At 8pm, 7 March, the Multipurpose Hall of Residential College hosted the first of our public access lectures addressing the Global Challenges. The inaugural lecture was extremely well attended, the audience was made up of students and staff from both the International and Zhejiang campuses, the general public, media and press. It was great to see so many people from different backgrounds attend this event and for the topic to be so well received.
It was a great honour to have Professor Philip Krein (Executive Dean, ZJU-UIUC Institute, Grainger Endowed Director's Chair in Electric Machinery and Electromechanics, Member of National Academy of Engineering and IEEE Fellow) present the first Lecture. His topic was Low Cost Solar Power and Its Impact on Energy in China and the World. He discussed three main themes-what is energy?; how to transform solar power into useful energy?; how to lower the cost and raise efficiency?
Professor Krein opened his lecture by challenging the audience with the question“whatwere the main issues with solar energy?”His answer was “cost, cost and cost!” Professor Krein reviewed over 20 years of data and noted that the initial cost of a complete system has reduced year on year, enabling solar energy to become accessible at a household level. However, innovation and evolution never stop; the way to lower the cost is still the principle research topic. As a renewable resource there is natural variation between districts, with the challenges of daily fluctuations and efficient transportation, become important considerations for the future. Professor Krein’s lecture was inspiring and he encouraged future engineers to play their role in solving the problem of global energy.
We at ZJE look towards international expertise to strengthen and increase our understanding of these global challenges from within the framework of this lecture series.
If you would like to find out more about the ‘Global Challenges’ lectures, please try to come along to the next in the series, lectures are held every Tuesday night from 6:30pm to 8:00pmin the Residential College Multipurpose Hall.Please sign up to attend via Wechat (account: zje-uoe) or write email to uoe@zju.edu.cn.
Open to Visitors - all Welcome
