Purdue Professors Luciano Castillo, the Kenninger Professor in Renewable Energy and Power Systems in Mechanical Engineering (ME), and David Warsinger, an assistant professor in ME, are leading a Purdue Study Abroad program in Peru this summer in collaboration with the Nexus Institute. Students will conduct research and experiments at the Universidad National de San Antonio Abad del Cusco, and at the Universidad National de San Augustin in Arequipa. The course combines fundamentals of engineering with the design, construction, and testing of a wind turbine (integrating solar, wind and battery energy on a portable renewable energy system) to create a unique learning experience.  

Students will be doing the following activities: 

• Testing the micro-grid-water system
• Experimenting with the cyber-physical system: hydraulic wind turbine & CVT for reverse osmosis system
• Running scaled-down wind turbine experiments in a wind tunnel (subject to complete topography of Cusco and Machu Pichu)
• Conducting field experiments at San Camilo & Tia Maria 

In addition to this learning experience, participants will visit:

• Machu Picchu, Sacred Valley, Amazon (Puerto Maldonado-Border), Rainbow Mountain, Lake Titicaca
• Border of Peru & Chile and border of Peru & Bolivia