2025-2026 UCAH Design Competition Thesis; Understanding Resistance to Energy Transition: The Social Construction of Coal in West Virginia

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a qualitative framework for understanding community resistance to energy transition, applicable to other carbon-intensive regions.

🏢実務担当者:Highlights the importance of cultural narratives in stakeholder engagement for energy transition projects.

🏛政策担当者:Emphasizes that effective climate policy must account for regional cultural identities, not just economic incentives.

From the rapid advancement of hypersonic technologies to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, these fields exemplify the remarkable innovation being done by today’s engineers. My research has provided me with the opportunity to gain experience in both fields. Through my technical project, my fellow team members and I faced the challenges of developing a hypersonic projectile, ensuring that it withstands the extreme thermal loads produced by hypersonic flight while also optimizing flight range and cost. Developing hypersonic technology is of significant interest for our nation’s defense, and the data collected from our project is crucial for this development. My STS research allowed me to investigate the impact of the nation’s transition to renewable energy on a coal-reliant state like West Virginia. Understanding the historical and cultural identity of coal in West Virginia provides the groundwork for understanding the state’s persistence on coal. While my technical project has given me the technical skills necessary for engineering, my STS research has provided me with the ability to think about the broader impact of design work and how technology is influenced by society. In my technical project, my fellow team members and I were given the challenge of developing a low-altitude hypersonic projectile that meets the requirements set by the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics for their undergraduate design competition. These requirements involved operating between Mach 5 and 8, staying within a 9 km altitude ceiling, and maximizing the range. To develop our vehicle, we began by conducting a trade study to compare multiple vehicle families and their respective cost, manufacturability, and lift-to-drag ratio. This trade study revealed winged missiles to be the optimal vehicle shape. From this baseline geometry, parameters such as the fin count, placement, and planform geometry were optimized utilizing CFD in ANSYS Fluent to determine the final vehicle design. To verify that the vehicle could withstand the extreme thermal loads during hypersonic flight, FEA was conducted in ANSYS Mechanic. To optimize the trajectory, NASA’s Optimal Trajectories by Implicit Simulation (OTIS) software was used to determine the best launch angle. After submitting this design to the UCAH competition, our team was selected as a finalist and chosen to test at the CUBRC wind tunnel facility this summer. Our team has been working diligently with the CUBRC team to refine our model and determine a test plan to gather lift and drag data that will be crucial to validating our design. This has been an incredible opportunity where we have gained experience working with hypersonic technology in both an academic and professional setting. In my STS research paper, I investigated why public perception of coal in West Virginia remains so prominent despite its economic decline. As someone who grew up in West Virginia, I have seen first-hand how important coal is to the state and its people. Coal is not just a source of energy; it is a source of pride and cultural identity. Many people view West Virginia’s dependence on coal as primarily an economic issue. However, after analyzing the way coal is framed in sources such as newspapers, political statements, and coal associations, I have discovered a more complex issue. West Virginia’s persistence of coal is the product of deeply rooted social, cultural, and political narratives that are created by these sources. Coal is framed as the economic backbone of the state and country, having powered America for decades. Many sources create the narrative of moral responsibility to support the hard-working miners for the great sacrifices they make to keep the lights and heat on. As a result of the recurring narratives framing coal as a cultural identity, the public perception of coal in West Virginia remains strong. Those who make efforts to expand renewable energy in the state must first understand this complex relationship between West Virginia and coal. This cultural identity must be addressed so that renewable energy is framed as an extension of West Virginia’s history as an energy producing state, not a replacement to coal. Both of these projects have enhanced my knowledge and desire to learn. My technical project not only provided me with the technical skills necessary to develop a hypersonic vehicle, but it also taught me the importance of working as a team and communicating in a professional setting. Similarly, my STS research challenged me to examine technological advancements not just for their functional purpose, but for their broader impact on society. By understanding how societies interpret and interact with technology, such as West Virginia and coal, we gain insight into designing solutions that are effective and socially aware. Therefore, as engineers we are ethically responsible to consider the close relationship between society and technology to fulfill our commitment to engineering for the greater good.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.18130/dnr9-tw63first seen 2026-05-26 04:36:05 · last seen 2026-06-06 04:34:55