AUK

By Bob Finnerty, Dec. 8, 2011.  (See link here) All images copyright © 2011 Lum Citaku

Silicon Valley. The Big Apple. Singapore. It’s location, location, location for young entrepreneurs striving for success.

So what would a team of RIT innovators find promising in dairy farms located in Kosovo?

The region in southeast Europe has been ravaged by wars and political instability for centuries. “It could take at least 10 years for Kosovo to stand on its own two feet,” Joost Lagendijk, who oversees Kosovo policy in the European Parliament, told The New York Times in 2008. “Kosovo is a poor agricultural country where the energy supply is chaotic, the rule of law needs to be upheld and the economy is almost starting from scratch.”

But a rebuilding nation—Kosovo declared independence as sovereign nation in 2008 — is “the ideal opportunity,” say members of the RIT student-led team behind Kosovo Wind Gardens. Kosovo Wind Gardens is a venture that plans to construct and sell wind turbines to individual homes, businesses and farms in the vast rural areas of Kosovo. The small, 5-kilowatt turbines would provide energy independence, an option far better than the daily blackouts due to a poor and aging energy infrastructure, says Adam Walker, Kosovo Wind Gardens executive director.

“KWG was formed as a socially-conscious venture driven to make a difference,” says Walker, a graduate student studying science, technology and public policy in the College of Liberal Arts. “Wind power is cleaner and cheaper. Our turbines have the capacity to offset energy costs, mitigate the effects of blackouts and generate income for our customers from the sale of excess electricity.”

Kosovo Wind Gardens consists of six students representing four RIT colleges, a graduate student from the University of Rochester and two students at the American University in Kosovo, operated by RIT in the capital city of Pristina. The project gained traction last year when Carl Lundgren, a professor of manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology, traveled with a dozen RIT students to Pristina and met with AUK students. The class assignment as part of the AUK senior capstone project: Examine sustainability and alternative-energy solutions.

Air and water pollution is well documented in the Balkan region due to aging coal-fired power plants; 98 percent of Kosovo’s electricity is produced from burning soft, wet lignite coal. Lung cancer and respiratory diseases are dramatic, and government officials are seeking reform and solutions.

“I could feel the soot in the air while I was out running. Every breath,” says Walker on his nine-week stay in Kosovo this summer.

Making a difference for Kosovo’s farmers

Kosovo Wind Gardens recognized that most farmers on the Kosovo electric grid are not getting enough energy and are dealing with daily blackouts. They resort to diesel generators to keep dairy milk refrigerated. The farmers are burdened by the high expense and maintenance of the generators.

Kosovo’s energy regulations will allow KWG customers to tap into the national power grid and actually sell excess electricity powered by the turbines located on private lands. “This is attractive for our customers because they can sell electricity at a price higher than what they are charged from the national utility,” says Walker.

By U.S. standards, the dairy farms are small in Kosovo with typically no more than two dozen cows.

Kosovo Wind Gardens is currently working with a Dutch manufacturing firm to build the first generation of wind turbines for the project. The turbines are smaller in stature compared to industrial-size turbines found in the U.S. (50 feet tall to produce 5 kilowatts vs. 375 feet high for 1,000 to 2,000 kilowatt turbines). The team’s first wind turbines will be installed in January. KWG plans to ramp up sales in the first quarter of 2012.

“We feel we have found a niche product and solution,” says Josh Turner, KWG technology director. “We can market this to Kosovars who understand the benefits. They will be the stakeholders.”

Turner, a mechanical engineering technology major in the College of Applied Science and Technology, is also designing and developing a new wind turbine, targeted specifically for Kosovo and other developing markets around the globe. He is honing the blade technology in RIT’s Rapid Prototyping Lab, located aptly in Global Village.

Kosovo Wind Gardens also has the opportunity with the Dutch firm to distribute the turbines in the U.S. for use by private-property owners. “This could potentially have legs in New York state or in the U.S. down the line,” says Lundgren.

One problem KWG confronted was paying for regular energy production audits for their turbines. Typically, this is an expensive process in which an auditor has to manually check each one. No problem, said Turner and Team KWG. The team developed a data acquisition system that monitors the turbines’ power outputs and then sends the data through a cell-phone signal to a central server in Pristina. Data is aggregated and sold to carbon trading markets, a reward for offsetting carbon emissions. KWG is making this software open source in order to assist other small renewable energy companies, giving access to the valuable carbon trading market.

Entrepreneurship in Europe’s youngest country

Kosovo Wind Gardens’ innovation and creativity led to it being internationally recognized this past spring at the Dell Social Innovation Competition. KWG was awarded a top 15 finish among 1,400 projects representing 86 countries. The team wants to compete this spring and win the $50,000 grand prize, once it can prove its social enterprise is successfully bringing change to Kosovo.

The KWG team sees and feels the excitement brewing in Kosovo. With an average age of 26 years old, Kosovo is home to the youngest population in Europe. Daniel Driffill, KWG’s business manager and a management and finance major in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business, says you can feel a spirit of optimism and enterprise in the Balkan region. “Kosovo is the epicenter,” he says.

Lundgren admires the team’s passion and fortitude. “RIT students are particularly adept at seeing problems as opportunities,” says Lundgren. “Barriers? These students see those as challenges they can overcome.”

An International and Multi-Disciplinary Team

Kosovo Wind Gardens is a venture that includes students representing four RIT colleges, the University of Rochester and RIT’s American University of Kosovo.

• Lum Citaku, marketing manager. Citaku, of Pristina, Kosovo, graduated from AUK in the spring with a degree in media graphic communications and management.
• Daniel Driffill, business manager. Driffill, of Irondequoit, N.Y., is a fourth-year management and finance major in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business.
• Shpend Jusufi, energy law manager. Shpend, of Presheva, Serbia, graduated in the spring from AUK with a degree in public policy.
• Matthew Munderville, project director. Munderville, of Guilderland, N.Y, is a recent University of Rochester graduate.
• Manuel Sosa, sustainability manager. Sosa, of Caracas, Venezuela, is a second-year graduate student in sustainable engineering in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering.
• Lindsay Tondryk, market analyst. Tondryk, of Honeoye Falls, N.Y., is a fourth-year international business and marketing major in the E. Philip Saunders College of Business.
• Josh Turner, technology director. Turner, of Honeoye Falls, N.Y., is a fifth-year mechanical engineering technology major in the College of Applied Sciences and Technology.
• Adam Walker, executive director. Walker, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is a second-year graduate student studying science, technology and public policy in the College of Liberal Arts. He earned bachelor’s degrees in physics and philosophy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Children from SOS Kinderdorf and from Gëzimi Ynë kindergartens visited AUK for the Halloween Day.  Children were offered candies and other sweets and sang Halloween songs for AUK faculty and staff.

“A Halloween festivity is a typical American tradition and it is great that this tradition is being marked here in Kosovo as well. It is great to see these kids with their costumes and happy faces here at AUK, and for a moment it made us feel that we were somewhere in United States”, said Richard Castleberry, an AUK lecturer who was offering candies for this occasion.

AUK is involved in different community projects and maintains a great partnership with institutions that aim to make a difference for the society. AUK students have offered free English Language and computer lessons to SOS kinderdorf kids and are planning similar projects for other entities in Kosovo.

October 24 – 28, 2011
“Bringing people together”

American University in Kosovo (AUK) is proud of its diversity. From its establishment in 2003 as the only private and not-for-profit university, AUK has hosted and educated students from the majority of Kosovo ethnicities (Albanian, Serbian, Turkish, Bosnian and Roman), nationals from over 20 countries around the world, special needs students, students from diverse sexual orientations, and more. Our experience has shown us that we can contribute to Kosovo’s development through educating for positive change, and we do this not only by acknowledging and celebrating diversity among our students, but also by inspiring it through faculty and staff. Our faculty in particular is a combined resource of local, regional and international backgrounds. As such, they shape our institutional model and make diversity a meaningful daily experience for all its members. 

This year, AUK wants to further expand its potential for a welcoming and inclusive community. Aware that diversity means many things to many people, we want to continue sensitizing and educating students, faculty, and staff to the multidimensionality of diversity. Furthermore, in committing toward representing a positive role-model to the community at large, AUK will be hosting a Week for Diversity and Inclusion (click for the schedule and more info), October 24-28, 2011. Within a week of activities we aim to acknowledge, celebrate, and explore domestic and international ethnic, national, cultural, sexual and gender identities. Programming will range from forums with national and international speakers, performing and visual art projects, community based discussions and workshops. This range of activities is planned in a manner that produces a unified experience of diversity celebrations.

Our aim is to make the Week for Diversity and Inclusion an annual week of events. Our goal is to set up a group of young activists made up of motivated students, staff and faculty that will continue working on diversity issues throughout the year in an effort to continue awareness-raising. In doing so, the Diversity Team will address and facilitate dialogue for topics of interest or concern as they arise. This will be a work in progress that is shaped by each and every participant.

Let’s bring ourselves together in this initiative and make a contribution toward bettering our communities!

The results of a research conducted by the AUK-RIT Center for Energy Research are published recently from a prestigious journal.

Brian H. Bowen (American University in Kosovo), James A. Myers (Rochester Institute of Technology), and Agon Nixha (American University in Kosovo), wrote the research article “Kosova’s Household Energy Efficiency and Fuel Supplies”. The article is being published by the prestigious “International Journal for Energy Sector Management”, Emerald Group Publishing.   Funding for this study was supplied by the World Bank and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

2,370 homes in Prishtina were surveyed by groups of AUK students under the guidance of faculty and the survey indicates that Kosova’s progress on energy efficiency is not far behind the EU requirements.  The survey work (Phase 1) was conducted over the summer period of 2010.

The survey indicates that an average of 7.58 m³ of wood is consumed per Kosovar home annually. From the data for all homes 78% heat one to three rooms and for the medium size category it was 83%. For all homes in the Phase 1 survey 62% spend between 10-30% of family income on electricity. The weighted average of the electricity costs in a medium size home is €63 each winter month. Using an average wood cost of €35 to €40/m³ and the 1.525 million m³/year total consumption it shows there is approximately a total wood revenue of €60.6 Million/year.

The combined Phase 1(Prishtina homes, 2010) and Phase 2 (Peja, Mitrovica, Gjilan, Ferizaj, Prizren, and Gjakova homes, 2011), which started on April 2011, surveys are expected to provide the most comprehensive household energy survey ever conducted in the Balkans.

International Journal of Energy Sector Management Vol. 5 Iss: 4 where the article was published this has exclusive rights and therefore we cannot post a copy of it in our website.

Former Congresswoman and president of the Woman Campaign International Marjorie Margolies organized a training on Woman Leadership to the AUK Charity Club Members and other students.

Congresswoman Margolies is the president of the Woman Campaign International, an organization that engages in emerging democracies and post-conflict regions around the world, Women’s Campaign International is equipping women to actively participate in public advocacy, market and political processes.

AUK Charity Club members presented to Congresswoman Margolies with some projects they had undertaken in the past two years and agreed to continue this cooperation in future projects.

Congresswoman Margolies said that she was impressed with the work students have been doing and that she was looking forward to working with them in different projects in the future.

Women’s Campaign International was founded in 1998 by Pennsylvania Congresswoman Marjorie Margolies. After serving in Congress, Ms. Margolies led the United States delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.

The American University in Kosovo sealed a student exchange agreement with the Institute for Political Sciences, or Sciences Po, becoming the first university in the Balkans to establish such a partnership with the elite French university.

The agreement, signed by AUK’s President Chris Hall and Sciences Po’s Director Richard Descoings, puts in place an exchange program of students of both institutions with the aim of strengthening mutual understanding and cooperation between the two universities and enhancing each institution’s teaching, learning, and internationalization goals.

“We are delighted to embark on this collaboration with one of the best universities in the world,” said Dr Hall. “Sciences Po has a long tradition of training the world’s top leaders, and AUK, as a relatively young institution that is committed to Kosovo’s development by educating the next generation of leaders in Europe’s youngest country, is pleased to offer to its bright and talented students such opportunities. We are also looking forward to receiving students from Sciences Po at AUK’s vibrant university community where they will have the chance to learn in an enriched academic environment and experience first-hand the challenges of a state-building project.”

Francis Vérillaud, Sciences Po’s Vice-president and Director of International Affairs and Exchanges underlined the interesting opportunities offered to Sciences Po students by the newly established exchange agreement with AUK. “Sciences Po students will be given the possibility to study the specific issues of the Balkan region in an interdisciplinary environment that respects the high quality standards of the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), AUK’s partner institution situated in New York. The will also benefit from the presence of several international organisations and NGO’s in the region to gain practical experience within the framework of professionalizing internships.” Mr. Vérillaud said.

Under the two-year program, each institution will initially host two students for one semester or for a whole academic year in their undergraduate or graduate departments.

Established in 1872, Sciences Po is a major social sciences research and teaching institution. It offers undergraduate and graduate education in economics, law, history, sociology and political science. It is ranked among the top ten universities in the world and it prides itself for the excellence in education and research.

The American University in Kosovo was established in 2003 and is Kosovo’s only private, not-for-profit university. It is the only Kosovo university whose degrees are accredited and recognized worldwide due to its partnership with the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York. The University is committed to providing a first-rate American education, and its graduates are employed in prestigious private and public sector positions in Kosovo, across the region, and around the world.

September 12, 2011

On September 5^th AUK opened its doors for another academic year. This year marks the largest class to ever be admitted to AUK. More interesting than the number of students admitted in this year is the fact that they are coming from a very diverse background.

This year we admitted students from all the ethnic backgrounds in Kosovo and also we have students coming from 9 different countries. This enriches even more the very diverse student body at AUK.

An interesting fact is also the ever increasing quality of students who applied to AUK. AUK offers scholarships for students who do well in the entrance exam. 60 percent of the students admitted this year benefited from these scholarships this year, which presents also a new record.

“I am glad to see that AUK has become a University that crosses the borders of Kosovo and attracts students from around the world. I am also very glad to see that the quality of the students from Kosovo is increasing every year. This is a good sign that the education system in Kosovo is getting better and better. We aim to get the best students and I believe we are doing so, AUK President Chris Hall said.”