Welcome to my Engineering Grand Challenge Scholars final portfolio. My name is Dominic Podzemny and I am a senior mechanical engineering student who will be graduating this spring 2017. It feels like just a short time ago I was a freshman student in FSE 194 and first learning about the engineering grand challenges and picking my theme of Energy. 

Energy is a facet of my everyday life, academics and hopefully future career. My degree concentration is in Energy and Environment as well as having a certificate in sustainability. I chose this path because I see environmental and energy concerns as a fundamental issue to overcome within the next generation. I find the subject matter intriguing and engaging beyond any other. Multifaceted and spanning engineering, political and social challenges there is not an easy solution to energy security. Being an engineer in this field, it is naturally the technologies which fascinate me, but my main focuses are in power generation, solar energy and more efficiently using existing technologies. For example, I think solar tracking is a much simpler and effective method to achieve higher output from an already existing technology for a much lower cost than funding high efficiency photovoltaic research, the core focus of my undergradute research. At my internship I work as a utilities and conservation focal and someday I would like to expand into an alternative energy company. 

Hopefully you can see how a mindset focused on solving this Grand Challenge theme has been apparent through the past four years of my work. Thank you for taking a look.

- Dominic