UND CONNECT project introduces high schoolers to energy careers
Getting North Dakota students acquainted with energy careers can power state’s workforce, project’s leaders say
Two UND professors are spearheading an initiative to familiarize North Dakota’s students with the state’s vast energy landscape.
Moones Alamooti and Andreas Michael, teaching assistant professor and assistant professor of Energy & Petroleum Engineering, respectively, have received funding through the UND CONNECT program to host workshops with high school students. UND CONNECT is a state- and UND-funded initiative sponsoring research and experiential learning projects addressing quality of life issues in North Dakota.
The workshops – the first of which was hosted in Williston last month — are designed to introduce students to the myriad careers available in the energy industry, as well as increase their literacy of energy policy. Despite the region’s status as a leading energy producer, there is a chronic workforce shortage.
And Michael attributes this to a lack of energy awareness among North Dakota’s K-12 students.
“There is a chronic enrollment drop in energy related majors – petroleum engineering in particular,” he said. “Even though Williston is located in an oil region, the students’ knowledge of petroleum and energy-related topics in general is not very strong. The idea is that if we familiarize them with the main components of those disciplines, it will be more familiar as an option when they go to college.”
Both researchers said that although western North Dakota is known for its conventional energy sources such as petroleum and gas, opportunities also abound in the renewable energy sector. Alamooti added that skills acquired in petroleum engineering are transferable to other energy sectors.
“There are other areas in renewable energy, like green hydrogen and geothermal, that overlap with petroleum,” she said. “As long as they have the skillset built, that can carry over into other jobs as well.”
During the workshop – held at the Williston Basin Career & Technical Education Center — students were exposed to eight different energy topics in a rotation of hands-on activities. These included assembling a wind turbine, a potato battery and simulating work on solar panels via virtual reality headsets.
“They had a chance to view all of the bigger aspects of those industries to a significant depth,” Michael said. “We wanted to give them a well-rounded idea – not just focus on one specific area.”
Houdaifa Khalifa, a Ph.D. student in Energy & Petroleum Engineering and president of UND’s chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers, and Tanwa Iwayemi, vice president of the same organization, assisted Alamooti and Michael in running the Williston workshop.
Iwayemi said she was encouraged by the feedback received from students post-workshop.
“The overall feedback we received is that the students are positive about coming to UND – especially as undergraduates,” Iwayemi said. “It is quite important for students to be aware of the career opportunities in energy and let them see the importance of STEM and what UND has to offer in terms of knowledge acquisition.”
Michael agreed, sayng that to develop a pipeline of students interested in pursuing energy topics, education and exposure must start early.
“We have reached the conclusion that in the future, we probably need to go a little bit upstream of the students,” he said. “That means targeting teachers and parents — those who will play an influential role in the decisions of high schoolers in pursuing a degree and career.”
Media Contact: Joe Banish, strategic communications writer, UND Today.
joseph.banish@UND.edu,701.777.6863
