Energy Institute High School Sees Future at the University of Houston

Camp Will Focus on Renewable Energy, Solar-Powered Car Competition

Incoming freshmen from the Houston Independent School District’s new Energy Institute High School, a magnet school for energy careers, will spend Thursday, July 31, at the University of Houston for an introduction to renewable energy.  The camp, which is sponsored by UH Energy, will close with students building solar-powered cars and racing them on a track behind the University’s Athletics/Alumni Center.

Students at the school, which opened in fall 2013, can focus on one of three tracks: geosciences, offshore technology or alternative energy. Ramanan Krishnamoorti, chief energy officer at UH, said the camp’s morning sessions will give students more information about renewable energy from both UH faculty and graduate students, as well as people from industry and NASA.

A second camp for students at the Energy Institute will be held at UH Aug. 6. The camps are just one of the ways UH Energy works with the energy magnet high school, Krishnamoorti said.

 

WHAT:                 Energy-themed camp for HISD’s Energy Institute High School students. The solar car

                             project from 12:30-2:30 p.m. should be especially interesting for media.

 

WHO:                   Speakers include Judith Jeevarajan, battery group lead for safety and advanced

                             technology at NASA; Bret Biggart, general manager of Freedom Solar; and several

                             UH faculty members, including Alex Freundlich, associate director for research at the

                             Center for Advanced Materials; Barry Lefer, associate professor and associate chair

                             from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; and Mike Harold, M.D.

                             Anderson professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular

                             Engineering.

 

WHEN:                 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursday, July 31

 

WHERE:               Athletics/Alumni Center, 3100 Cullen Blvd., UH Campus.

 

PARKING:          Available at the Athletics/Alumni Center.

 

MEDIA:                Contact Jeannie Kever, 713.743-0778, m-713-504-3769, jekever@uh.edu.