Teaching

2025 Winter 

MECHENG 433/AUTO 533 Advanced Energy Solutions  (Undergraduate & Graduate)  

Instructor: Prof. Jing Tang

Held Weekly: Tuesday & Thursday 10:30-12:00, 133 Chrysler, January 8 - April 22, 2025

Office Hours: After Class or By Appointment via Email

Course Description

This course provides an introduction to the challenges of power generation for a global society. The course starts with an overview of the current and future demands for energy, the various methods of power generation including fossil fuel, solar, thermal, wind, and nuclear, and the detrimental byproducts associated with these methods. Advanced strategies to improve power densities, reduce pollutant emissions and improve thermal efficiencies, such as advanced combustion cycles, batteries, carbon capture, utilization and sequestration, and fuel cells for stationary and mobile power generation; synthetic and bio-renewable fuels; and reconfiguring power plants are the primary focus of the second half of the course. The material includes an emphasis on specific methods to improve energy efficiencies in the mobile transportation sector such as hybrid vehicles and ultracapacitors. Additional topics include the advantages and technical difficulties associated with a hydrogen economy including production, transport, storage, and application. The emphasis is on the application of thermodynamic analysis to understand the basic operating principles and the inherent limitations of the technologies considered.

Credits: 3

Download a sample syllabus


Prerequisite

MECHENG 235 Thermodynamics

2024 Fall 

Launching and Developing MECHENG 599 - Principles, Materials, Manufacturing, and Devices of Batteries (Graduate & Undergraduate)

Curriculum Developer and Instructor: Prof. Jing Tang

Developed MECHENG 599: Principles, Materials, Manufacturing, and Devices of Batteries, a university-wide undergraduate and graduate course at the University of Michigan. Established an innovative educational platform that integrates fundamental knowledge, pilot-scale projects, professional skills training, and career development in battery chemistries, materials, and manufacturing, and electrochemistry.    

Held Weekly: Tuesday & Thursday 9-10: 30 AM, 2166 Dow Engineering Building

Office Hours: After Class or By Appointment via Email


2024 Winter

MECHENG 395 Laboratory I [Syllabus] : Teaching Team, Profs. Volker Sick, Chris Vermillion, Jing Tang and Clay Walker (Undergraduate)

Held Weekly: Monday 1:30-3 PM, Friday 1:30-3 PM, 1013 Dow Engineering Building

Office Hours: Tuesday 11-12 PM, Wednesday 4 PM -6 PM, Thursday 4: 00-6 PM  & By Appointment (In person, 3458 GG Brown) 

MECHENG 395 Instructors Meeting: Monday 9-10 AM, 2351 GG Brown

COURSE TOPICS

1. Laboratory safety and procedures

2. Measurements and error analysis

3. Tensile tests, fracture, and yield of materials

4. Analysis of a thermodynamic cycle

5. System identification and control

6. Flow measurement and performance of a turbomachine

7. Wind tunnel measurements

8. Dimensional analysis

BULLETIN DESCRIPTION

Course Philosophy 

The structure, content, and grading schemes in MECHENG 395 

To achieve these goals, students are given the opportunity to work on teams that perform experiments, analyze the measurements, and communicate the results clearly. These opportunities are supported by the use of technical scenarios that put the laboratory and communication task in an engineering context. In addition, faculty from the Technical Communications Program are fully included in both the instruction and grading of the course.