On one of the coldest days in January, a group of MIT students and staff boarded a bus to the small peninsula town of Hull, Massachusetts for an MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) wind turbine tour. MITEI representatives will be showing a video made about this experience and will be on hand to answer any questions about MITEI programs!

Learn about the Energy Undergraduate Research Program and projects, meet MIT Energy Initiative staff and students, and bring your questions!

Come and learn more about the Energy Studies Minor and meet staff and students from the MIT Energy Initiative. Bring your questions - we'll have plenty of information to share!

Collaborated With: Institute for Data, Systems and Society

Our display will consist of a touchscreen device that displays an X-Y diagram showing data points for more than 100 cars available in the U.S. marketplace today. The diagram will help attendees compare all cars (which include battery electric vehicles and hybrids) against each other in terms of costs and environmental impact. They can also explore the trade-off between costs, environmental impacts, and other features of a car interactively, and learn how those comparisons depend on the specified conditions.

The Ocean is still an almost unexplored source of sustainable energy production. A team led by MIT Sea Grant's Assistant Director for Research, Stefano Brizzolara, developed an all enclosed, monolithic floating Inertial Ocean Wave Energy Converter, or IOwec. The IOwec device is highly flexible and adaptable, with the capacity to convert energy from varied sea states, while maintaining safety and reliability. A scaled down model will be on display.

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Lab (AUV) at MIT Sea Grant is demonstrating how laser detection and ranging systems (LiDAR) are used on autonomous unmanned surface vessels (USV), with a live sensor feed and recorded data sets from marine environments.

The Tata Center for Technology and Design addresses the challenges of resource-constrained communities, with an initial focus on India. MIT researchers collaborate with government, NGOs, private companies, universities, and community members to identify opportunities and develop appropriate, sustainable solutions. The Tata Center will showcase a sampling of its student research projects via a poster session, demonstrations, and videos.

At MIT Sea Grant Design Lab, we develop variable-fidelity models from first principles for a variety of engineering and scientific applications. We solve these models using computational methods that we develop. Some of the research we will highlight include system-level thermal modeling of all electric ships, high-fidelity simulations of thermal components aboard naval ships, and developing computational methods to predict rare events such as extreme waves.

SeaPerch is a simple remotely operated underwater vehicle that you can build yourself out of common household materials. It is a fun, hands-on project that introduces students, teachers, and interested hobbyists to ocean engineering. Come explore SeaPerch and the world of ocean engineering. Test drive a SeaPerch ROV in a 100 gallon aquarium.

Eelgrass is a flowering marine plant that forms one of the most valuable shallow­water coastal habitats in Massachusetts. New research shows that in addition to being important nursery habitats for fish and crabs, eelgrass beds are also a valuable sink for blue carbon. Unfortunately, declining water quality has caused many local eelgrass beds to disappear, destroying the habitat and releasing all the stored carbon back into the environment. Quantifying how carbon is stored in eelgrass beds helps us understand these valuable ecosystems. Come explore eelgrass ecosystems!