Clean Energy for Green Industry at UCLA

Clean Green IGERT

The National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship on Clean Energy for Green Industry at UCLA (CGI) is a 3 year fellowship^* that provides a $30,000 stipend/year, tuition, fees, travel stipend to participate in a scientific conference or workshop, internships and international experience. The fellowship will develop leaders in environmental energy through integrated research and coursework in the science, business and policies of clean technology. Completion of a 1-3 month cross-disciplinary internship with an industrial partner or national laboratory is encouraged.

Each fellow's participation includes academic, research training and professional development with scientific, business and policy emphasis.

Program features include clean energy lecture, laboratory and seminar-based curriculum, internships or international experience, business development and small company opportunities along with community involvement activities in K-12.

* Fellowship is awarded for the first year and third years upon successful progress. Second and fourth years are funded at normal departmental rates.

News

CGI is proud to present the Renewable & Sustainable Energy Technology Workshop (ReSET) on April 12-13, 2012. Please visit ReSET 2012 for more information.

The third volume of the newsletter has been published. Download Newsletter Volume 3, December 21, 2011.

CGI has received a $10,000 donation from Intel Corporation. We are grateful for this gift and thank Salvador Rivas (HSSEAS Office of External Affairs) for securing the donation.

We would like to welcome the 2011-2012 trainees to the program as well as the new advisors who are joining the program, including Prof. Rajit Gadh (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) and Prof. Deepak Rajagopal (Institute of the Environment and Sustainability).

Building the smart grid of the future: UCLA teams with Korea's energy research institute - Rajit Gadh and UCLA Engineering have entered into a 10-year partnership with the government-supported Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) in South Korea to collaborate on smart-grid research and the development of new technologies with the aim of creating a robust smart grid on an international level.

UCLA team develops highly efficient method for creating flexible, transparent electrodes - Collaborating researchers at UCLA, (including Prof. Yang Yang), report in the journal ACS Nano that they have developed a unique method for producing transparent electrodes that uses silver nanowires in combination with other nanomaterials. The new electrodes are flexible and highly conductive and overcome the limitations associated with ITO.

Prof. James C. Liao named to Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Chair in Chemical Engineering. The endowed chair is intended to educate a brand of engineers who can design new technological products and systems while anticipating and preventing adverse social and environmental impact. Much of Liao's research focuses on creating new ways to produce environmentally friendly biofuels and chemicals. Earlier this year, Gevo Incorporated, who has licensed a biofuels production method co-developed by Liao, completed a $107 million initial public offering.

Professor Yang Yang named to UCLA's Tannas Endowed Chair in Engineering. This chair is the first in the world dedicated to the area of electronic information displays. Yang's research focuses on conjugated polymers and organics, polymer LEDs, and related polymer electronic, photonic and bio-devices. Yang has recently attracted attention for his novel concept for harvesting and recycling energy for electronic devices by equipping LCD screens with built-in photovoltaic polarizers, allowing them to convert ambient light, sunlight, and their own backlight into electricity.

Prof. Rajit Gadh has been elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Gadh's contributions are in the area of information-based design and manufacturing. Gadh also showcased his research on wireless monitoring of electric vehicle smart grid at the UCLA Electric Vehicle-Smart Grid (EV-SG) Living Lab Demo and EV-SG Consortium on August 3. For more on wireless EV-SG, please see the article Researchers use wireless technology to speed transition to electric vehicles.

Prof. CJ Kim selected as one of 100 people who will light up Korea in the next 10 years. Kim was selected for his outstanding research in the field of micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) as well as his ability to communicate and network.

Solar-Charged Phones Without A 93-Million-Mile Cord - NPR interview with Prof. Yang Yang on his research on LCD screens that charge using solar power, indoor light and the devices' own backlight.

Southwest blackouts: How do power outages spread? - BBC Interview with Prof. Rajit Gadh.

Researchers use tiny gold particles to boost organic solar cell efficiency - Solar Daily article on Prof. Yang Yang's research.

UCLA advance with new nanomaterials good news for next-generation electronic devices - Article on collaborative research project led by Prof. Kang Wang

Prof. Diana Huffaker has been awarded nearly $1.4 million from the National Science Foundation to study fundamental issues related to organic/inorganic hybrid solar cells.

Recent Publications

Prof. Kaner and Prof. Tolbert joint collaboration

A. Kavner, M.M. Armentrout, E.S.G. Rainey, M. Xie, B.E. Weaver, S.H. Tolbert, and R.B. Kaner, "Thermoelastic properties of ReB₂ at high pressures and temperatures and comparison with Pt, Os, and Re", Journal of Applied Physics, 110, 093518 (2011).

Prof. Pilon and Prof. Tolbert joint collaboration

J. Fang, C. Reitz, T. Brezesinski, E.J. Nemanick, C.B. Kang, S.H. Tolbert, and L. Pilon, "Thermal Conductivity of Highly-Ordered Mesoporous Titania Thin Films from 30 to 320 K", J. Phys. Chem. C, 2011, 115 pp. 14606-14614.

Prof. Tolbert, Prof. Wang, and Prof. Yang joint collaboration

A.J. Hong, J. Kim, K. Kim, Y. Wang, F. Xiu, J. Jeon, J. Park, I. Rauda, L.M. Chen, Y. Yang, S.H. Tolbert, J. Zou, and K.L. Wang, "Cr Metal Thin Film Memory", Journal of Applied Physics, 110, 054504 (2011).

For more joint collaboration publications, please see Research.