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May 12, 2005 -- A team
of eight University of Utah students and 11 students from a Utah
science high school will travel to Washington as finalists in a
May 16-17 Environmental Protection Agency contest aimed at promoting
sustainable resources, including energy.
The Utah team’s entry – a photovoltaic cell designed
to use sunlight to produce hydrogen gas to power a model vehicle
– will be pitted against entries from 64 other teams during
the P3 (People, Prosperity and the Planet) Award contest on the
National Mall on Monday May 16 and Tuesday May 17.
The team includes eight University of Utah students from a chemical
engineering class, and 11 students who attend the Academy for Math
Engineering and Science (AMES), a science-oriented charter high
school located on the campus of Cottonwood High School in Murray,
Utah.
They will be accompanied by project leader Keith Roper, a University
of Utah assistant professor of chemical engineering, and by AMES
administrators Al Church and Marjorie Tuckett.
“I’m proud of the students, excited about what we developed
and looking forward to contributing sustainable hydrogen energy
to the Salt Lake City area,” Roper says.
Each of the 65 teams in the finals won a $10,000 grant last August
to develop their projects. About 200 teams had applied, Roper says.
Six teams named winners of the final competition each will get another
grant of up to $75,000 to further develop their project, he adds.
The entries will be judged by a panel convened by the National Academies,
the parent organization of the National Academy of Sciences, National
Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine.
Students on the Utah team “created a photovoltaic panel to
capture sunlight and use it to split water into oxygen and hydrogen,”
says Roper. “They created a system that purifies and stores
the hydrogen for use in a fuel cell. A hydrogen fuel cell would
combine the hydrogen with oxygen from air to produce water and electricity.”
If the Utah team is among the six winners, the students’ next
step will be to couple their hydrogen-producing device with a fuel
cell and use it to power a small model car. The device now produces
only 10 watts of power – one-tenth of a 100-watt light bulb
– so increasing the power output would come later, Roper says.
The EPA says it launched the P3 Award “to respond to the technical
needs of the developed and developing world in moving toward sustainability.
This national competition enables college students to research,
develop and design scientific, technical and policy solutions to
sustainability challenges. Their designs will help achieve the mutual
goals of economic prosperity while providing a higher quality of
life and protecting the planet.”
Most students making the trip to Washington are leaving between
Friday May 13 and Sunday May 15, and most will return May 19. The
students also created a website showcasing their work at www.che.utah.edu/chfen_4975
University of Utah students on the team are Todd Sherman, Matthew
Hickenlooper, Stan Holbrook, Kara Stowers, Trina Sudweeks, James
Ambrosek, William Chatwin and Will Felt. Most are chemical engineering
students, except for Sherman (architecture), Chatwin (technology
assessment) and Felt (electrical engineering).
AMES students on the team are David Archer, Jessica Court, Emily
Dishong, Alexander Engar, Bethany Lane, Karli Martin, Joshua Moreno,
Ziggy Palauni, Megi Rexhepaj, Taylor Schofield and Kelly Villacorta.
The University of Utah students working on the project were taking
a chemical engineering course that also was a “service learning”
course sponsored by the university’s Bennion Community Service
Center, which organizes classes aimed at promoting lifelong service
to the community.
The Bennion Center provided a teaching assistant and paid for supplies
and materials, while the cost of the trip to Washington is being
supported by JetBlue Airways, the university’s Department
of Chemical Engineering, and supporters of AMES.
More information on the P3 Award may be found at www.epa.gov/P3
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| Media Contacts: |
| Keith Roper, assistant professor of chemical
engineering |
office (May 12 only, then after May 19)
(801) 585-9185, cellular (while in Washington) (801) 891-8921, kroper@eng.utah.edu |
| Trina Sudweeks, junior in chemical engineering, resident
of Layton, Utah |
cellular (801) 635-6211 |
| James Ambrosek, senior in chemical engineering, resident
of Grace, Idaho |
cellular (801) 808-8961 |
| Kara Stowers, junior in chemical engineering, resident
of Salt Lake City |
cellular (801) 706-9892 |
| Estella Waldman, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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(202) 343-9803 |
| Lee Siegel, science news specialist, University of
Utah Public Relations |
(801) 581-8993, cellular (801) 244-5399, leesiegel@ucomm.utah.edu |
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