Richard Engel
Since 2009, SERC’s Hydrogen Energy in Engineering Education (H2E3) project, with financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, has produced over 50 hydrogen experiment kits that have been made available on loan to engineering departments at University of California and California State University campuses. Each kit includes an electrolyzer for generating hydrogen, a fuel cell for generating electricity with the hydrogen, and instruments for making measurements of system efficiency. SERC has developed a set of lab activities that incorporate the kit.
Mechanical engineering faculty at San Francisco State University, after trying out one of the kits, decided they would like to purchase a set for permanent inclusion in their undergraduate lab activities. SFSU recently placed an order for eight of the
kits, set to be delivered in time for fall semester 2011 classes. In keeping with the H2E3 project’s goal of incorporating fuel cell and hydrogen learning in existing engineering classes, the kits will be used for a course in engineering experimentation, ENGR 300. This course helps engineering students build fundamental skills, such as ability to make sound engineering assumptions and to set up and troubleshoot experiments.
