The class started off with INTA4813 (Energy, Environment and Policy) poster presentation. Abe-sensei came to look at their posters and listen to their projects, so the main audience was Brian-sensei, Vince-sensei, and Abe-sensei. I got to walk around and talked to most of the groups about their posters as well.

There were six groups, and each group stood next to their poster, giving their pitch to their audience. Their task was to look at energy policies of Atlanta (Atlanta Regional community) and Tokyo (Tokyo-to) and provide a recommendation on how each region can improve their energy usage. I personally enjoyed looking at the posters and learning what each group discovered from their research. 

One group used “asset-based approach” to understand what Tokyo can learn from Atlanta and vice versa in terms of energy policy. Another group focused on analyzing energy security in regard to renewable energy.  There was a group looking at the fuel supply and its reliance on foreign exports and analyzing the existing policies based on the current situation that each region is in.While the majority of groups were giving the recommendations to foster solar energy in both regions, one group was focusing on improving the resiliency and was proposing the implementation and promotion of smart grid. 

It was interesting how a different group came to a different conclusion and recommendation even though they often had a similar data as a background. For some of them, it was their first time giving a poster presentation.  All the teams did well, and they seemed relieved that one of their big projects was over. (The other big one is tomorrow’s presentation)

Congratulations everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The presentation took place for over one hour. After all the professors had an opportunity to listen to each group and look at the posters, the classroom was split into two; One was to use for presentation run-through and the other one for INTA4744 group work.

I sat with Vince-sensei to listen to each group’s practice-presentation. Vince-sensei stopped a presentation whenever he had a question, suggestion, and recommendation. He was also making some comments to let students know what he liked about their presentation. All the groups had quite lot of contents in detail, and it was clear that they all had put quite efforts to consolidate the data they had collected and turned them into a presentation. Vince-sensei seemed to be satisfied about most parts. Yet, many groups had some issues with transitioning between topics and/or presenters. Those parts were pointed out by Vince-sensei, and students were getting advice on how to improve these parts for tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be the final day of JSPSD2018 and the Capstone presentation (INTA4744 oral presentation) will take place, and it will be open to Tokyo Tech community.

Written by Kanaha Shoji
Georgia Tech Graduate (2018) in Environmental Engineering, working as a research assistant for JSPSD2018