My father works at a coal fired power plant, and growing up it was my dream to work in energy like him. As I get older, I see a lot of exciting advancements in solar, wind, and hydroelectric power. Seeing these new technologies along with the state of the globe has shifted my focus away from coal. After I graduate I hope to find a job in alternative energy. The aspect that I am most interested in is batteries. We do not have the technology as it stands to store enough solar or wind energy to power cities during the down time when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing. High energy demand often comes in the evening when everyone is home from work but the sun isn't shining. This is causing issues with cities trying to move to solar because coal plants can't kick off and on fast enough to make up for the large shifts when there isn't solar energy coming in but the usage shoots up. Working on refining battery technology in my opinion is one of the best things we can do to further green energy efforts in this regard. If we could figure out how to store some of that solar energy when the sun is shining, we could use it to make up for times when it isn't. Being able to use my skills as a mechanical engineer to build a cleaner powered future would fulfil my desire to honor my dad's blue collar roots while helping heal the planet. To answer the first part of the prompt, my favorite invention of the last ten years is the LED lightbulb. Now while LEDs existed more than ten years ago, the technology advanced enough in the last ten years to where LEDs are now both economically viable for the everyday person, and great for the environment. These bulbs used to be expensive to buy, expensive to use, and cast a very unflattering light that was unattractive to consumers. These days LEDs are used everywhere from TVs to bedrooms to backyard mood lighting. Almost every light source on the market is LED based. The rise of LEDs makes a ton of sense, though. Now that the technology is better, LEDs are cheap! They don't cost very much to buy, you can run them all the time at very little cost (which means that we need less energy to light homes- win-win!), and they last forever. The history of the LED gives me a lot of hope for the future. In my mind, we're at the same place with battery technology that we used to be at with LEDs. They were too expensive, too hard to make, and didn't perform well. If we can refine the technology for batteries the way we have LEDs, a green future is only a hop skip and a jump away.