Advancing Sustainable Engineering Practice Through Education and Undergraduate Research Projects

Abstract

Major challenges such as energy, food, water, environment, health and so many more have never been more prominent than they are today. Engineers and educators, as problem solvers should be addressing these issues and challenges in sustainable ways. They have an enormous opportunity to help create a more sustainable world. Technology problems interconnecting sustainability challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, environmental pollution, economic and social instability are becoming increasingly major concerns for mankind. However, the engineers and scientists have failed on large extend to fully address the sustainability issues. It was also found that engineering graduates do not possess necessary skills to tackle sustainability related problems. Engineering practice and education are changing as social expectations and conditions for engineering practice change too. Students have the responsibility and opportunity to continue improving our life while reducing or even reversing the negative impacts that our industrial society is having on the environment. Current engineering curricula are not equipping them to properly deal with these challenges due to little integration of sustainable and green design strategies and practice. Transforming higher education curricula for sustainable development is a tough challenge, dealing with the complexness of sustainability concepts and integration into engineering education. Teaching students the sustainability principles and equipping them with necessary tools help them to make better choices on materials and energy use, or design. These concepts and methods are still relatively new to engineering curriculum and are not an established practice for most of such programs. Meanwhile, today’s students have a strong desire to improve the world through their work, and sustainability connects with these interest and motivations. However, students’ hunger for knowledge often outstrips what is available in their courses and the experiences of their professors. Furthermore, to make sustainable design compelling to a wider base of engineering students, we need to craft sustainable design in terms of mainstream design problems that are important, cutting-edge, and achievable. Then we need to help them how to effectively deal with environmental and societal needs and constraints as part of their core design process. The paper highlights the process required for embedding sustainability and green design into our programs, curriculum design, implementation and impediments to surmount for sustainability and green design in engineering education. This was done through a project-based approach, developing three new courses and appropriate changes in a number of existing courses. The skill requirements were studied and finally the list of subjects, topics, teaching and learning methods are identified and discussed in this paper.

Embedding Renewable Energy Concepts into Engineering Curriculum

“…Our engineering and engineering technology curricula cover fields such as electronics, electric machines, mechanics, robotics, manufacturing, mechanics, energy conversion, power electronics, instrumentation, materials and control. In order to prepare our graduates for 21 st century industries it is necessary to learn about the renewable energy systems and their applications, sustainability, efficient energy use and sustainability [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . Due to continuous growth in the use of renewable energy-based electricity generation and the needs of keeping students abreast of the current technology developments and trends, it is our strong beliefs that it was timely to develop and deliver courses on renewable energy technologies, energy management and industrial energy systems.…”

“…A multi-level approach was taken in our curriculum changes to incorporate sustainability, green design and renewable energy subjects 9,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . A first level such topics, subjects and problems were introduced by the faculty involved in this project in their courses, where it is appropriate.…”

“…The objective of this course is to present and introduce the students to various renewable energy topologies and distributed generation, their characteristics and performances 10,[12][13][14][15] . Upon successfully completion of this course, the students are familiar with and knowledge of the renewable energy technologies and distributed generation.…”

“…Senior or capstone design courses fill a critically important role in the engineering and technology curriculum, forming a bridge between school and the workplace, being extensively discussed in the literature [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] . These courses bring to the forefront many of the ABET outcomes such as lifelong learning, design, teamwork, and contemporary issues 11 .…”

Development and Implementation of an Undergraduate Course on Smart Grids

“…The main element is the lecture, in which the teacher explains, gives examples, shows calculations, discusses physical principles or mathematical derivations, etc. However, the laboratory, experiments and projects are an integral part of any engineering, science or technology educational program and their purpose is bringing the students closer to real situations of the area of studies [20][21][22] . Laboratories to study power system issues have always been deemed important by educators.…”