While many college students spent this past summer waiting tables and living at home, one ASU student traveled the world studying the development and commercialization of solar energy technologies.
Electrical engineering senior Steven Limpert received a scholarship last spring from the Circumnavigators Club Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides grants for college students to travel around the world in order to complete research projects that focus on global issues.
The grant is awarded once a year to only four students at participating universities, said Janet Burke, the associate dean for National Scholarship Advisement and Internships at Barrett, the Honors College.
“He prepared a really well planned research idea that would allow it to be universally applicable,” Burke said. “Steven is not only a smart and articulate student, but an all around talented person and that is what made him a good candidate for this scholarship.”
Limpert’s trip around the world included visits to Spain, Germany, India, Qatar, Bangladesh, Japan and Australia. He spent two weeks in each country observing solar energy businesses and research institutions.
In the places he visited, Limpert made observations of the different uses of solar energy technologies in First World and Third World countries.
“In Third World countries there is a much larger interest in individual homes or businesses buying panels so that they can have electricity,” Limpert said. “They don’t have access to a utility grid, and they wouldn’t have electricity otherwise and this is really their only way to get it.”
Limpert has been working at ASU’s Solar Power Lab since summer 2010. One of his professors, Stephen Goodnick, the associate vice president for research at ASU, said in an email that Limpert has “demonstrated abilities that commensurate with beginning Ph.D. students in our program.”
Also a talented musician and nationally recognized jazz trumpeter, Limpert first came to ASU as a music major before changing to electrical engineering. While on his trip, Limpert visited concerts and jam sessions and got the chance to play with a group of graduate school music students while in Barcelona, Spain.
“It was a blast, I didn’t know what we were going to play or if everyone was going to speak English but the songs sounded great,” Limpert said.
Limpert said a lot of what he has learned in music has been able to transfer over to the field of engineering.
“It was actually some friends who were both engineers and musicians that partially inspired me to switch from studying music to studying engineering,” Limpert said.
After graduation, Limpert plans to continue studying electrical engineering in graduate school. He said he hopes to study abroad for his master’s degree and is applying for a scholarship that would allow him to return to the University of New South Wales in Sydney where he visited this summer.
“I would really like to study abroad again,” Limpert said. “The trip has inspired me to travel even more. I really enjoyed it and I would like to keep seeing other countries, other cultures and having those sorts of new experiences.”
Limpert said the future of solar energy technologies involves investigation into the use of new materials that have electric properties beneficial to photovoltaic devices, also known as solar cells. He came across much of this while visiting Japan and said he wants to continue to study this research.
“I learned a lot, and I have come back with an enhanced view of the world,” Limpert said. “I have definitely grown as a person and have also grown in my knowledge of solar energy technology and what it means to be an engineer.”
Reach the reporter at newlin.tillotson@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.