Industries of the Future-West Virginia has captured another national award for its leadership in promoting new technologies to make manufacturers more productive and energy-efficient.
IOF -WV won the Energy Award at the 25th annual Industrial Energy Technology Conference April 17-18 in Houston. The award recognizes national leadership in energy conservation and environmental stewardship.
In presenting the award, IETC cited West Virginia for being the first state to establish and sustain a state IOF program for five years. Since 1997, more than 31 states have initiated IOF programs, many of them modeled after West Virginia’s program.
Carl Irwin, director of IOF -WV, accepted the award on behalf of the program. Irwin is also director of market enhancement and program development at West Virginia Universitys National Research Center for Coal and Energy.
The IOF -WV team includes eight WVU research groups specializing in aluminum, steel, glass, chemical/polymer, wood products, metal casting, mining and cross-cut technologies. The WVU research groups work with interdisciplinary teams that include industry, the West Virginia Development Office, national laboratories and the U.S. Department of Energy. Since 1998, the IOF -WV team has received about $9 million in federal research and development funding and another $6 million in non-federal cost share for a total program value of $15 million.
WVU researchers involved in the IOF -WV program include Bruce Anderson and Joseph McNeel, division of forestry, Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry and Consumer Sciences; Larry Banta, Keh-Minn Chang, Bruce Kang, John Loth, Ken Means and Ed Sneckenberger, department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, College of Engineering and Mineral Resources; Eung Cho, Rakesh Gupta and Richard Turton, department of chemical engineering, CEMR ; Bob Creese and Bhaskaran Gopalakrishnan, department of industrial and management systems engineering, CEMR ; Udaya Halabe, department of civil and environmental engineering, CEMR ; Tom Mahoney, industrial extension; Syd Peng, department of mining engineering, CEMR ; and Bonnie Morris, division of accounting, College of Business and Economics.
The Energy Award is the second national honor for IOF -WV in as many years. Irwin was the recipient of the Partner of the Year Award during the Industrial Energy Efficiency Symposium and Exposition last February in Washington, D.C. That award goes to an individual who promotes energy efficiency as a national goal and participates in public-private partnerships.