Featured Student in Sustainability-- Tanmay Pant
Belonging to a small town from the foothills of Himalayas, Tanmay Pant has always been passionate about development of renewable sources of energy. Having a background in electronics and telecommunication, his search for a versatile course in this pursuit led him to join MS in Sustainability at Eastern Illinois University in Fall 2016. At Eastern, he has been involved in various academic as well as extra-curricular activities.
Working as a Graduate Research Assistant at Center for Clean Energy Research and Education, he has been involved in various researches for the department of Sustainability related to photovoltaics, smart-grids, biomass gasification, and smart home energy management devices. His solo-project involved construction of electric go-kart charged by solar energy. He presented his research at The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE) conference in Cincinnati, OH. For this he was awarded with the Williams Travel Grant. His experience in CENCERE has been tremendous, visiting multiple industries and meeting many leaders
Aside from this he actively assists other students with their researches at CENCERE. He is also actively involved as a student researcher under Center for American Rural Energy, which is a consortium of multiple entities like CENCERE, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association(NRECA) and Coles Moultrie Electric Cooperative(CMEC). For their first project, he led a research team to study the benefits of Beneficial Electrification using Charleston Stone Quarry as example. This study was published as an article in TechSurveillance by NRECA and CARE. He has also been involved in another project to set up a working infrastructure for charging electrical vehicles. This project aims to step-wise work on implementing electrical vehicles into local businesses and Sarah Bush Hospital.
He also worked as a Graduate Assistant for the Department of Elementary Education, assisting professors in Early Language Learning and building robots which help children to improve cognitive abilities.
Aside from academia and research, Tanmay has been actively involved in on-campus extra-curricular activities. He was elected as the president for Association of International Students and organized multiple cultural/sports events for two semesters. One such event was the Global Culture Night, which celebrates the rich multi-cultural heritage of Eastern Illinois University and is attended by over 200 students. Apart from this, he is also a part of the college Racquetball Club and was a finalist for Intramural Singles Tournament.
For him, coming to United States and Eastern Illinois University has been a terrific experience, where he got to learn and experience multiple skills, be it academic or non-academic. The program Sustainability has been a turning point in his life, where he got to polish his technical skills as well as learn many soft skills in leadership, team-work, presentation, and management.
Tanmay was honored as an outstanding international student during Spring 2018.
