Changes

<b>Degree</b>: Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate; Specialization: Energy Engineering; Minors: Sustainability, Continuous Improvement, and Math

<b>What can you contact me about?</b> Developing leadership skills, professional development, topics in sustainability and renewable energy and engineering, interdisciplinary learning, design thinking methodology, running, jokes, Chicagoand hiking/traveling!

'''Green Roof Team LLC's Website''': <nowiki>http://greenroofgreenroofteam.siu.edu/<com/nowiki>

Nelson Fernandes is a received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Born and raised in Chicago, ventured down to chose Southern Illinois (6 hours) for universitybecause of the care one faculty member showed him as a mentor for a research project his senior year of high school. Made a wide variety of friends along with joining different organizations. In addition to the Innovation Fellows, an executive member of Undergraduate Student Government, Engineering Student Council, Leadership Development Program, RoboticsTeam. Currently expanding Then, expanded his knowledge in renewable energy through the European Energy Centre and will become an Energy Management Technician which provides the credentials to lead and manage clean energy projects!  [[File:Green-Roof-Team Temporary-Wind-Turbine.jpg|alt=|thumb|Here is a view of the SIU Green Roof with our student designed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine.]]One important organization Nelson was a member of, is the Leadership Development Program where students undergo an intense two year program of 5:30AM workouts and 6:00AM morning meetings. As a first year, we focus on leading ourselves through developing our servant leadership skills and leading a project once a semester. As a second year, I stepped into a Coaching position where I guided four first year members through the year by reinforcing the primary leadership practices and project management skills. The growth I have made during my time in the program allowed myself to grow into the person I am today. One defining moment was leading our yearly Applied Project. This Applied Project was a three day event at a local electronics company where I led 15 undergraduate members and three Black Belt Six Sigma Masters in a major lean manufacturing project where we redesigned a process for receiving incoming packages which is a major bottleneck as well as a route for their tugger train as well as how to better organize their inventory for optimal and efficient process. A leader who focuses on building relationships with the team and planning ahead to make sure the job gets done. And the skills I have learned, enabled me to develop my U.I.F. project into something larger than originally thought. [[File:Wind Turbine Installation.jpg|thumb|Here is an image of one of the three wind turbines we installed at SIU Carbondale. The first wind energy generating devices on campus!]]As a University Innovation Fellow, Nelson worked with the College of Agriculture for transforming their existing green space (Green Roof) into an interdisciplinary innovation hub for participatory learning. The roof was installed in 2010 for agricultural research; however, quickly became unknown to students once the dean retired around 2018. The goal was focused on launching several marketing campaigns for promotion, hosting design thinking workshops for empathizing with students, and pursuing an engineering project to showcase opportunities. With the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson and his fellow Fellows decided to host more workshops to collaborate with our peers and friends around the world they have met at the FH Salzburg's Alps Meetup. In the Spring 2020, Nelson and several other Fellows from SIU traveled to Salzburg, Austria, and participated in their Alps Meetup. Enjoyed every minute of the sleep deprived trip and soaked every experience possible. The most noteworthy experience is working in an Urban Mobility workshop to redesign ways of better utilizing the parking spaces of the FH University. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqLravPcswM&feature=youtu.be)

As a University Innovation Fellow, Nelson worked with the College of Agriculture specifically by revitalizing and modernizing the existing Green Roof to become an innovative space for multidisciplinary research to be housed. The roof most known activity was installed in 2010 for agricultural research; however, became increasingly underutilized between the retirement of the professor who held ownership and lack of ownership among those involved. The plan became to revitalize and modernize the space through a project where recruiting a cross-university team of students will be recruited for have a major clean up along with installing an autonomous irrigation system, to solve the watering needs, data acquisition device, the previous system's contract expired several years ago and was not renewed, design and install a wind turbine. The next step is incorporating engineering and agricultural students' research small Wind Turbine on the roof building to promote innovation and increase use of the outdoor research utilization from 1%facility. Yes, among The encouragement of the cross-university team was berth at the 0.1 acre start of available spacethe pandemic when tools from Zoom, approximately one percent is occupied for researchMURAL, while boosting recognition of the space among etc. were encouraged and learned quickly by students and faculty for opportunities. The space was funded by the Student Green Fee; therefore, belongs We found opportunity from a time where many events were being removed while finding ways to the students rather than the Agriculture Building it resides onimprove our communication skills especially for engineering design virtually.

Aside from The UIF Project led to the formation of the Green Roof project, Team LLC where Nelson has hosted several Design Thinking Workshops specifically for the Green Roof in person and online with other SIU Fellows. With five outstanding team members among the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson and his fellow Fellows decided 50 members are developing educational kits to host more workshops sell based on their projects ranging from clean energy to collaborate with our peers and friends around the world they have met at the FH Salzburg's Alps Meetupartificial intelligence. In Additionally, the Spring 2020, Nelson and several other Fellows from SIU traveled to Salzburg, Austria, and participated company offers internship opportunities in their Alps Meetup. Enjoyed every minute of the sleep deprived trip marketing and soaked every experience possible. The most noteworthy experience is working in an Urban Mobility workshop clean energy engineering fields to provide opportunities to redesign ways of better utilizing the parking spaces of the FH University. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqLravPcswM&feature=youtu.be)students understand their own passions with a guiding mentor as well as move forward professionally!