IEEE PES and IAS joint student branch chapter of Amrita School of Engineering, Bengaluru, conducted Energy Week, from August 28 to September 1, 2017. This week long celebration focused on the themes of the future of energy, innovation and research.
With the current focus on sustainable energy, the IEEE members under PES and IAS Society Joint StudentBranch Chapter guided by Dr. K. Deepa, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics, Amrita School of Engineering, Bengaluru, took the initiative to inculcate students with awareness of the growing importance of conservation and usage of energy in today’s era. They hope to ignite the young minds to work towards sustainable and clean energy for the future.
Energy Week, conducted every year by Bengaluru Campus, is devoted to students learning and talking about energy systems, sources and use. Energy is everywhere! How it is made, how it is moved and used, are questions that are critical to economic, social and environmental well-being. The choices each one of us makes around the issue of energy will affect our own lives, and those of future generations. But there are no simple solutions. The more informed our choices are, the better the outcome.
In the first session, “Energy Conservation- Need of the Hour?”, conducted on August 28, Mr. Harshith, the vice- chair of IEEE PES society student chapter, explained regarding the importance of energy conservation. He went on to explain that energy conservation is not about making limited resources last as long as they can. That would mean that you are doing nothing more than prolong a crisis until you finally run out of energy resources all together. Although these energy efficient alternatives have a higher upfront cost, their long lifespan and low energy use can save consumers a considerable amount of money. Conservation is the process of reducing demand on a limited supply and enabling that supply to begin to rebuild itself.
The 2nd session, “Re-solution”, was a discussion forum about coming up with alternative solutions for non-renewable sources of energy. Alternative energy solutions encompass all those that do not consume fossil fuel. They are widely available and environment friendly. They cause little or almost no pollution. All the students present in the forum agreed to the fact that it is necessary to encourage the adoption of clean energy and resource alternatives that are sustainable and have the potential for broad impact. The discussion was followed up by a small technical game where the participants had to find the values of the resisters given in the circuit and design the circuit accordingly to voltage given in the question.
“Tech-E”, the 3rd session, on August 30, was all about the energy evolution in India. Mr. Srikar Vamsi, Co-Secretary for IEEE PES, spearheaded this talk and spoke about the evolution of electricity, power sources, their development in India and need to conserve electricity which were shown through videos followed by its explanation. He explained that the large increases in energy consumption over the past 30 years that have accompanied rising population and economic growth in India have been shaped by a variety of environmental factors and policy choices. He also elucidated that renewable energy resources and technologies are facing some critical barriers towards its development and deployment which are market-oriented, perception related, technology-biased and political in nature. To overcome these barriers, appropriate policy reforms at regulatory and market level must be ensured. Mr. Srikar Vamsi concluded the talk by stressing the fact that energy is central to India’s expanding economy and achieving its development goals. The talk was followed by an open discussion on the development of the energy sector in India.
The 4th session on August 31, “Bug-D” was about electrical circuits and faults. The speaker, Ms. Swetha of 3rd year EEE, an IEEE member, explained regarding faults and how fault detection can help with conservation of energy and explained that fault detection has always been an important topic in power engineering. She first explained a printed circuit board (pcb) and its importance in designing electronic circuits. The main aim behind conducting circuit debugging was to make the students identify the faults in the circuit. The students participated in the event with tremendous enthusiasm and learned some basics regarding faulty connections.
The final session, “Innovation”, focused on innovation and research in the field of sustainable energy. Mr. Harshith, vice-chair for IEEE PES 2017-18, and Mr. Srikar, co-secretary for IEEE PES 2017-18, spearheaded the session. The talk started with the focus on the phrase: “The Power of Innovation”. Mr. Harshith explained why breakthroughs in technologies are needed to balance the energy demand with global ambition to curb emissions through fossil fuels and how innovation and research in sustainable energy is key for the future of energyworldwide. Mr. Srikar explained how many companies are shifting their focus towards renewable energy with TESLA, being the frontrunners, having already started their work on a solar city with a power capacity of 50 GW which will be up and running by 2020.
A total of 45 students participated in the event, with 32 being IEEE members consisting of a diverse range of students from 2nd year B.Tech to 2nd year M.Tech. The students voiced their satisfaction in attending the event and were very happy with the knowledge and wisdom that they gained. They were very happy with the way the program was put together as it examined a range of topical energy issues that were of interest to all the students present. The whole week was highly appreciated by the students and they requested the coordinators to conduct the event again next year.
