Generation Z is gaining popularity as the name used to refer to those born beginning in the mid to late 1990s. This is the generation that follows the Millennials, and they are just starting to arrive on college campuses. Much attention has been paid to Millennials and their impact on society, and because of this Generation Z members are often lumped together with this older cohort. But Generation Z students are unique, and universities and colleges must prepare to meet the challenges of instructing this new generation. Engineering educators in particular are being challenged to adapt to the speed of technological change. Faculty must consider how to adjust to this new environment, including the changing needs and expectations of Generation Z students. This paper explores these topics. The first section will explore the concept of a generation and describe some of the attributes associated with Generation Z. The second section will review the development of engineering education in the United States and some of the major reforms that have occurred in the past 100 years. The last section will discuss potential changes in the classroom to try and address some of the characteristics of Generation Z students.

Irrigation pumping is a major expense of agricultural operations, especially in arid/semi-arid areas that extract large amounts of water from deep groundwater resources. Studying and improving pumping efficiencies can have direct impacts on farm net profits and on the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted from pumping plants. In this study, the overall pumping efficiency (OPE), the GHG emissions, and the costs of irrigation pumping were investigated for electric pumps extracting from the Rush Springs (RS) aquifer in central Oklahoma and the natural gas-powered pumps tapping the Ogallala (OG) aquifer in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The results showed that all electric plants and the majority of natural gas plants operated at OPE levels below achievable standard levels. The total emission from the plants in the OG region was 49% larger than that from plants in the RS region. However, the emission per unit irrigated area and unit total dynamic head of pumping was 4% smaller for the natural gas plants in the OG area. A long-term analysis conducted over the 2001–2017 period revealed that 34% and 19% reductions in energy requirements and 52% and 20% decreases in GHG emissions can be achieved if the OPE were improved to achievable standards for plants in the RS and OG regions, respectively.

Households in the USA state of Oklahoma serviced by investor owned electric utilities that have smart meters may select to be charged based on either a traditional meter rate schedule, a smart meter schedule, or they may install a household grid-tied wind turbine and be subject to a different rate schedule. The objective of the research was to determine the economic consequences of installing microgeneration grid-tied wind turbine systems (6 kW; 10 kW) given

Disposal of municipal solid wastes (MSW) remains a challenge to minimize its impacts on the environment and human health. Landfilling, currently the most common method used for MSW disposal, occupies land space and leads to soil and air emissions. Gasification, an alternative MSW disposal method, can convert waste to energy, but can also lead to soil and air emissions and is a more extensive operation. In this study, life cycle assessments (LCA) of the two disposal methods (landfilling without energy recovery and gasification) were compared to understand impacts on environment and health. The LCA was conducted following the ISO 14040 standards with one ton of MSW as the functional unit. The life cycle inventory was obtained from published journals, technical reports, LandGEM, HELP and GREET database. The impact assessment was done using TRACI 2.1 and categorized into eight groups. The LCA revealed that landfilling is a higher contributor in global warming, acidification, smog formation, eutrophication, ecotoxicity and human health cancer and non-cancer categories. The negative environmental impacts of MSW landfilling can be primarily attributed to the fate of leachate loss and landfill gas, while those of the MSW gasification can be attributed to the disposal of its solid residues.

Abstract:Biomass gasification has the potential to produce renewable fuels, chemicals and power at large utility scale facilities. In these plants catalysts would likely be used to reform and clean the generated biomass syngas. Traditional catalysts are made from transition metals, while catalysts made from biochar are being studied. A life cycle assessment (LCA) study was performed to analyze the sustainability, via impact assessments, of producing a metal catalyst versus a dedicated biochar catalyst. The LCA results indicate that biochar has a 93% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and requires 95.7% less energy than the metal catalyst to produce. The study also estimated that biochar production would also have fewer impacts on human health (e.g., carcinogens and respiratory impacts) than the production of a metal catalyst. The possible disadvantage of biochar production in the ecosystem quality is due mostly to its impacts on agricultural land occupation. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess environmental impacts of variability in the two production systems. In the metal catalyst manufacture, the extraction and production of nickel (Ni) had significant negative effects on the environmental impacts. For biochar production, low moisture content (MC, 9%) and high yield type (8 tons/acre) switchgrass appeared more sustainable.