UMass Amherst Offshore Wind Energy Center Shows Student Posters

AMHERST — Today, April 26, from 5 to 7 p.m., the Offshore Wind Energy Program annual student poster session will take place in the Hadley Room, 10th Floor, Campus Center, at UMass Amherst.

The 21 posters this year represent an interdisciplinary look at the engineering, environmental, and policy aspects of offshore wind energy, said Jody Lally, program manager. Student research topics include an ultrasonic whistle for use as a bat deterrent on wind turbines, for example, and a model of breeding bald eagles in Maine.

Other posters discuss such factors as what the public thinks about offshore wind energy, design of floating offshore wind farms, overcoming environmental permitting obstacles, offshore energy storage, and the response of juvenile lemon sharks to electric fields produced by a power cable across a tidal mangrove creek.

There will be light refreshments, a cash bar, and the opportunity to speak informally with students and faculty about their wind-energy research.