I was asked to join a team at work to reduce melt shop energy consumption. I was a little hesitant at first, but after discussing the details with the project facilitator I agreed to help out. Basically, we are free to try whatever we want. That is very cool, given that freedom I feel like we may be able to make some progress. In addition, the core team that we have is the team that I would have hand picked if I had been given the chance. The goals are pretty aggressive. I don’t want to say that we can’t do it, but it is going to be very, very difficult. Whether or not we make our final goal, I am sure that we will attain a respectable level of success and progress with energy reduction.
In terms of where I am at scholasticaly, this is the perfect time for this project. I am doing Masters Thesis research in the area of system identification (modelling) and I am taking my final masters course next semester, which is a course in mathematical optimization. I should have ample opportunity to apply these technologies during the course of this project. So, I am excited about the project. Given a choice this project is really the kind of work that I want to be doing.