A team of Herrick students was awarded 2nd Place at the 2023-2024 Jump Into STEM Challenge in December. The 2023–2024 JUMP into STEM Challenge asked college student teams from across the country to develop ideas to optimize energy utilization for affordable thermal energy storage, to access high-quality and affordable envelope remediation or construction technologies, and to develop an innovative solution for reducing carbon emissions from US buildings.

The annual student competition is sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Office, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).

Herrick’s team, made up of Andreas Hoess, Aaron Farha, Levi Premer, and Rebecca Lu, and working under Professors Davide Ziviani and Eckhard Groll, were awarded 2nd place in the “Keepin’ it Cool (or Hot) category. Their entry titled, “Reducing Barriers to Achieve an Energy Efficient Lifestyle for Low-Income Families in the United States of America” seeks to provide an affordable thermal energy storage-heat pump combination that is optimized for communal use in low-income or subsidized housing. Following the Justice40 program guidelines of the U.S. government, the product will close adoption barriers in underserved communities while transitioning to an electrified society. With easy installation, retrofit options, a smart control system and the implementation in a Microgrid, not just the users but also the power grid benefits from the installation.

At the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Symposium on Nonlinear dynamics for design of mechanical systems across different length/time scales in August, Junaid Ali was recognized with a Young Researcher Award. Ali, a Graduate Research Assistant at Herrick, received this award for his submission titled, “Non-linear characteristics of a two-DOF shaft-system coupled by a universal joint with clearance.” Ali’s research is funded by Allison Transmission whose principal investigator is Professor Gregory Shaver.

Congratulations to Andreas Hoess, Aaron Farha, Levi Premer, and Rebecca Lu for their work in the Jump Into STEM Challenge, and to Junaid Ali for receiving the Young Researcher Award.