Courses
Dr. Druffel has taught several course through the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Louisville. ME 251 - Thermodynamics I ME 497 - Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design ME 575 - Engineering Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
- Engineering Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
- The rapid increase in globalization has led to what Thomas Friedman describes as the "flattening of the world". Today's engineer competes within this flattened global economy that reacts at an ever increasing pace of innovations, where entrepreneurs thrive. The entrepreneurial engineer must have the agility to solve problems relying not only a technical background, but also on enhanced communication and leadership skills in order to promote new inventions and ideas. This course is designed to introduce entrepreneurial engineering concepts to students using renewable energy and energy efficiency topics. This course was developed with a grant from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance.
- Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design
- The energy landscape is changing quickly worldwide and entrepreneurs are advancing new ideas for this multi-billion dollar industry. Entrepreneurship at its core requires innovations that often are conceived by engineers; however, those same engineers rarely get an opportunity to learn entrepreneurship in school. The University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering, Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, and Department of Mechanical Engineering have taken a step to encourage entrepreneurship in renewable energy through the Spring 2017 ME 497 Capstone Design course in Mechanical Engineering.