“I am a physics major, and I’ve added my own focus in environmental studies. One of my favorite physics professors has been in charge of getting our field of solar panels working. I’m really interested in renewable energy,  so I asked him if I could work with him this fall. One of the biggest issues with solar panels, second to their high cost, is that they are not very efficient at converting solar energy into electricity, so my professor and past students have been working to make our panels as efficient as possible.

Our system has a capacity of 140kW and consists of 34 solar trackers located in a field right behind our science center. Solar trackers can pivot around their posts, as well as adjust the angle of the solar panel. This allows us to point the panels exactly where we want to. On really sunny days, our computer system tells the panels to point directly where the sun is because that alignment allows them convert solar radiation into electricity most efficiently. Past physics theses have focused on this task of alignment on really sunny days. My project is actually looking at how our solar panels perform on cloudy days. When it is cloudy, light from the sun is scattered everywhere instead of coming down in direct rays. Our panels still point to where the sun is on cloudy days, but this might not be the most efficient alignment due to the fact that almost all the light coming from the sun is scattered at different angles.

My goal is to use data we’ve been collecting over the past two years to figure out how we should align our panels on cloudy days so that they operate with the highest efficiency. Hopefully whatever I find can be incorporated into the algorithms that tell our panels what to do every day!”

Congratulations to Krissy on her final semester at Middlebury and best of luck completing your senior thesis!

If you have an alumni spotlight story to share with The Island School, email alumni@islandschool.org.

It was an incredibly successful event with over 60 alumni parents and friends of The Island School or Middlebury College in attendance. We would like to extend a huge thank you to the Parizeaus for hosting everyone in their beautiful home! Visit MiddCORE’s website for more information.

We set out from Boston, Massachusetts on the most gorgeous fall day yesterday morning. First on our list of stops was Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. This sending school has sent a few students to us in the recent years (Chelsea Frost, SP’09; TJ Thran, SP’11) and we had the opportunity to meet a few prospective students, including Read Frost (brother of Chelsea Frost, SP’09) who will be joining us on Eleuthera in the spring! Although it was difficult to leave the beautiful coastal campus of RHS, we had another appointment at The Wheeler School in downtown Providence, RI! At Wheeler, it was great to meet up with alum Kyle Titsworth (SP’12) who recruited his younger brother and another fellow student, Bella, to come to our informational session.

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We hopped back in the car, dutifully following the directions of our sometimes not-so-trusty GPS, endearingly named Tabitha, as she led us on picturesque backroads through small towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont along with all the other “leaf-peepers” traveling in New England at this time of year. When we pulled in to Middlebury, Vermont, we were famished and walked down Main Street and into Two Brothers Tavern. As we  looked about and took in the cozy decor, our gaze traveled upwards and quickly scanned the ceiling scattered with signed dollar bills from patrons of the tavern’s past and what did we see right above our table?

It must be fate!! We were so excited to see The Island School represented in the town of Middlebury! After a hearty feast, we returned to our hotel to rest up for another busy day.

In the morning, as Hannah and Sharon on team admissions spoke with Middlebury’s d

ean of admissions, Cam on the alumni relations team went to the Wilson Cafe in Middlebury College’s library to meet up with Island School alumni enrolled at the school. Despite it being midterms and a generally busy time on campus, many alumni made the time to come see us and offer up some words of advice, written on postcards, to the current Fall 2012 students. Above are photos of Leslie Panella (F’08) and Brandon Gell (F’10) with his teacher, Hannah Mauck! We also met the mother of a current Island School student (Emily Robinson, F’12) who works at Middlbury College!

On our way out of Middlebury, we stopped at Middlebury Union High School to speak with prospective students (and also met the cutest 7-week old black lab puppy, Olive…). After another scenic drive through Vermont, we arrived at University of Vermont’s campus to meet with their admissions officer and grab lunch with some Island School alumni. The 2+ hours we spent in the Skinny Pancake in Burlington, VT with Alex Perkins (SP’09) and Cooper Van Vranken (SP’08) felt like 2 minutes as we all shared stories from our experiences and updated them on all the exciting happenings at the Cape.

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for more adventures as we continue to head north!

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Solar Decathlon is a biennial competition that challenges twenty collegiate teams from around the world to design and build net zero energy houses that are attractive, affordable and entirely solar-powered. Team Middlebury College’s entry, Self-Reliance, received 1st place in three of the ten decathlon contests: communications, home entertainment and market appeal.

As the first undergraduate liberal arts team ever to make it into the finals on their own, Team Middlebury College is extremely proud to have performed as a top contender amongst teams from technical architecture and engineering institutions. Right before the final results announcement in West Potomac Park on Saturday Oct. 1st, the team’s Communications Coordinator Katie Romanov ’11 commented, “If we could finish in the top five, and be the little engine that could, we’d be thrilled!”

Read the full press release here!