Math teacher Eric Nelson poses with the proud winners on New Britain High
School’s Green Team, which took first place in this year’s Cyber-Challenge.

Students from East Hartford High School placed second in this year’s
Cyber-Challenge. With them is science teacher Kendra Comarotti, at right.

Third place in the 2013 Cyber-Challenge went to students at Wilby High School in
Waterbury, shown here with science teachers Chelsea Becce (far left) and Jaimie
Farrell (far right).

]]> http://getintoenergyct.com/careers/meet-the-winners-of-cbias-2013-cyber-challenge/feed/ 0 http://getintoenergyct.com/events/ui-seminar-behavioral-energy-change-in-june-2013/ http://getintoenergyct.com/events/ui-seminar-behavioral-energy-change-in-june-2013/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 19:10:21 +0000 stalley http://getintoenergyct.com/?p=2275 See BEC Flyer for more details for dates in June.

Prime Solutions, Inc. Energy Engineering in New Milford is seeking an AutoCAD Drafter responsible for drafting PV systems. The ideal candidate will have AutoCAD and drawing set creation experience, formal training (minimum Associate’s Degree), as well as hands-on industry experience.

The position is responsible for the preparation of complex designs and drawings as required to fulfill engineering specifications and customer requirements. The ideal candidate will be able to perform various design and drafting duties requiring the exercise of judgment and application of standard engineering/drafting principles and practices.

Primary Responsibilities include interpreting multiple sources of information to create construction and permitting drawings using AutoCAD; creating, editing, and formatting drawings using AutoCAD; communicating with building departments to determine requirements, and communicating with engineers in order to complete photovoltaic system designs and related packages.

Qualifications include a minimum of an Associate’s Degree in Engineering or related field with several years of experience and five to seven years of AutoCAD usage in a professional setting including familiarity with AutoCAD 2012. Preference will be given to applicants who exhibit self-motivation, a strong technical aptitude, a willingness to learn along a desire to play an important role in a rapidly expanding solar company.

For a full list of responsibilities and qualifications, or to reply with a resume and references, email Danielle Primini.

Next Step Living is New England’s leading energy efficiency and renewable energy company. Our mission is to help residents reduce their energy use and lower their carbon footprint by making it as easy and cost-effective as possible for them to do so. Last year alone we helped over 20,000 residents reduce their home energy use, and helped roughly 500 of them to install solar power systems on their homes.

Right now are looking for people to join out outreach team. We have jobs available for Outreach Event Assistants and Field Marketing Canvassers. Event assistants staff events in local communities while field canvassers go out into neighborhoods to talk with people directly at their home. Both positions focus on reaching out to residents, educating them on energy efficiency, and getting them to take action with us on steps to reduce their energy use and lower their carbon footprint. These positions pay $15-25 per hour and range from 20-30 hours per week. Staff assistants have more flexibility in scheduling while field canvassers have the potential for more hours each week. Both positions are also available year-round and offer great opportunities for advancement.

These are great roles for people to get involved in the sustainability and clean energy industry or to just make extra money doing something worthwhile.

For more information contact Joyce Massicotte, Outreach Event Manager, Next Step Living, at 617.939.8132, toll-free at 888.246.9980, or by email at Joyce.Massicotte@NextStepLiving.com

NextStepLiving.com
Home energy savings, made easy.

“I really like the groups I worked with,” said Yuan, whose internship at BPA is also a requirement for maintaining her eligibility for an IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) scholarship, which is helping to pay her tuition.

Working at BPA as an intern, she said, gave her a chance to gain some hands-on work experience, “and also to see what a good company it is. BPA’s student program gives students and engineering professionals a chance to network. This is advantageous for students seeking a career after graduation and for work groups looking to hire new engineers.”

The PES Scholarship Plus program requires its scholarship recipients to obtain internships like the one Yuan has had because the hands-on exposure gets students excited about career opportunities in the energy field, while also helping companies screen future job applicants, said Daniel Toland, IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Program Director.

If students have trouble finding internships on their own, PES helps them locate companies that offer them, he said, through a free online database (http://www.pes-careers.org) that lists utilities and other companies that participate in the program. He’s always looking for new companies to add, he said.

“We’ve been reaching out to companies asking them to make sure we know about any internship programs they have so we can offer them to our students,” he said, noting that utilities don’t need to create special programs to qualify, but can simply let them know about existing internship and co-op programs.

“We’re finding that our scholarship process is a good way for companies to prescreen applicants,” he said, “so there’s a big benefit for them to take part.”

Rita Coppernoll, Supervisory Electrical Engineer in the area of system protection and control with BPA—and Yuan’s supervisor last summer—said she loves the internship program because “I get top-notch students who are highly motivated. We only take the cream of the crop, and there are lots to choose from.”

As for the students, the experience they get is something they won’t see in the classroom. “For example, with Tracy, we had her do hands-on work evaluating a problem on a relay, a device that protects our transmission lines,” said Coppernoll. “She wired it up and did journeyman-level evaluation of the problem and solved it. Her solution is on the system now.”

Last year, PES gave out 228 scholarships to students at 100 universities around the country, Toland said, up from 93 scholarships the program’s first year in 2011. All recipients must express an interest in the power and energy field, maintain a GPA of 3.0 or higher, and be a U.S. citizen. In order to maintain their eligibility for scholarships a second or third year, they must obtain an internship or co-op.

Of the program’s first 93 scholars, 55 of 56 eligible PES Scholars obtained internships and had their scholarships renewed, he said. The process for applying for internships for the coming summer is now underway.

“We want to get more people involved in the industry,” said Toland, explaining why the Scholar program was created. “Many students have told us they weren’t quite sure what they wanted to focus on in college, and once they learned about our scholarship program and started taking classes and getting hands-on experience, now they are far more involved in and interested in the field.”

Students who want to apply for a scholarship must submit an application and a copy of their current transcript, along with a recommendation letter from a professor or employer in one of six IEEE regions. Each region has a review committee that ranks applicants and distributes the scholarships. Successful applicants are given $2,000 their first and second year and $3,000 their third year. One student from each region is given a special $5,000 scholarship each year.

Toland said the money is paid directly to the student’s school so that it covers tuition costs.

Just as it was designed to do, the program has really solidified her interest in the power field, Yuan said.

“The work at BPA is exactly what I’m learning in my classes,” she said. “I chose large-scale power for my field and it definitely made me want to study large-scale power even more after doing the internship.”

Utilities interested in participating in the PES Scholar internship program should contact Daniel Toland at d.toland@ieee.org. They can learn more about the PES Scholarship Plus program at http://www.ee-scholarship.org.

The “Summer Engineering Experience for Kids,” or SEEK, is a free, three-week camp created by NSBE to help spark interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) careers among young people, particularly in underserved communities.

SEEK camps are held all over the U.S., and are a collaboration between communities, employers, and academia that are interested in building STEM awareness among students at an early age. In addition to SDG&E, the U.S. Marine Corps, San Diego State University, and Solar Turbines have signed on as sponsors.

In 2011, SDG&E pulled together a coalition of communities, employers, and academia to bring this camp to the west coast. The San Diego camp is now in its third year, and was previously offered to students in grades 3-5. However, this year’s camp will also be offered to students in grades 6-8.

It came about, said Nancy Smith-Taylor, Manager of Diversity and Workforce Management at SDG&E, because recruiters at her company were noticing a decline in the number of engineering and accounting students at the college campuses where they recruit.

“We saw that campus programs were not as robust as they used to be, and there was especially a shortage of minorities and females getting in to the STEM careers,” she said. “We realized that we had to start working with students at a much younger age than we had initially considered. So when I met the executive director of NSBE a few years ago, I told him, ‘We have to bring the SEEK camp to San Diego!’”

While there are other camps out there that focus on STEM subjects, Smith-Taylor said, her company liked this one because it had a fully developed curriculum in place and included a number of components she found appealing. For example, the camps are taught by NSBE collegiate members who serve as mentors to the students.

“The students form a bond with the mentors and learn about their interest in pursuing engineering careers,” she said. She also likes that the college students earn stipends for their work, as they would during an internship, so that everyone benefits.

Though developed by NSBE, the camps are not limited to minority students, Smith-Taylor said. All students are eligible, as long as their parents commit to keeping them in the camp for the entire three weeks and not pulling them out for vacation. The camps are so popular that she doesn’t want to see another student lose a spot to one that can’t commit to the full program.

Smith-Taylor said their camp now includes an energy curriculum as well as the other engineering components. SDG&E developed that curriculum and donated it to NSBE last year. It’s now being offered at camps all across the country.

“Our President and COO, Mike Niggli, is an engineer himself and started the power program at San Diego State University,” she said, “so he has been heavily involved. He wanted to develop curriculum that focused on renewable energy to incorporate into the camp, and challenged some of our own NSBE employees to help develop something. That’s how the solar-powered car curriculum came about, and it is now part of all the camps.”

“Supporting programs in the K-12 population, specifically those involving science, technology, engineering, and math, helps contribute to the development of the future workforce with skills that many in our region will need,” said Niggli.