Category:MOST   

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This page is from Michigan Tech's Open Sustainability Technology Research Group. Please see the rest of our work on Open Source Appropriate Technology on Appropedia. Now hiring PhD students in Materials Science & Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering contact Dr. Pearce

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Contents 1 Current Research Projects 2 Open Access Policy 3 Useful Links for MOST students 3.1 I am published - now what? 3.2 MTU Travel and Account Reimbursement 3.3 Student Grants and Jobs

Welcome to the home of the Pearce Research Group at Michigan Tech in Open Sustainability Technology housed within the Department of Materials Science & Engineering and Electrical & Computer Engineering at Michigan Tech. This research group focuses on open and applied sustainability, which is the application of science and innovation to ensure a better quality of life for all, now and into the future, in a just and equitable manner, whilst living within the limits of supporting ecosystems. Specifically we are interested in exploring the way solar energy can be used to provide clean sustainable electricity through photovoltaic devices and how open source appropriate technologies and hardware can drive decentralized local production and manufacturing.

We have a strong open access policy. For a full list of our recent publications organized by category go here.

Contact:Dr. Pearce

Current Research Projects

	Photovoltaic Materials, Electronic Device Physics, and Solar Photovoltaic Systems Projects	Lead Member
	Since 1990, photovoltaic module production has increased more than 500-fold from 46 megawatts (MW) to 23.5 GW in 2010, which has radically reduced the costs.[1] We intend to further reduce the costs by investigating PV/T (photovoltaic thermal applications) of amorphous silicon solar cells and by developing an ultra-high efficiency indium gallium nitride (InGaN) solar cell.The band gap of InGaN can be tuned from 0.7eV-3.4eV by adjusting the ratio of indium and gallium in the film so a multi-layered cell covers the entire range of the solar spectrum. Thus, a well-designed InGaN solar cell can absorb and convert a much higher fraction of the sun’s light energy into electricity. The first stage of research will focus on the characterization and understanding of InGaN as a semiconducting material. The final stage of research will use the accumulated data and knowledge to determine the number of stacked layers and the relative concentrations of indium and gallium within each that maximizes light absorption and, more importantly, electricity generation.	Dr. Pearce
	In addition to band gap engineering, PV device performance can be improved by engineering the microstructure of the material to increase the optical path length and provide light trapping. For this purpose, nano-columns are candidates for the ideal microstructure as it has been shown that when their diameters are optimized, resonant behavior is observed. See:InGaN Solar Cells Literature Review and the new series InGaN photovoltaics literature review. We are developing a new deposition system to fabricate InGaN nanocolumn PV. See: MBE protocol:MOST	Brad Pasionek
	Effects of spectral albedo on photovoltaic devices	Rob Andrews
	Our group is often asked to design small PV systems for remote applications, green applications, etc. These small projects are all open sourced so that others may benefit and improve upon the design. Solar powered distributed customized manufacturing , Small system photovoltaic design-	Sai Ravi Chandra

	Open Source Distributed Manufacturing	Lead Member
	The technological evolution of the 3-D printer (or rapid prototyper), widespread internet access and inexpensive computing has made a new means of open design capable of accelerating self-directed sustainable development. Open source 3-D printers, such as the RepRap, enable the use of designs in the public domain to fabricate open source appropriate technology (OSAT), which are easily and economically made from readily available resources by local communities to meet their needs. There is potential for open source 3-D printers to assist in driving sustainable development. This project is developing solar powered self-replicating open-source 3-D printers and waste plastic extruders - capable of making primary components of solar photovoltaic systems from recycled waste. The project has both technical components in actually designing and building the devices, but also concerns questions of life cycle analysis. - specifically - Does this approach make sense from an ecological footprint, emissions, and embodied energy perspectives? See the plan: J. M Pearce, C. Morris Blair, K. J. Laciak, R. Andrews, A. Nosrat and I. Zelenika-Zovko, “3-D Printing of Open Source Appropriate Technologies for Self-Directed Sustainable Development”, Journal of Sustainable Development 3(4), pp. 17-29 (2010). How would global society change if everyone had access to abundant low-cost renewable energy via solar electricity, open source 3D designs and an affordable open source 3-D printer like the RepRap?	Dr. Pearce
	Mechanical testing of polymer components made with the RepRap 3-D printer	Brennan
	Life cycle analysis of distributed polymer recycling, Development and feasibility of applications for the RepRap 3-D printer	Mlmulder
	A RecycleBot is a waste plastic extruder - that can take household polymer waste and turn it into valuable 3-D printer feedstock. This project focuses on designing, building and testing an extruder for the RepRap that uses polymer waste as a feedstock. The Recyclebot v.2.0 is based off of the Waste plastic extruder and Open source controller for polymer extruder	Allie Glover
	Industrial symbiosis in photovoltaic manufacturing. This project explores utilizing industrial symbiosis to obtain economies of scale and increased manufacturing efficiencies for solar PV cells in order for solar electricity to compete economically with fossil fuel-fired electricity. Currently we are looking at life cycle analysis of semiconductor recycling in thin film photovoltaic manufacturing plants.	Megan Kreiger
	Open source laser system for polymeric welding	Thaddeus Waterman

Open Access Policy

The group makes its best effort to open source its literature reviews and protocols as the research is taking place and provides direct access to our research protocols, experimental designs, and equipment. In addition, the group publishes in open access journals as much as possible and posts its pre-prints in open access databases. To browse pre-prints from some of Dr. Pearce's past work go here. Normally these pre-prints/final drafts are released under CC-BY-SA as soon as we are able. You can also read more details about completed projects here.

Useful Links for MOST students

Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology Lab.
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• MOST tasks
• Safety
• Wiki help - Every page that you make should have {{MOST}} at the top and be placed in the appropriate categories.
  • Appropedia Help Page, How to add an image tutorial as well as Help:Add image tutorial, Wikipedia's help page, Math Equation Help in Wiki

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• Full list of present and past MOST members
• MOST literature reviews
• MOST methods
• MOST paper writing
• MOST completed projects and publications
• MOST library
• MOST guide to graduation
• MOST courses
• MOST group tips
• MOST last day

I am published - now what?

As you know getting a paper in the peer reviewed literature does not guarantee it will be widely read. In the group we then take the following steps:

1. Write up a summary page in Appropedia of your article and place it in this category - it should link back to your literature review and any protocols you used. It should also have key findings and enhanced figures. It must have the full citation for your paper with a link both to the article at the journal via DOI and a link to your preprint. Finally, you should hyperlink all keywords within Appropedia and drop it in appropriate categories (e.g. photovoltaic).
2. Format the pre-print for with a header showing the full citation. Include all figures and tables - make it as readable as possible and send to Dr. Pearce to post MTU's pre-prints (coming soon), arXiv and HAL for technical papers or SSRN for sustainability papers and/or Qspace.
3. Write up a short summary from your appropedia summary for the MTU sustainability blog, co-post on Energypedia and /or Engineering for Change and/or Technology Exchange
4. Post abstract on linkedin
5. Finally if your work is newsworthy we will write a summary and send it to the University Press Office to release.

MTU Travel and Account Reimbursement

• Conferences to attend [1]
• budget [2]
• visiting scholar paperwork [3]
• poster printing:

Student Grants and Jobs

• Entry into the Pearce Research Group at Michigan Tech in Open Sustainability Technology is extremely competitive, but we are always looking for outstanding applicants. Research assistantships are generally available for graduate students at the PhD level. For more information see http://www.mse.mtu.edu/~pearce/Join.html
• $5k Undergraduate Research Awards http://www.mse.mtu.edu/research/McArthur.html
• Finishing Fellowships are now open. Applications must be submitted to the Graduate School.Please see our application page: [4] Students are eligible if all of the following criteria are met:
  • Must be a PhD student.
  • Must expect to finish in summer.
  • Must have submitted no more than one previous request for funding.
  • Must be eligible for Research Only Mode.
  • Previous recipients of a Finishing Fellowship are not eligible.

• For Job searching after graduation see: Employment
• THE LINK FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES FELLOWSHIPS IN THE ENERGY FIELD

Students working toward a Ph.D. degree in energy-related fields at universities located in the U.S. or Canada. Fellowships are offered with a duration of 2 years and will be paid in two installments of $25,000. Odds 2/100. $21,500 is to be used for the Fellow's stipend, $2,500 is to be used for expenses associated with the Fellow's research, and $1,000 is to be used for attending one or more technical meetings and/or publication expenses. Applications are due December 1. The Link Foundation provides funds for direct costs, but does NOT support student tuition, institutional overhead or pooled costs.www.linkenergy.org.