Professors Monica F. A. Porto, Full Professor and Chair, Department of Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering, Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (left), José Rodolfo Scarati Martins, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (center) and Chad Vecitis, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) (right), discuss the principles of hydropower generation.

By Junling Huang

This field trip, consisting of lectures and site visits in Brazil, offered us lots of valuable opportunities to explore the energy system in real world. The well prepared lectures provided the very essential background for understanding energy technologies. For instance, the second day’s lecture covered the many aspects of hydropower including its history, current technologies as well as its cost, and there was also a lively exchange of ideas between professor and students, as shown by the picture above. The followed-up site visits gave us a very explicit illustration on how scientific theory and engineering design could be put into practice, and the real projects never cease to amaze us. On the third day, we visited a hydropower plant located at on the south side of Sao Paulo. The 700 m height of the dam, the associated large scale artificial lake, and the entire system’s contribution to Sao Paulo’s economic growth impressed everyone, and convinced us the powerfulness and importance of engineering. 

Junling Huang is a Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental & Energy Sciences at Harvard

By John Azubuike '13

It was great to hear from Professor Mierzwa about his work. He is developing new water filtration technologies. While at the surface it seems to be a distant topic from energy, it didn’t take long for him to explain the tie-in. The product that he was developing and optimizing would make for a faster, more energy efficient, and less chemical dependent water treatment system. Projects like his strike me as especially important for developing countries, which often lack the funds and access to chemicals that modern water treatment techniques require. I couldn’t help but think of the applicability of such a project to my home country of Nigeria. As both a bioengineering student and a person born in a developing country, I view technologies that efficiently increase access to clean water as being key to reducing health risks and increasing productivity in the developing world. Hopefully Professor Mierzwa’s work will one day come to benefit both his country and my own. 

John Azubuike '13 is an Engineering Sciences concentrator at Harvard College