Collaborative Research: A Solar and Wind Innovation and Technology Collaborative for Hawaii (SWITCH)

这个轨道2 ATE项目旨在通过培养下一代劳动力来服务于国家利益，以领导夏威夷到2045年向100%可再生能源过渡。可再生能源发电的一个核心挑战是它经常面临其他基本需求，如食物，水和文化，因为其分布式性质需要大量的空间。因此，在我国大规模部署可再生能源发电机是不可想象的，如果没有广泛的社会接受。研究表明，公众更多地参与可再生能源解决方案的规划和设计，可以提高其透明度，并获得更多的公众信任和社区支持。然而，目前在可再生能源领域的技术教育模式缺乏必要的要素，教学生如何解决公众关注的技术解决方案，然后沟通的工程成果，利益相关者。该项目将把这些要素补充到社区学院现有的课程中，并利用公立学校的社会环境作为学生学习和实践这些“软技能”的试验台。卡皮奥拉尼社区学院（KCC）和未来智能研究所（IFI）将与夏威夷的五所高中合作，开发创新的教育项目，让社区学院和高中学生学习应对可再生能源挑战所需的知识和技能。这些计划将使用学生自己的家庭，学校和社区作为设计假设的太阳能和风能解决方案的应用场景。学生将学习如何满足他们的家庭和社区的不同需求，同时尽量减少对当地生态系统，文化和经济的不利影响。为了巩固从中学到大学的职业和技术教育途径，该项目将指定成功完成这些课程的KCC学生担任教师的助教，并为合作高中的学生设计导师，以帮助他们实施定制版本的课程。该项目将由Aladdin授权，Aladdin是IFI开发的一个开源的基于网络的计算机辅助设计工具，是一个支持公众参与可再生能源工程和规划的公民科学平台。阿拉丁允许任何人为他们的社区设计自己的可再生能源解决方案，通过社交网络分享拟议的解决方案，并吸引公众对众筹建设的兴趣。KCC将举办年度专业发展讲习班，向夏威夷的中学教师介绍该项目的课程和技术创新。感兴趣的教师将与KCC合作，在他们的学校实施这些创新。该项目将由可再生能源、技术教育和政策制定领域的专家组成的咨询委员会监督。该项目由先进技术教育计划资助，该计划侧重于为推动国家经济的先进技术领域培养技术人员。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Track 2 ATE project aims to serve the national interest by cultivating the next generation workforce to lead Hawaii’s transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045. A central challenge in renewable energy generation is it often confronts other basic needs such as food, water, and culture, as its distributed nature demands a lot of space. As such, large-scale deployments of renewable energy generators in our country would be unthinkable without establishing wide social acceptance. Studies have suggested that greater public participation in planning and designing of renewable energy solutions can increase their transparency and gain more public trust and community support. However, the current paradigm of technical education in the field of renewable energy lacks essential elements for teaching students how to address public concerns with technological solutions and then communicate the engineering results to stakeholders. This project will supplement these elements to existing courses in community colleges and use the social environments of public schools as testbeds for students to learn and practice those “soft skills.”In partnership with five high schools in Hawaii, Kapiolani Community College (KCC) and the Institute for Future Intelligence (IFI) will develop innovative educational programs that engage community college and high school students to learn the knowledge and skills needed to take on the renewable energy challenge. These programs will use students’ own homes, schools, and communities as the application scenarios for designing hypothetical solar and wind energy solutions. Students will learn how to meet the diverse needs of their families and communities while minimizing adverse effects on local ecosystems, cultures, and economies. To consolidate the pathway of career and technical education from the secondary level to the tertiary level, the project will designate KCC students who have successfully completed these programs as teaching assistants to teachers and design tutors to students in collaborating high schools to help them implement customized versions of the programs. The project will be empowered by Aladdin, an open-source, Web-based computer-aided design tool developed by IFI as a citizen science platform that supports public participation in renewable energy engineering and planning. Aladdin allows anyone to design their own renewable energy solutions for their communities, share the proposed solutions via social networks, and draw public interest in crowdfunding their construction. KCC will run annual professional development workshops to introduce the curricular and technological innovations of this project to secondary teachers in Hawaii. Interested teachers will then partner with KCC to implement these innovations in their schools. This project will be overseen by an Advisory Board consisting of experts in the fields of renewable energy, technical education, and policy making. This project is funded by the Advanced Technological Education program that focuses on the education of technicians for the advanced-technology fields that drive the nation’s economy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.