Irving Institute Funds Record Number of Student Projects for Summer 2023

Entrance to The Arthur L. Irving Institute for Energy and Society. (Photo by Catha Mayor)

The Institute's Student Grant Program offers up to $5,000 for enrolled undergraduate and graduate students who are advancing the Institute's mission of transforming humankind's understanding of energy issues, and driving the creation of ideas, technologies, and policies that improve the availability and efficient use of energy for all people.

Funded projects and activities include:

Julia Huddy, Thayer School of Engineering Graduate Student

Julia will use Irving Institute student grant funding to present her paper, "Large-Area Uniformity Mapping of High-Speed Flexography-Printed Perovskite Solar Cells via Scanning Photoluminescence," at the 50th IEEE Photovoltaics Speciality Conference. Julia's research focuses on a method for scaling fabrication technologies of perovskite solar cells, which have the potential to provide terawatt-scale energy capacity.

Baptiste Gibrat, Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Graduate Student
Michael May, Thayer School of Engineering Graduate Student

Michael and Baptiste will use Irving Institute student grant funding to support their travel to Uganda as part of a project for their ENGS 172.2: Techno-economic Analysis in a Developing Country Context class. They are constructing a biofuels network model for Uganda with four graduate students currently in Uganda.

Anna Hugney '24, Engineering Sciences
Emily Liu '24, Engineering Sciences
Jack McMahon '24, Engineering Sciences modified with Computer Science
Rujuta Pandit '24, Engineering Sciences
Avery Widen '25, Engineering Sciences modified with Computer Science

Five members of the Dartmouth Humanitarian Engineers' DHelios Project, which is developing a novel system for institutional kitchens in sub-Saharan Africa to substitute traditional biomass fuels for solar water heating, will use Irving Institute student grant funding to support the team's second work trip to Uganda. In Uganda, the group will expand and improve their system at UCU and teach the system design to local Ugandan engineers and entrepreneurs. They plan to double the size of the existing prototype, improve existing pump control and sensor technology, work collaboratively with local engineers from the Smart Girls Uganda foundation, and explore new sites to plan for further expansion.

Vibhuv Reddy '25, Engineering Sciences

Vibhuv will use Irving Institute student grant funding to support his participation in a faculty-led research project, "Additive Manufacturing of 3D Mesostructured Earth Abundant Catalysts for Green Hydrogen Production." The project, led by Assistant Professor of Engineering William Scheideler, is focused on reducing the cost of green hydrogen production by developing a scalable, additive manufacturing method to enhance the performance of earth abundant crystals in the catalysis of water. Vibhuv will be assisting with multiple methods of materials characterization including thermal gravimetry, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction.

Carter "Street" Roberts '24, Quantitative Social Science

Street will use Irving Institute student grant funding to help support a faculty-led research project, "Equity Within FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP)." The project, led by Engineering Professor Klaus Keller, will delve into the gaps between equity in existing hazard adaptation literature and equity within FEMA's hazard adaptation programs with a specific focus on equity within FEMA's NFIP program.