Rutgers-Newark Offshore Wind Energy Community Engagement Event. Credit: Amanda Brown Photography

With funding from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, offshore wind energy community engagement events were held at all three Rutgers campuses: Camden, New Brunswick, and Newark. These in-person events were instrumental in building community surrounding offshore wind energy across the state.

On May 2, 2023, approximately 50 community members from academia, government, nonprofit organizations, and industry came together to discuss the challenges facing offshore wind energy in southern New Jersey. The event was held at the Rutgers-Camden Campus Center.

Agenda
Presentations:
- Exploring Workforce Opportunities in the Emerging Offshore Wind Industry by Margaret Brennan-Tonetta, Rutgers University
Click here for the report summarizing the group discussions.
Photo Album:

Donna Nickitas, Rutgers-Camden Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, welcomes the attendees.

Peggy Brennan-Tonetta, Co-chair of the Rutgers Offshore Wind Energy Collaborative, provides opening remarks.

Tolu Omodara, Rutgers-Camden MS/PhD student, presents her work in offshore wind energy.

Stephen Danley, Director of the Center for Urban Research and Education and Associate Professor of Public Practice, participates in the round table discussions.

Attendees at the Rutgers-Camden Offshore Wind Energy Community Engagement event.

Tolu Omodara, Rutgers-Camden MS/PhD student, participates in the round table discussions.

On January 12, 2024, the New Jersey Academic Alliance for Offshore Wind Energy (A²OSW) Symposium was held at Rutgers-New Brunswick. With over 120 attendees, the event brought together the ten A²OSW academic institutions and their partners. The event was held at the Richard Weeks Hall of Engineering on Busch campus.

Agenda
Presentations:
- An Overview of the New Jersey Academic Alliance for Offshore Wind Energy by Josh Kohut, Rutgers University
- NJEDA Wind Institute Fellowship Program by Aina Yadav, NJEDA
- RU Wind Collegiate Wind Competition by Anjali Viswanathan and Saranya Guttikonda, Rutgers University
- RU POWER Collegiate Wind Competition by Katherine Moreira and Zachary Soricelli, Rutgers University
- Marine Technology Society, New Jersey Student Section by Joe Gradone, Rutgers University
Click here for the report summarizing the group discussions.
News Articles:
- NJ Spotlight News: Rutgers researchers want new lab to test floating offshore wind turbines
- NJ Spotlight News: Rutgers wants lab to test floating offshore wind turbines (video)

Student Posters: Thank you to the following students for presenting their posters regarding their offshore wind energy work at the Symposium. Click here for a printable list of the poster titles.
- Rojyar Berhemat – Rowan University – Structural Health Monitoring and Condition Assessment for Offshore Wind Turbines
- Michelle Hernandez – New Jersey Institute of Technology – Optimizing Wind Power Generation: Developing a Digital Twin for Real-Time Monitoring and Analysis
- Riya Karande – New Jersey Institute of Technology – IoT Sensing Platform for Remote Monitoring and Real-Time Data Analysis of Offshore Wind Turbines
- Mohammad Katibeh – Rutgers University – Design Optimization of Wind Turbine Blades with Morphing Surfaces
- Yiming Liu – Stevens Institute of Technology – Robot-based damage inspection for offshore wind turbines
- Suresh Mahadevan – Atlantic Cape Community College – (Poster title forthcoming)
- Fatemah Mohammadi Ghahsareh – Stevens Institute of Technology – Application of UHPC for offshore wind turbines
- Katherine Moreira – Rutgers University – Rutgers University DOE Marine Energy Collegiate Competition Team
- Anjali Viswanathan – Rutgers University – Rutgers University Collegiate Wind Competition Team’s Design of an Offshore Wind Turbine
- Zhuzhu Wang – Stevens Institute of Technology – Coordinated Control of MMC-HVDC Integrated Offshore Wind Farms via Automatic Clustering for Power System Frequency Support
- Patrick Wilk – Rowan University – Proactive Production Forecasting to Support Offshore Wind
- Hannah Hata Williams – Princeton University – How much do waves matter in an offshore wind farm?
- Ali Zabihi – Rowan University – Non-contact condition monitoring of wind turbines using laser vibrometers
- Jimiao Zhang – Rowan University – Dynamic Modeling and Grid-Forming Control of PMSG-Based Wind Energy Conversion Systems
Panelists: Thank you to the following experts for serving as panelists at the Symposium.
- Environmental Impact and Climate-smart Modeling:

Julie Lockwood, Interim Director, Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Professor, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources

Rutgers University-New Brunswick

julie.lockwood@rutgers.edu 848-932-9336

Area of Expertise: Wildlife conservation; invasive species

_________________________________________________________________

Pankaj Lal, Professor and Director, Clean Energy and Sustainability Analytics Center

Montclair State University

lalp@montclair.edu 973-655-3137 and 973-655-3978

Area of Expertise: Energy sustainability and economics, energy analytics, industrial ecology, energy modeling and policy

_________________________________________________________________

Michael Mueller, Professor and Associate Chair, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Princeton University

muellerm@princeton.edu 609-258-5191

Area of Expertise: Fluid mechanics, propulsion and energy sciences

_________________________________________________________________

- Design and Operations:

Ahmed Aziz Ezzat, Assistant Professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

Rutgers University-New Brunswick

aziz.ezzat@rutgers.edu 848-445-3625

Area of Expertise: AI/ML for renewable energy forecasting and operations, asset & system prognostics and diagnostics, operations & maintenance, operations research and engineering

_________________________________________________________________

Muhammad Hajj, Chair, Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering, Director, Davidson Laboratory, and George Meade Bond Professor

Stevens Institute of Technology

mhajj@stevens.edu 201-216-8336

Area of Expertise: Nonlinear dynamics, fluid mechanics, structural dynamics, and fluid-structure interactions with applications in aero- and hydro-elasticity, ships hydrodynamics, biomimetically-inspired air and underwater vehicles, and energy harvesting

_________________________________________________________________

Yi Bao, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering

Stevens Institute of Technology

ybao3@stevens.edu 201-216-5223

Area of Expertise: Structural health monitoring and condition assessment; AI-powered smart sensors; fiber optic sensors; wireless sensors; machine learning; coastal infrastructure

_________________________________________________________________

Behrad Koohbor, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Rowan University

koohbor@rowan.edu 856-256-5328

Area of Expertise: Composites, additive manufacturing

_________________________________________________________________

- Electricity Transmission and Storage:

Zhimin Xi, Associate Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering

Rutgers University-New Brunswick

zhimin.xi@rutgers.edu 848-445-3657

Area of Expertise: Design for reliability and the applications for reliable autonomous vehicles/robots, lithium-ion batteries, and additive manufacturing

_________________________________________________________________

Philip Pong, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director, Green Technology Research and Training Laboratory, Sensor Research Laboratory

New Jersey Institute of Technology

philip.pong@njit.edu 973-596-3533

Area of Expertise: Development and application of advanced sensing techniques based on electromagnetic sensors in smart grid, non-contact sensing, sensors for cyber-physical systems

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Lei Wu, Anson Wood Burchard Chair Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Stevens Institute of Technology

lei.wu@stevens.edu 201-216-8066

Area of Expertise: Power and energy system optimization and control

_________________________________________________________________

Workforce Development:

Sherwood Taylor, Senior Director, Workforce Development

Atlantic Cape Community College

staylor@atlanticcape.edu 609-343-4816

Area of Expertise: Workforce development

_________________________________________________________________

Robert Bullard, Director, Office of Career Advancement

Rowan University

bullardr@rowan.edu 856-256-4456

Area of Expertise: Workforce development

_________________________________________________________________

Jacalyn Toth Sullivan, Adjunct Professor of Marine Science and Marine Mammal Biologist

Stockton University

jacalyn.toth@stockton.edu

Area of Expertise: Marine mammal ecology, population dynamics, and long-term population monitoring, with a focus on seasonal cetaceans and pinnipeds in New Jersey.

_________________________________________________________________

Community Engagement:

Karl Vilacoba, Communications Director, Monmouth University Urban Coast Institute

Monmouth University

kvilacob@monmouth.edu 732-571-3688

Area of Expertise: Project manager for the Mid-Atlantic Ocean Data Portal

_________________________________________________________________

Sean Duffy, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology

Rutgers University-Camden

seduffy@camden.rutgers.edu 856-225-6204

Area of Expertise: Environmental psychology

_________________________________________________________________

Yashwant Sinha, Instructor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

Rowan University

sinha@rowan.edu 856-256-5322

Area of Expertise: Offshore wind energy community engagement

_________________________________________________________________

Photo Album:

Denise Hien, Senior Vice Provost for Research at Rutgers University, provides opening remarks.

Jen Becker, Vice President of Offshore Wind at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, provides opening remarks.

Josh Kohut, Co-chair of the Rutgers Offshore Wind Energy Collaborative, provides an overview of the NJ Academic Alliance for Offshore Wind Energy.

Experts participate in panel discussion to identify the challenges and research opportunities for the New Jersey Academic Alliance for Offshore Wind Energy.

Experts participate in panel discussion to identify the challenges and opportunities as it pertains to workforce development and community engagement for the New Jersey Academic Alliance for Offshore Wind Energy.

Aina Yadav, Project Officer for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s Wind Institute provides an overview of the NJEDA Wind Institute Fellowship Program.

Anjali Viswanathan and Saranya Guttikonda provide an overview of the RUWIND collegiate wind competition.

Zachary Soricelli and Katherine Moreira provide an overview of the RUPOWER collegiate wind competition.

On January 26, 2024 approximately 50 community members from academia, government, nonprofit organizations, and industry came together to discuss the business of offshore wind energy. The event was held at the Rutgers-Newark Business School.