An NSF-funded program led by Tom Acker at Northern Arizona University and NAWEA Curriculum Committee members at Texas Tech, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Penn State

Purpose: Establish an expandable, multi-university consortium focused on graduate education in wind energy that will:

• Enhance and expand the educational opportunities available to students in an emerging professional, STEM field, including international experiences;

• Increase the diversity of peoples and disciplines represented by students enrolled in wind energy graduate programs; and,

• Address a pressing national need for graduate-education-trained wind energy professionals.

Objectives: To pilot and test the new, innovative, Rapid model, to effectively establish a replicable, expandable, consortium in graduate education. The Rapid model is a new facilitational model developed from evidence-based models described in the literature and implemented in practice.