UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — You never know which way the wind might blow. But one thing is for certain — the Penn State Wind Energy Club blew away the competition at the U.S. Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition 2016, held at the end of May in New Orleans.
Competing against 11 teams from universities across the nation and Puerto Rico, the Penn State team, comprised of 21 students from various majors, earned a big “W” in the Big Easy as the competition’s overall winner, claiming its second consecutive title. The team also grabbed first place in the Business Plan and Turbine Testing contests.
“I’m so proud of our students for winning the overall competition,” said Susan Stewart, lead strategic adviser of the team and senior research associate and assistant professor of aerospace engineering. “They worked extremely hard, and the contests they won were the ones they were gunning for.”
Kyle Dolf, business team leader and a mechanical engineering junior, said having the title from the last competition didn’t mean anything to the team since it was a different group.
“We each had our own reasons for participating, but we all wanted to win,” said Dolf. “Everyone took ownership of their individual roles and put in 10 to 25 hours per week since summer. We made it work in a very positive, structured way that paid off.”
The Collegiate Wind Competition challenges interdisciplinary undergraduate teams from a variety of degree programs to offer a unique solution to a complex wind energy project. Each team is required to design a wind-driven power system — a wind turbine — to supply electricity to non-grid connected devices for off-grid applications.
The competition, however, goes beyond the technical aspects of building and testing a turbine; each team must also develop and deliver a business plan based on market research and establish a deployment strategy.
That was a huge eye-opener for the team.
Run like the wind
“Back in August, adviser Dr. Frank Archibald said to us, ‘You will not understand what you are getting yourself into,’” said Dolf. “That was completely true. We didn’t understand the complexities of creating a turbine at a technical level, creating a startup company, conducting market research and handling the financial aspects — all at the same time.”
According to Stewart, there was a bit of discomfort early on with the team in owning the challenge, but the advisers empowered the students to make their own decisions and they ran with it, ensuring they went into the competition confidently.
Leadership was also a major factor in the team’s success. In 2015, Mitch Proulx, technical/test turbine team leader and a mechanical engineering junior, competed in a similar event, the Department of Energy Collegiate Wind Competition 2015 Engineering Contest.
“Having the competition experience from last year really helped me in my leadership role,” said Proulx. “Knowing what the judges look for and what other teams struggle with was definitely an advantage.”
Deciding on a business concept and the turbine design proved to be a challenge, though.
“To only have wind as your power source makes it more complicated to come up with a viable business,” said Stewart. “It’s even tougher when you ask engineering students to wrap their heads around market research and ask business students to understand the technical components.”
The students, however, showed their mettle. After brainstorming and investigating more than 20 concepts, the students knew what direction they wanted to go in. They decided on an innovative business model that would occupy a unique market space and could eventually develop into an industry-leading brand: wind-powered cellphone recharging services for large-scale, multi-day music festivals.
Each student had to possess a solid understanding of all facets of the business model to be able to talk confidently about the “big picture.” This paid off the most during the public and private pitches the team was required to give.
No twisting in the wind
“I was a little nervous because I had never given a presentation of that magnitude at a competition before,” said Dolf, who conducted the 10-minute public presentation in front of a crowd of approximately 75 people, including industry members and government agencies. “Because of our team effort, though, we were fully prepared and executed well.”