Iowa State University (ISU) is offering an introductory course in wind energy funded by the Iowa Alliance for Wind Innovation and Novel Development (IAWIND). The Web-based course is available to any student at Iowa Regent Universities and Iowa community colleges.
Taught by R. Ganesh Rajagopalan, professor of aerospace engineering at ISU, the course is a basic introduction to the fundamentals of wind energy and wind energy conversion systems. Topics include, but are not limited to, various types of wind energy conversion systems, blade and tower structural loads, kinematics of the blades and meteorology.
The three-credit-hour course will run from Jan. 10 to May 6. It requires basic physics (non-calculus based) and basic math.
Rajagopalan leads the Wind Energy Research Group for the ISU College of Engineering. He has been actively involved in rotor aerodynamics and wind energy research since 1976, in addition to his varied work in wind energy and wind energy conversion systems. He is also a member of Iowa State's Computational Fluid Dynamics Center.
The grant falls under the IAWIND education and training funding set aside to advance Iowa's wind industry. It is intended to help the development and improvement of wind energy courses at IAWIND member institutions, to grow the capacity of current wind energy educational programs conducted at Iowa's community colleges and Regents Universities, and to add depth to existing curricula.
SOURCE: Iowa Alliance for Wind Innovation and Novel Development
