Seeing Green: New Lab Focuses on Developing Energy Technologies

Pictured: NYIT President Hank Foley (right) and members of the community take a tour of the new facility led by Director of the EnTech Lab Ehsan Kamel (left).

On April 23, New York Institute of Technology President Hank Foley, Ph.D., officially opened the Energy and Green Technologies Laboratory (EnTech Lab). Part of the Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center (ETIC), the living lab serves as a real-world environment where students will gain hands-on experience creating new knowledge in the energy and green disciplines.

Members of the NYIT community—including Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Junius Gonzales, M.D., M.B.A., NYIT College of Engineering and Computing Sciences Dean Babak Beheshti, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Energy Management and Director of the EnTech Lab Ehsan Kamel, Ph.D., and Associate Professor and Chair of Energy Management Robert Amundsen, Ph.D.—joined President Foley for a ribbon cutting and tour of the facility.

From left: NYIT President Hank Foley, Director of the EnTech Lab Ehsan Kamel, Associate Professor Robert Amundsen, Provost Junius Gonzales, and Dean Babak Beheshti at the ribbon cutting.

President Foley noted that the EnTech is going to be a place for students and faculty to come together to learn and add to their knowledge about all forms of energy and green technology. According to the 2019 U.S. Energy and Employment Report, 6.7 million Americans work in energy-related industries (out of the total workforce of 167 million). That number is increasing, noted Amundsen. “Employers are looking for people with these highly technical skills. … It all begins here at NYIT with the dedicated faculty, the curriculum, and the facilities that we have. … [Future graduates] of the M.S. in energy management program have great careers waiting for them.”

“[The lab is] like a newborn baby for everybody in this department,” said Kamel. “We want to make sure it grows up fast.” Kamel also said that while the state-of-the-art equipment is a key aspect of the lab, there’s something larger at stake. “More important…are the students who come here with big goals. We want to help them to achieve their goals and dreams. That is something that excites me.”

Energy and Green Technologies Laboratory

The new space, located in Harry Schure Hall at NYIT-Long Island, features state-of-the-art equipment, including:

• Energy Generation and Storage Equipment: Portable solar panels, a solar-tracking photovoltaic system, horizontal and vertical wind turbines, lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and a hydrogen generator.
• Electrical Loads: Computers, LCDs, heater, toaster, soldering kit, and printers.
• Energy Monitoring and Control Systems: Infrared cameras, anemometers, smart plugs, energy smart home control hub, wireless temperature and humidity sensors, motion detectors, wireless data loggers, solar radiation sensor, smart tinted window films, smart operable blinds, wireless building enclosure thermal performance measuring kit, energy meters, phase change material, Raspberry Pi and Arduino kits, and thermal imaging drone.
• Virtual Reality Kit: Including an interactive web-based energy dashboard.

Learn more about the EnTech Lab.