Last week Ferris hosted the annual Michigan Energy Conference that, this year, fol­lowed the theme “Conserve and Convert, Together Brings Solutions!”

The Energy Center, which falls within the College of Engineering Technology, looks to develop Ferris’ resources and activ­i­ties in energy-related issues and is one of the dri­ving forces behind the two-day conference.

Tom Crandell, the Director of Corporate and Professional Development for Ferris, said the point of the con­fer­ence is to edu­cate every­one, stu­dents, fac­ulty, com­mu­nity, busi­nesses, and indus­tries, on what’s going on in the world of energy and how it’s going to help bring a new and diver­si­fied econ­omy to Michigan and help to bring jobs back to the state.

This is the third year of the Michigan Energy Conference.

“The program’s been grow­ing every year,” said Crandell. “We’re glad to see that and look to con­tinue grow­ing this for the good of stu­dents, fac­ulty, and the community.”

The first day con­sisted of var­i­ous work­shops focused on sev­eral dif­fer­ent areas includ­ing res­i­den­tial and com­mer­cial build­ing per­for­mance, energy con­ser­va­tion and effi­ciency, and leg­isla­tive issues relat­ing to energy use.

The sec­ond day con­sisted of sev­eral keynote speak­ers and 16 break­out ses­sions that focused on build­ing per­for­mance, gov­ern­men­tal issues and leg­is­la­tion, trans­porta­tion issues relat­ing to elec­tric cars and bio­fu­els, and finally the trans­mis­sion of power.

Individuals who pre­sented not only rep­re­sented Ferris, but also Western Michigan University, Central Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, and Northwestern Michigan College.

“We’re not just try­ing to make this a Ferris event,” said Crandell. “There’s a lot of edu­ca­tion out there from other schools.”

The con­fer­ence first came around through the College of Engineering Technology when a group within the col­lege began exam­in­ing the dif­fer­ent pro­grams and strengths at Ferris that dealt with effi­ciency and energy management.

Now the con­fer­ence looks to incor­po­rate pieces of busi­ness pro­gram­ming from the College of Business and areas of the College of Arts and Sciences that deal with the bio­log­i­cal and chem­i­cal aspects of energy.

Crandell said the con­fer­ence is not strictly a College of Technology thing, but that the Energy Center is really bring­ing all these groups together to work with each other for the bet­ter­ment of the state and the nation as well. n