What is EPSCoR?• Experimental Program to

Stimulate Competitive Research

• $20 million from National Science Foundation– Improve research

competitiveness– Build science and engineering

infrastructure

• Core research– Iowa State University– University of Iowa– University of Northern Iowa

• Partnerships– Community colleges– Private colleges– School districts– Government agencies– Industries

• Led by Ted Heindel, Iowa State University

Where is Iowa NSF EPSCoR?

Iowa NSF EPSCoR Vision

By 2016 Iowa will be a global leader in harnessing renewable energy available in the biosphere instead of mining limited fossil energy.

Iowa NSF EPSCoR Components• Bioenergy• Wind Energy• Energy Policy• Energy Utilization• Broader Impacts

Research: Wind Energy• Optimize wind energy

production by making harvest, storage, and transfer technologies more reliable

• Construct wind tunnel and turbine models

• Improve renewable energy networks

• Evaluate impacts on farmland and local microclimates

• Partner with wind industries• Offer internships for high school

studentsLed by Barry Butler, UI

Research: Bioenergy

• Investigate bioenergy production technology and scale up this research to pilot plants

• Create bioenergy agro-ecosystem research sites

• Create open-source virtual engineering tools

• Facilitate biomass growth, harvest, and conversion

Led by Robert Brown, Iowa State University

Research: Energy Utilization

• Evaluate the effects of human behaviors and building systems of energy consumption

• Create Green Community Campaign

• Energy usage and human behavior data

• Model experimental building strategies

• Create videos about building science and optimal energy utilization

• Target high school physics classesLed by Ted Heindel, Iowa State University

Research: Energy Policy

• Enhance collaboration and investigates policy’s impact on renewable energy

• Maintain workshop series• Analyze various impacts• Establish relationships with legislators• Create models for use by the EPALed by Bruce Babcock, ISU

Broader Impacts• Collaborate between universities

and external research parties• Increase participation of under-

represented groups• Invest in human capital and

expand STEM fields• Engage industry and legislators in

EPSCoR• Strengthen faculty academically

and professionally

Led by Sriram Sundararajan, ISU

This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number EPS-1101284.

Iowa EPSCoR Video

iowaepscor.org