EWG Wind Turbine Team Presents to Air National Guard

After a successful competition at the KidWind national event, EWG’s Wind Turbine Team has continued to distinguish themselves with a presentation for the Air National Guard. On Friday, June 3, students Nikolas Angell, Nathaniel Powers, Morgan Beck, Michael Camacho, Emily Yoon, Jesse Ruscito, Akira Hall, Brielle Bamberry and Devon Cranston visited the National Guard base in Quonset to present their wind turbine project to over 700 local high school students.

For Yoon, presenting to her peers in a non-competitive environment brought extra rewards. “This event is particularly meaningful because it gave us the chance to educate our peers in wind energy,” she said, “so it allowed us to become part of the greater global movement towards transitioning to renewable energy sources.”

Please click below for a special video report featuring interviews with Hall and Yoon, as well as team advisor Mrs. Amy Biagioni. Read on for a full report by senior team member Nathaniel Powers.

This past Friday, Jun 3, 2022, the Exeter-West Greenwich Wind Turbine Team attended the Rhode Island National Guard STEM Event at the Air National Guard Base in Quonset. Our team presented the work we conducted in preparation for this year’s KidWind challenges on both a state and national level to over 500 local high school students. This display of the engineering and research that was needed to participate in such competitions was made in a joint effort with Wind Win RI & the North Kingston Chamber of Commerce to educate students about renewable energies such as wind, and to inspire students to get involved in the education and development of renewable energy in general. I believe that our team was successful in respect to both aspects.

The day before the event, our Wind Turbine Team had the opportunity to bring in our own wind tunnel, which we used throughout the past 2 years to test, fix, and perfect our small-scale wind turbines for competition use. The ability to show off this homemade tunnel was extremely exciting as it allowed us to give the students a true look at the hands-on engineering experience offered when participating in competitions such as KidWind. Bringing in a wind tunnel also enabled our team to give students a live look at some of our competition turbines generating electricity in real-time, which furthered student engagement and self-exploration into our program at the event. We thank all of the National Guard members and STEM event organizers who aided in this setup, as we could not have sparked such student interest without it.

EWG’s Wind Turbine Team, along with myself, was extremely humbled by the opportunity to participate in this year’s STEM event. We have worked very hard all year in preparation for the KidWind Challenges, and to be recognized for this work while simultaneously educating others on wind energy is one of the best rewards any of us could’ve asked for. The mind stimulating atmosphere of the National Guard STEM event is something that is hard to come by. It was a pleasure to meet so many extremely skilled people from various fields of work, all of which were just as interested in the work our team was doing as we were about them. From robot dogs, to handmade submarines, and even an airshow; it can confidently be said that there was something to inspire everybody to get involved in STEM, and everyone on the EWG Wind Turbine Team is happy to have been a part of it.

Nathaniel Powers

Senior, EWG Wind Turbine Team

June 10, 2022