Harnessing Energy in the

Biosphere

EPSCoR in Iowa:

Innovating Iowa’s Future

The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) is aimed at building research capacity and increasing competitiveness for the state through investments in infrastructure and human capital. Through partnerships with Iowa’s three public universities, industry, private and community colleges, school districts, and government agencies, the program stimulates lasting research infrastructure improvements for the State of Iowa. (http://iowaepscor.org/)

The vision of a 5-year, $20M EPSCoR project funded by the National Science Foundation is to establish Iowa as a leader in the world-wide transition from fossil fuels to harnessing renewable energy sources in the biosphere. The project is composed of four distinct platforms: Bioenergy, Wind Energy, Energy Utilization, and Energy Policy.

The Wind Energy platform of the project will employ advanced engineering principles — including fluid dynamics, machine design, and control theory — to improve the reliability of wind turbines.

Wind Energy Resource CharacterizationAn outdoor laboratory will be established to collect reliable wind speed and turbulence data for use with computational models of wind turbine systems.

Blade Performance and ReliabilityBlade health monitoring diagnostics will be coupled with structural optimization and failure analysis to advance rotor blade performance.

Drivetrain Design OptimizationReliability-based design optimization (RBDO) will be employed to enhance design of wind turbine drive trains.

Green Energy GridsHighly adaptive, decentralized electric grid management techniques compatible with wind power systems will be developed.

Training the Next Generation

Through partnerships with industry, community colleges, private colleges, and school districts, this project will strengthen the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) pipeline across Iowa to support the next generation of scientists and educators. The goal of these efforts is to create a highly-skilled workforce that will meet the demands of Iowa’s emerging green economy and will continue to attract new industries to the state.

“As one of the leading wind energy-producing states in the nation,

Iowa is well-positioned to play a central role in the world-wide transition from

fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.”

Harnessing Energy in the Biosphere

Contact us

Jordan CohenState Governance

Committee ChairVP for Research and

Economic DevelopmentUniversity of Iowajordan-cohen@uiowa.edu

Robert Brown Project DirectorDirector, Bioeconomy

Institute, Iowa State University

Mechanical Engineeringrcbrown@iastate.edu

P. Barry ButlerWind Platform LeaderCo-Project DirectorExecutive Vice President and

Provost, University of IowaMechanical & Industrial

Engineering patrick-butler@uiowa.edu

ResourceCharacterization

Christopher AndersonAgronomy, Iowa State

Universitycjames@iastate.edu

James BuchholzMechanical and Industrial

Engineering, University of Iowa

james-h-buchholz@uiowa.edu

Andrey PetrovGeography,

University of Northern Iowaandrey.petrov@uni.edu

Gene TakleAtmospheric Science,

Iowa State Universitygstakle@iastate.edu

Blade Performance and Reliability James BuchholzMechanical and

Industrial Engineering, University of Iowa

james-h-buchholz@uiowa.edu

Michael KesslerMaterials Science and

Engineering, Iowa State University

mkessler@iastate.edu

Ganesh RajagopalanAerospace Engineering,

Iowa State Universityrajagopa@iastate.edu

Song ZhangMechanical and Industrial

Engineering, Iowa State University

song@iastate.edu

Olesya ZhupanskaMechanical and Industrial

Engineering, University of Iowa

olesya-zhupanska@uiowa.edu

Drivetrain Design Optimization Dionysios AliprantisElectrical and Computer

Engineering, Iowa State University

dali@iastate.edu

Kyung ChoiMechanical and Industrial

Engineering, University of Iowa

kyung-choi@uiowa.edu

Shaoping XiaoMechanical and Industrial

Engineering, University of Iowa

shaoping-xiao@uiowa.edu

Green Energy Grids

Yong ChenMechanical and Industrial

Engineering, University of Iowa

yong-chen@uiowa.edu

Soura DasguptaElectrical and Computer

Engineering, University of Iowa

soura-dasgupta@uiowa.edu

Pavlo KrokhmalMechanical and Industrial

Engineering, University of Iowa

pavlo-krokhmal@uiowa.edu

Raghuraman MudumbaiElectrical and Computer

Engineering, University of Iowa

raghuraman-mudumbai@uiowa.edu