funding the purchase of most of the lab equipment and materials used to develop those labs
• Dr. Kevin Lee, for donating his time and expertise to the PDMS-related labs (Lab 6: PDMS Microfluidics and Lab 8: Doping)

Calendar

Grading

Pre-labs are due on Thursdays at the start of the lab session, and lab assignments will be collected on the following Tuesday in lecture. Late submissions will not be accepted.