Engineering - RENEWABLE-ENERGY-ENGINEERING-RNEE-PROGRAM

The mission of the Renewable Energy Engineering program is to prepare experts in the various aspects of energy and alternative energy sciences and technologies, in particular energy conservation strategies and engineering practices for clean energy production. The program is devoted to offer a high-quality learning experience for students by applying prominent educational methods that build strong theoretical grounding and outstanding hands-on skills, and cultivate a sense of responsibility toward the profession, society and environment.

Program Educational Objectives

The educational objectives of the RNEE program are determined to support professional development of the graduates where they are expected to:

1. have demonstrated capability to design, build and operate green energy infrastructures.
2. have demonstrated ability to pursue graduate studies in energy or other related multidisciplinary areas.
3. have demonstrated professional leadership in their fields of expertise and commitment to environment, community and global society.

Upon completion of the program, graduates shall have developed:

1. an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
2. an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
3. an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
4. an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
5. an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
6. an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
7. an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies.

The undergraduate curriculum for the degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Renewable Energy Engineering consists of 150 credit-hours of course work in addition to IC3 (Internet and Computing Core Certification), where the standard duration of study is 4 years including two summer terms.

Renewable energy engineers acquire a broad spectrum of skills needed for every profession in the energy industry that is booming worldwide. Jobs requiring renewable energy engineering skills include: energy sustainability, clean power generation and distribution including solar energy systems, wind energy systems, hydropower plants, and geothermal energy systems, energy efficiency in buildings, energy system modelling, and energy audit. Also, renewable energy engineering graduates will have prominent chances to work in research and development spending huge budgets on green energy studies.

The renewable energy engineering (RNEE) program is a four-year program that consists of 150 credits and aims at educating engineers to acquire the necessary competencies to design, build and operate the green energy infrastructure. In addition to basic science and math, the program begins by building, over four semesters, solid grounding in engineering fundamentals comprising elements from material, mechanical, thermal, and electrical engineering. This is followed by four semesters of advanced engineering courses that cover solar energy, photovoltaic cells, wind energy, geothermal energy and heat pumps and hydropower generation. In addition, the RNEE program offers several courses in energy storage, management and conservation such as Green buildings and LEED, Building Energy Modeling, Sustainable HVAC Solutions and Energy Storage and Management.

The curriculum includes several courses with experimentation and/or design projects. Taken together, these courses provide students with strong theory and practical hands-on enabling them to devise effective solutions for the generation, distribution, and utilization of green energy for grid-connected and off-grid applications. The major culminates in a two-semester capstone where students, working in small groups, demonstrate their mastery of the required engineering competencies and the design process.

The student’s study plan is given to every RNEE student upon his/her enrollment.