Wesley Williams

This past December saw the graduation of Casey Nichols with his MS in Applied Energy and Electromechanical Systems and David Barnett with his Graduate Certificate in Applied Energy and Electromechanical Systems.  My goal with mentoring students in to add value regardless of where the students are when they come into the group.  Both Casey and David came into the group as motivated, technically sound undergraduates with a willingness to work and an eagerness to learn.  I’m happy to say that they are stronger when they left the group than when they joined, but the research group is a whole is better for their contributions over the past few years.  Luckily, I have a new crop of undergraduates Peter and Tyler who look quite promising and who benefited from Casey and David’s mentoring over the Fall semester.  Casey has started a job at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado and information about David can be found at (https://www.davidbarnett.info/).

C. Nichols, D. Barnett, A. Joyner, and S. Modaresahmadi at NCROEP 2019.

Some of the challenges of magnetic gearbox assembly, demonstrated at small scale.

September saw David and Sina make their way up to the Appalachian State Small WInd Research Site for a workshop on distributed wind energy generation organized by Brent Summerville.

I was happy to collaborate with Landon Mackey from NC State on the recent Waves to Water Prize

https://www.herox.com/wavestowater

Fingers crossed that our venture WATER BROS is successful as Landon is a blast to work with!

This summer we got the new ProJet 3500 HDmax from 3D Systems up and running.  It features exquisite detail in a range of materials.  We’ve already used it for some turbine and microfluidic prototypes.  Contact Dr. Hewlin or Dr. Williams to discuss prints on this machine.

Prototype turbine components (prior to support material removal)

Prototype turbine components (after support material removal)

Hydrovision was in Portland,OR this year, which made attending a no brainer as I coupled visits to Portland State University on the front and back end of the conference to oversee the assembly of the hermetically sealed magnetically geared generator for marine hydrokinetic energy applications.  The conference itself was a good chance to connect with industry, government, and academics in the search for the next partner, supplier, or funding source.  It was particularly exciting to see Emrgy (a small business out of Atlanta) announce a new partnership with GE Renewables to bring their small distributed hydro generators to international markets.

https://emrgy.com/emrgy-and-ge-renewable-energy-partner-for-global-commercialization-of-distributed-hydropower-system/

The time at PSU was also valuable to supplement the countless video conferences over the past year.  I was impressed/amused to see the electronic component vending machines in the halls of the Engineering building.  As quirky as it seems, I can imagine them getting a lot of traffic, particularly during senior design crunch time.

Electronics Vending at PSU

The city itself remains a favored destination, with reliable mass transit, great choices for food, and inspiring attractions.

The Magnetic Gearing Research Group was happy to provide some manufacturing support to Appalachian State University’s Team Sunergy as they made modifications to their car ROSE (Racing On Solar Energy) in advance of their upcoming races.

https://sunergy.appstate.edu/rose/

We were able to use the Haas Mini Mill to produce new battery holders.

App State students visit to assist with manufacturing.

Finished battery holder component.

Team Sunergy ROSE logo.