MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series
Burak Gozluklu, PhD, Aerospace Designer; SDM Fellow
Date: April 24, 2017
About the Presentation
Conventional thinking about wind energy has two components:
- wind energy is proportional to the cube of wind speed; and
- higher altitude increases the average wind speed.
However, if this is the case, then why does the conventional wind industry operate near 80 meters? Why don’t we go higher than that?
In this webinar, MIT SDM fellow and aerospace designer Burak Gozluklu will describe how using traditional system architecture can limit conventional wind turbine design. He will then outline the systems-based approach used by an airborne wind energy system developed by Gozluklu and his MIT team that can cost-effectively harness clean energy from high altitudes. The technology is based on work originally developed at NASA’s Langley Research Center. In 2016, Gozluklu’s team was named a winner in the NASA Startup Challenge; it is currently a finalist for the MIT Clean Energy Prize.
About the Speaker
Burak Gozluklu has nine years of experience in the aerospace industry, primarily as a lead structural design and analysis engineer. He has contributed to projects for Turkish Aerospace Industries, Tesla Motors, Boeing, and Airbus. He earned a PhD in aerospace engineering from Middle East Technical University–Ankara and is currently a fellow in the MIT System Design & Management master’s program. Gozluklu holds three patents on advanced aerostructures and drone systems. In addition, he has authored or coauthored more than 18 academic publications and received several awards. In 2016, Gozluklu and his MIT-SDM team won the Space-Race Competition organized by NASA and run by the Center for Advancing Innovation. He founded the MIT Systems Thinking Club and is currently working in Professor John Sterman’s System Dynamics group at MIT Sloan School of Management.
About the Series
Sponsored by the System Design & Management (SDM) program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the MIT SDM Systems Thinking Webinar Series features research conducted by SDM faculty, alumni, students, and industry partners. The series is designed to disseminate information on how to employ systems thinking to address engineering, management, and socio-political components of complex challenges. Recordings and slides from prior SDM webinars can be accessed here.
