CECS wins E2 Energy to Educate grant

More than 120 UM-Dearborn students will have an opportunity to work firsthand with technology used in electric vehicles thanks to a grant from a leading supplier of power, natural gas and energy products.

The University recently received a $50,000 grant from Constellation Energy. Two professors in the College of Engineering and Computer Science – Ben Li and Dohoy Jung – applied for the E² Energy to Educate grant to enhance undergraduate students’ learning and research experience with electric vehicles.

Through improved course curriculum and hands-on experience, students can expect to work firsthand with battery design and energy storage, power electronics and management, thermal management, battery system control and management and hybrid powertrain design and control.

E² Energy to Educate grants are awarded to projects that reach and inspire students to think differently about energy. UM-Dearborn plans to utilize its grant funding solely on electrical vehicle education.

The Constellation Energy grant is a nice complement to a separate grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Graduate Automotive Technology Education initiative that will establish a GATE Center for Electric Drive Transportation at UM-Dearborn, Jung said.

The Constellation Energy grant “will effectively extend the benefits of the DOE-funded graduate education program in the area of electric vehicles to undergraduate students for betterment of their educational experience,” Li and Jung wrote in the grant application.

“Located in the capital of the automotive industry, UM-Dearborn has been a center for automotive engineering education and research,” Li and Jung wrote. “The proposed project will further improve our energy technology curriculum and laboratories for preparing engineers with technical skills and advanced energy technology knowledge for commercial development of energy-efficient electric vehicles.”