Faculty, students to work on grant-funded sustainability project

SUNYIT is one of 10 winners of SUNY’s first Small Grant Sustainability Competition, part of SUNY’s strategic planning goal to support an Energy-Smart New York. The competition is coordinated by the SUNY Office of Sustainability to support the work of SUNY faculty and students to promote sustainability by reducing on-campus energy usage; assisting local communities by educating them on sustainability issues or replicating a project in the surrounding community; and spurring more intensive research on an idea developed during the project. Engineering students ESC 120 Design Process will work on the project, which will be supervised by Xinchao (Steven) Wei, Andy Wolfe, Mason Somerville and Mark Bremer.

The winning proposal calls for SUNYIT engineering students to convert a 350-foot portion of the campus nature trail into a “Sustainability Path” that will demonstrate solar, wind, and hydropower renewable energy technologies to the campus and community. Students will learn, design and build solar, wind, and hydropower systems to power lights and a water fountain along the path. A hydropowered energy storage system will also be built, which will complement the unpredictability of certain renewable energy sources.

“SUNY campuses in every region are working to decrease their carbon footprint and contribute energy-smart research and innovation to the communities they serve,” said Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. “By leveraging our systemness and working together to bring excellent programs and new ideas to scale, SUNY continues to drive sustainability throughout New York State.”