About Bioenergy Education
The Bioenergy Education Initiative works with students at the middle and high school levels, and at the college undergraduate level. Additionally, graduate students, who are involved in all aspects of the program, gain valuable leadership skills while pursuing their bioenergy research. The goal of the Bioenergy Education Program is to educate students about bioenergy, alternatives to fossil fuels and sustainability issues affecting our planet.
Energy and sustainability are critical issues of our time. We need people with skills in discovery science, feedstock development and production, logistics, pilot-scale and commercial-scale industrial conversion, business and marketing, education, economics and social sciences. Students participating in our program will be able to help drive innovation, commercialization and operation of next generation biofuels technologies.
The Bioenergy Education Initiative at OSU has two main elements:
- K-12 Bioenergy Education - These programs are lead by OSU SMILE (Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences).
- Undergraduate Bioenergy Minor - This interdisciplinary minor has a strong research component and is open to students from any major at OSU.
- Graduate students from diverse fields ranging from forestry and engineering to environmental sciences and education, are involved at every level of this education effort.
Funding Support
This educational program is part of Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest (AHB) and is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2011-68005-30407 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This regional biofuels project is a USDA-funded consortium for biofuels development.
Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest (AHB) is a consortium of Pacific Northwest university and industry partners led by the University of Washington. It involves partners in research, industry, extension and education. AHB is working to prepare Washington, Oregon, Northern California, and Northern Idaho for a sustainable hardwood bioproducts and biofuels industry. AHB’s goal is to develop a 100% compatible-with-existing-infrastructure biofuels industry in the Pacific Northwest by 2015 -- using FSC-certified poplars as the feedstock.