Student groups
Many student groups on campus offer creative activities related to energy, including lectures and discussions, community service, extracurricular design projects, energy advocacy and/or academic work. Clubs include graduate and undergraduate students.
Students can contact all of these groups directly. Student group leaders can contact us with suggestions, additions, and updates.
Biodiesel@MIT
Biodiesel@MIT is a student-led group working to establish a campus biodiesel system, incorporating the collection of used vegetable oil (UVO) from dining locations, the processing of the UVO into certifiable biodiesel, and the usage of the biodiesel product in campus transportation. Biodiesel@MIT is also developing educational materials and seeks to be an information resource on biofuels. Formed in fall of 2006, Biodiesel@MIT is working to implement the new system in the 2007-2008. The group includes students and administrators, and welcomes any MIT community members interested in the project.
Biological Energy Interest Group (BEInG)
The Biological Energy Interest Group (BEInG) is a cross-discipline student group that builds, tests, and exhibits devices producing renewable energy from life-based systems.
Electric Vehicle Team
The MIT Electric Vehicle Team (EVT) is a multidisciplinary group of undergraduate and graduate students that designs, builds, tests, and demonstrates electric vehicles (EVs). The team's mission is to 1) demonstrate and research electric vehicle technologies, 2) provide educational opportunities for MIT students, and 3) increase public awareness of electric and other advanced vehicle technologies. EVT is currently finalizing the conversion of a 1976 Porsche 914 into a battery electric vehicle (BEV) with lithium-ion batteries for testing advanced EV technologies.
MIT Energy Club
The MIT Energy Club is focused on the creation of a tight-knit energy community at MIT. The club holds weekly events, including document-based energy discussion groups and the MIT Energy Lecture Series, alongside signature events such as the annual MIT EnergyNight and the MIT Energy Conference. The club's emphasis is on building a community at MIT with a deeper understanding of global energy trends and challenges through open, fact-based discussion.
MIT Generator
The MIT Generator is a coalition of student organizations dedicated to reducing MIT's energy and environmental footprint. By convening Generator and Green Room events and sponsoring Generator working groups, the coalition fosters campus-based energy, environment, and sustainability projects. These include communicating current consumption; reducing impact through innovative technology and behavior change strategies; and developing a vision of a sustainable MIT campus. Generator projects weave in and out of MIT's curriculum, helping MIT become a learning laboratory for tackling energy, environment and sustainability challenges.
MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team (SEVT)
Over the past 20 years, the MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team has designed and built 10 vehicles and raced them all over the world. The team has promoted alternative energy and transportation through participation in races as well as in local fairs and community events. SEVT provides practical skills impossible to communicate in the classroom environment, turning its members from students into engineers. In addition to hands-on engineering experience, students develop project management and business skills.
Solar Decathlon
MIT has been chosen to participate in the Solar Decathlon, an international competition emphasizing building design and solar technologies. The MIT team is designing, testing, and constructing a house powered solely by the sun to operate for two weeks on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Twenty teams compete in contests that evaluate architecture, energy performance, and marketability. This interdisciplinary contest engages disciplines such as architecture, electrical engineering, material sciences, public policy management and others.
Sustainability@MIT
We strive to inspire, educate, and empower a new generation of leaders — those capable of creating a sustainable, just, and vital future for our planet. We support students, staff, and faculty in bringing our passion, energy, and ingenuity to these contexts to make our mark.
Sloan Energy & Environment Club
The mission of the Sloan Energy & Environment Club is to bring the Sloan and MIT communities closer to current trends, technologies, and careers in energy and environmental management. The club focuses on the financial factors involved in regulatory-driven markets such as power and emissions. Sensitive to the natural interplay between energy and the environment, the club looks to encourage leadership in the energy sector and excellence in both direct and indirect environmental stewardship.
MIT Undergraduate Association Committee on Sustainability
The UA Committee on Sustainability is charged with galvanizing passion, energy, and interest in sustainability on campus. This committee interfaces with other student advocacy and policy groups, facilitating communication to induce change. This committee also identifies and addresses needs within the undergraduate sustainability community.
Vehicle Design Summit
The Vehicle Design Summit is an international multi-university effort, led by MIT students, to create new vehicle designs that can be mass-produced in the near future. Design goals include minimizing energy consumption during design, manufacture, use and recycling, with fuel efficiency reaching hundreds of miles per gallon while maintaining the range, acceleration, and top speed required by consumers. Teams are currently working on vehicle subsystem design and strategies for near-term manufacture.
