6/19/2012 By Chad Garland
Written by By Chad Garland
The institute, which is the sixth and newest member of the World Premier International (WPI) Research Center Initiative launched in 2007 by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), is a partnership between Kyushu University in Japan and the University of Illinois.
Speaking at the symposium, which took place in the Alice Campbell Alumni Center on March 6 and 7, I2CNER Director Petros Sofronis said, “There is no better time for I2CNER to have been launched.”
Sofronis, who is also a professor and the associate head for mechanics programs in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at Illinois, said the symposium showed that I2CNER is not just a unique experiment on international collaboration, it is a concerted institutionalized effort that is moving forward.
The symposium featured a total of 29 speakers in themed sessions divided over the first two days of the symposium, followed by faculty meetings in concurrent breakout sessions on the third day, March 8. Robert Finley and Sallie Greenberg of the Illinois State Geological Survey also led a tour of the Arthur Daniels Midland Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) Site in Decatur on March 8.
During the first day, titled “Powering the Future,” speakers from the partner institutions as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, National Laboratories, and the Fuel Cell System Engineering Division of Toyota Motor Corporation, discussed energy challenges and some of the required technology breakthroughs for meeting these challenges. The day concluded with a panel discussion in which the day’s speakers fielded questions from the audience.
“I2CNER aims to pursue green innovation and reduced CO2 emissions, as well as to advance fundamental science and develop science-based technological solutions for the reorganization of sustainable and environmentally friendly society,” said Setsuo Arikawa, president of Kyushu University, in his opening remarks at the symposium.
Arikawa’s remarks also touched on scientific issues relevant to ongoing discussion and debate in Japan as to what the energy mix should be in that country. He said that I2CNER could address the energy issues raised by those discussions.
”In such a situation, our research is expected to help our people as well as our society,” he said. “I hope that more collaborative research between Japan and the United States will be initiated by this symposium.”
Ilesanmi Adesida, Dean of Engineering at the University of Illinois, addressed the audience during the symposium’s opening.
“We feel this is a long partnership bringing Kyushu University and the University of Illinois together to learn from each other,” Adesida said. “(The Institute) is bringing two cultures together to interfuse—I call that fusion, again—to learn from each other, and to be able to become better because we learned from each other.”
Adesida stressed that the University of Illinois is a global research university, noting that many international students are enrolled at the university and that a high percentage of undergraduate and graduate students study abroad.
Adesida also said the fusion of disciplines is an important strength of the University of Illinois and the College of Engineering.
“This is something we’ve done for a very long time and we are committed to doing, because that is where new knowledge comes out, the new knowledge that advances the human condition,” he said.
While I2CNER’s goals may be ambitious, Samuel Baldwin, Chief Science Officer at the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy within the U.S. Department of Energy, told the symposium attendees that they are a “critical set of issues that have to be addressed.”
“The pressure on global oil supplies will continue,” Baldwin said, which will not only impact the trade deficit, but will have foreign policy impacts, security impacts, and economic impacts. Baldwin also stressed the magnitude of the challenge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
“We need to get (global levels of carbon dioxide) to 450 parts per million or preferably lower if we can stabilize there, so that’s the challenge,” he said. “We’re looking at decades in order to respond to these challenges. We’ve got to figure out ways that we can dramatically accelerate how fast we move these technologies forward and get them into the market.”
Echoing Baldwin’s point about the technical, political, and economic challenges to sustainable energy’s success, George Crabtree of Argonne National Laboratory told the symposium that “energy is making an historic transition from fossil to alternative.”
“The bottleneck is basic science understanding for materials and chemistry,” Crabtree said. “There’s a wonderful opportunity there (for both Japan and the United States with the development of I2CNER).”
Other sessions on the first day dealt with issues such as carbon sequestration in the Illinois Basin, the role of nuclear energy in carbon neutral energy sustainability, the progress and challenges of hydrogen fuel cell technology, and the importance materials play in the advancement of new energy solutions, among others.
The second day of the symposium featured a program of technical discussions and presentations by I2CNER researchers, who outlined their current research and suggested directions for future work on energy.
“My expectations were exceeded,” Sofronis said. “We’ve got some of the finest scientists that we could manage to gather here from both Kyushu University and the University of Illinois and engaged in discussion and debate.”
Sofronis said the distinguished speakers from the first day of the symposium all shared with him their positive impressions of the symposium and many expressed their willingness to help I2CNER in achieving its goals.
“We put this Kyushu/Illinois project on the map before the eyes of the distinguished visitors and we made more friends as an institute,” he added. “The symposium sealed the fact that things are happening and can serve as a springboard for more things to happen.”
Sofronis said that many attendees of the breakout sessions also made new acquaintances and relationships to be cultivated in future symposia and workshops, while gaining a sense of I2CNER’s “big vision” and priorities.
“Never before have we had such a list of energy experts at this campus,” he said. “If you were faculty in attendance, you got great ideas about serious outstanding problems that are related with the realization of what we call a renewable energy portfolio tied with sustainability.”
Sofronis said he considers the symposium an “overwhelming success.”
“We covered almost everything there is about energy – from all aspects, various angles—so that’s what makes this symposium something I’m so pleased about,” he said. “It took a lot of our energy.”