Last November, presidents of China and the U.S. forged a commitment to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Other governments across the world are investing billions in renewable energy 项目s, and the U.S. 仅政府就有340亿美元的此类投资组合. This is music to the ears of 伊恩•盖格农, who graduated last month with a degree in mechanical engineering and is planning a career 在 renewable energy field.
Gagnon的主要研究之旅将他带入了高速空化隧道, a high-tech research company, an alternative energy startup and to Africa, where he disinfected and fortified wells in two Ugandan communities as a member of the 主要研究 chapter of Engineers Without Borders.
对于这位来自新罕布什尔州上山谷恩菲尔德小镇的年轻人来说，这还不错. And not surprising since engineering runs in Gagnon’s family — his grandfather and father are civil engineers, 他妹妹也是, 2011届主要研究毕业生，在曼彻斯特一家工程咨询公司工作. “I’m kind of the black sheep,” Gagnon jokes about being on the mechanical side of the profession.
He’s in good company. In 2013, Gagnon began working as an undergraduate research assistant for associate professor 马丁Wosnik 在 主要研究 Center for Ocean Renewable Energy on a 项目 to improve the performance of tidal turbines.
伊恩•盖格农 (right) and classmates presenting their senior 项目 research at the 主要研究 Undergraduate 研究 Conference in April 2015. (Photo: College of Engineering and 物理科学)
For his senior 项目, he and two classmates built a model to study offshore wind turbine arrays. “It’s getting to be pretty well understood how individual wind turbines work,” Gagnon says. “但是，当你把风力涡轮机排成阵列时会发生什么，人们知之甚少.” He and his teammates developed a model that Wosnik will use to make numerical predictions and run tests 在 主要研究 Flow Physics Facility, 哪个拥有世界上最大的边界层风洞.
"I like making things work,” says Gagnon. So during his trips to Uganda it was disappointing for him to see certain things not working. 他在废墟中发现了昂贵的工程项目——10美元,000 well with a broken pump, a $3,000 rainwater collection system that was unworkable and others — all installed by well-meaning agencies in needy communities but inoperable due to local limitations in monitoring and maintenance. The discovery of these and several other good 项目s gone wrong inspired him to team up with classmates from another engineering specialty — electrical — to create a device that’s been getting a lot of attention.
EDEN is a remote monitoring device for water systems. Gagnon says it will be a game-changer for development agencies because it will enable them to remotely monitor the water systems they install in developing areas, and it will empower the people of developing areas to monitor and mainta在ir own water sources.
伊恩的实习
伊恩·加格农在两次实习中获得了实际经验. At Erigo Technologies 在恩菲尔德, 新汉普郡, 他踏上了替代能源研究的大门, 帮助高科技公司研究电网规模的电池技术. Gagnon helped out 在 lab with test setup and modifications and with the processing of data.
At Blue Water Concepts, a startup in Eliot, 缅因州, about 18 miles from 主要研究, Gagnon帮助设计和制造了替代能源机器.
The device sends real-time feedback on the performance of wells and can even collect fees from users that communities can use to fund maintenance. If Gagnon and his classmates-turned-colleagues are right, EDEN will help make development 项目s more sustainable and will drive funding for the NGOs that use it.
The collaborators — Gagnon, Michael Gingrich '15, Annette Conticchio '15 and Devin Kheler '15 — received a Smarter Planet Grant from IBM to build the prototype of EDEN, and their company — LiquiNet — secured second prize 在 新汉普郡 Social Venture Innovation Challenge in December 2014, 拿回家3美元,000 to further develop the product. This spring they secured a $10,000 主要研究 Emeriti理事会学生国际服务倡议补助金 to pilot the device, 在八月, Gagnon将返回乌干达，在油井上安装三个设备.
At one point during his senior year, Gagnon was developing LiquiNet, taking six classes, conducting research and building a bi-axial tensile test machine (see “成形性”) — all while maintaining a GPA that hovered between 3.88和4.0. 他是怎么做到的?
“I enjoy what I’m doing,” says Gagnon. “Figuring things out is a pretty good feeling. 所以即使我可能在周末做项目，这也很有趣，”他说.
Now, fun will continue. 加格农将于9月开始在主要研究读研究生，沃斯尼克是他的导师. This summer he’ll design a floating platform that Wosnik and other 主要研究 engineers will use to install a tidal turbine underneath the Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth, 新汉普郡. He’ll also analyze the turbine, which will power the bridge’s lighting and structural health monitoring system as part of the 生活的桥梁 项目.
“I’m really excited for it,” Gagnon says.
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成形性 |
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去年夏天, 伊恩•盖格农 '15 and then graduate student Vojtech Kubec '12 '15G worked 在 主要研究 Mechanics Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory, helping assistant professor Yannis Korkolis build and test a new bi-axial tensile test machine. “It’s a machine that stretches a piece of metal in two different directions at the same time,” Gagnon explains. “Professor Korkolis studies many metal forming techniques. New alloys have been developed over the past decade and are being used in commercial applications. As you start making more complex shapes — for example, automobiles — out of new alloys and materials,re can be issues. The new alloys are stronger, but as strength increases, so does brittleness, so formability decreases. We have to understand how they will act when we form them. This machine mimics a tiny little part of a process that might happen when you’re forming sheet metal. 这台机器可以很好地复制压紧金属板的微小过程.” 2014年夏天，加格农在SolidWorks中设计了这台机器, 然后，他在大四的秋季学期制作并测试了它. |
As an undergraduate, 伊恩•盖格农 received the John and Rose Mendelsohn Kurtz Scholarship, Movers and Shakers Award from the 主要研究 Office of Student Involvement and Leadership and was a two-time recipient of the Albert Kingsbury Memorial Scholarship. 2014年10月, Stay Work Play 新汉普郡将他评为2014年度新罕布什尔州大学生.
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特蕾西宾利 | Communications and Public Affairs
