2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Renewable energy systems are more efficient and environmentally friendly power generation solutions as compared to traditional fossil generators, and as a result have created a continuously expanding job market. The global investment in solar PV systems has gone through a mostly increasing trend in the past ten years, which implies that the solar PV market requires a significant number of Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates specifically trained to handle the technical challenges and meet the job market demand. This project is funded through the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program of National Science Foundation (NSF), and has been conducted at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) with the objective to train the required workforce for the solar photovoltaic (PV) job market through several activities that will provide benefits to university students, K-12 students, faculty members and instructors, and remote users all around the U.S. In this paper, the five major activities of the project are explained, which include: (i) Design and development of the new laboratory entitled “Renewable Energy Systems Training (REST)” and the associated new course entitled “Solar PV Planning and Installation”, (ii) summer workshops for K-12 students through Center for Pre-College Programs (CPCP) at NJIT, (iii) faculty development workshops for the instructors of other 2- and 4-year institutions, (iv) undergraduate research and senior design projects, and (v) development of a dedicated public website to include all the lecture notes, laboratory experiments, video recordings, publications, guidelines to develop similar courses, and other instructional materials. This paper summarizes and presents the comments and feedback from external advisory committee (EAC), external evaluator, faculty development workshop participants, K-12 workshop participants, and the students enrolled in the new course. It also explains about the career placement, student retention, and community college transfer rates.