Bryony DuPont, PhD
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Oregon State University
Visiting Scholar
K. Lisa Yang GEAR Center
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
MIT Building 3-449A
77 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02139
Bio
Dr. Bryony (BRY-yah-knee) DuPont is a lifelong researcher, teacher, and advocate for sustainability and renewable energy. Her research centers on enhancing the capabilities of engineering designers through the use of advanced computation and artificial intelligence approaches. Dr. DuPont's passions are in decarbonizing residential, distributed, and grid-scale electricity generation systems, product and system sustainability, and alternative fuel systems. She is a leading expert in the design of wind and wave energy systems.
Bryony completed her BS in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2008, and her MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University (2010 and 2013, respectively). As part of her PhD, she trained and received a certificate in university teaching from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence, and was awarded the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) Graduate Teaching Fellowship.
She spearheaded her research program at Oregon State University in 2013, where she was promoted with tenure in 2019. In 2021, Bryony took a sabbatical at Tufts University, where she taught and researched as part of their Offshore Wind Energy Engineering Program. Since 2023, she has been a Visiting Scholar in the K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Bryony is a trained vocalist and stage actor, with deep expertise in effective engineering communication, from technical writing, to creating effective visual stories, displaying data, and giving strong technical presentations.
Latest Publication
Techno-economic Outlooks for the Operation of Zero-Emission Heavy-Duty Trucks: Their Implications on Fleet Operators, Cargo Shippers, and Vehicle Designers
ZhiYi Liang, Bryony DuPont, Amos Winter
Heavy-duty trucking is an essential economic sector and the logistical backbone of the American and global economy. However, heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) contribute significant CO2 emissions to global warming. HDVs are hard to decarbonize due to the large amount of onboard energy storage required for the range and towing performance needed. Currently, there are two potential promising alternative drivetrain architectures to replace existing diesel fleets: lithium battery-electric vehicle (Li- BEV) and hydrogen fuel-cell-electric vehicle (H2 FCEV). While these alternative-fuel HDVs are on their way toward technical maturity and commercialization, the techno-economic implications of operating a zero emission fleet remain largely uncertain to stakeholders in the trucking industry. In this study, we developed a multi-dimensional techno-economic model to evaluate the technical constraints of onboard energy storage in HDVs and compare the operational technoeconomics of zero-emission drivetrains against diesel vehicles, using the perspectives of fleet operators and cargo shippers.