Going for the green: YSU team to compete

By Denise Dick

Staff report

youngstown

A team of six Youngstown State University students from the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will compete as a national finalist for the 2010 Green Energy Challenge in Boston on Oct. 2.

The YSU team qualified for the finals by winning the challenge’s first-round competition against 12 universities in the spring. In the finals, YSU will compete against the Milwaukee School of Engineering and last year’s winner, the University of Washington, for an $8,000 award.

“We are thrilled to be selected as a finalist,” said YSU team captain Brittany Stillwagon of Bloomingdale, Ohio, who graduated this spring with a degree in electrical engineering. “When you consider that we were chosen over such schools as Purdue and Penn State, it reinforces the quality of our education here at YSU.”

This is the first year YSU entered the challenge, sponsored by ELECTRI International and the National Electrical Contractors Association.

Other team members include: Chris Barcey of Canfield, Justin Hosseininejad of Youngstown and Juren Raske of Youngstown (electrical engineering); David Wright of Youngstown (electrical-engineering technology) and Josh Mashburn of Struthers (civil engineering).

The challenge requires teams to run an energy-use audit on a local business and create an in-depth proposal for alternative-energy options. The YSU team chose M-7 Technologies in Youngstown. With only two months to perform the analysis, formulate a plan and prepare a 50-page submission, the team produced a final report that M-7 Technologies President Mike Garvey called “exciting, informative and extremely well-presented.”

With significant energy demands for manufacturing and repairing large-scale industrial products, M-7 was using no alternative-energy options before the team presented a number of green solutions.

The students proposed implementing solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric generators on the M-7 site to minimize energy consumption and employ renewable, natural-energy sources such as the Mahoning River. Cost estimates, tax-credit solutions and a return-on-investment analysis were also included in the team’s project.

Garvey said the proposal is doable and financially feasible.

“It’s more than just about the finances,” he said. “It’s about the responsibility we have to the environment to find new solutions.”

The team is still in coordination with M-7 Technologies, which Stillwagon described as “an extremely green company of forward-thinkers” and “a huge help in our success.”

The company is already in the process of implementing some of the strategies the students detailed. Competing in the finals on Oct. 2, the YSU team hopes to turn green into gold.

“The accomplishment these students have already achieved is extraordinary,” said Thomas Travers, executive director of Mahoning Valley NECA. “With the expertise, energy and focus they have demonstrated, we are confident that their success will continue when the final champion is announced in October.”