Kentucky Industrial Assessment Center (KIAC): Developing the Next Generation Energy Assessment Engineering Workforce

This project aims to help provide the next generation of the energy and resource assessment engineering workforce and help manufacturers be more profitable by analyzing ways to save money, reduce energy, water and waste usage, and increase sustainability, productivity, and competitiveness. The proposed project will continue many of the same activities and programs contained in the existing cross-disciplinary KIAC program that has provided assessments yielding an average $115,000 savings/year per plant, annually educated an average of 25 engineering students in a multidisciplinary class, and annually provided extensive hands-on training to seven to nine graduate and undergraduate students. Several new innovative aspects will be promoted in the new proposal. These include: Conversion of the current energy assessments course to be part of the curriculum in the newly developed, totally on-line MS in Manufacturing Systems (MS-MFS) engineering degree Expansion of on-line for-credit course into open on-line modules Expansion of MFS video gaming modules on sustainability and manufacturing processes to include energy efficiency modules Development of spreadsheets of calculations for energy analysis Development of Sankey energy-flow diagrams of manufacturing processes Build upon a newly-developed team analyzing wastewater treatment facilities Expand relationships with TVA and aluminum facilities, and promotion of professional energy engineering programs