Energy Computing Design: Music, Toys, Art, & Life Processes with Integrated Energy Systems
Energy Computing is the practice and networking of applied Energy Awareness, Energetic Responsibility and Intentional Energy into everything we create and do.
In this NuVu Design studio, we will learn and apply concepts of Energy Computing and Energy Aware Intentional Integrated Systems Design into aspects of our life and collectively develop a unique physical expression of Energy Computing. The design method encourages creativity and requires a clear intention to be made. Two questions are asked: What do you want to do with your energy? And, how long do you want to do it? The first question determines system Power and the second question determines the design parameter for the Energy. Adding the local renewable energy profile allows the integrated energy system to define itself and is considered the basis of natural, balanced and sustainable operation. Participants of the studio will have the opportunity to develop ideas about ‘what’ they want to do, build the functionality to energize those ideas and operate the mechanisms to make their collective ideas become reality.
Dr. Ryan Wartena
Chemical Engineer & CEO/President, Growing Energy Labs, Inc. (GELI)
Dr. Ryan Wartena is a chemical engineer and proprietor of the energy system design firm Growing Energy Labs Inc. (GELI). Dr. Wartena holds degrees in Chemical Engineering from UC San Diego and the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2001. A post-doctoral research opportunity led him to the Naval Research Lab to set up a battery development and testing laboratory and work on energy harvesting methods. As a research associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he developed micro- and nano-batteries and co-led the engineering team that introduced the world’s first self-assembled battery. Building on his experience with nanomaterials, Ryan assisted in the creation of microscopic masterpieces like the millimeter-high “Seed of Life” grown from carbon nanotubes.
For all his technical expertise, Ryan considers himself equal parts scientist and artist with a calling to converge art, technology, and consciousness. Balance of the three is a constant in his projects, from the carbon nanotube structures and interactive LED sculptures to botanically inspired solar panels and energy storage systems.
