Teaching to develop creativity in the engineering under-graduate students of ITM in applying renewable energy systems

All human beings are creative in nature. A student's early creative efforts are disorganised. Knowledge supplies the power to create. In the process of creativity, there are four stages, viz., preparation, incubation, inspiration and verification. The undergraduate students in our Institute, undergo a course in Physics during their first year wherein they are taught about the different forms of energy and the conversion of one form of energy to another In their second year of study, they are exposed to various conventional energy sources. The technological aspects of the non-conventional energy sources systems and applications are taught to the final year Degree students and they are familiarised, with the following: Solar energy, Wind energy, Bio-mass conversion Technologies, Geo-thermal energy, Ocean thermal energy, Fuel cells, Magneto-hydrodynamic generators,Thermionic converters and Thermo-electric generators. This paper reports how students exhibit the later stages of creativity through their final year project work.