Infusion of Green Energy Manufacturing Into Engineering and Technology Curricula

Abstract

This paper discusses a joint educational effort that incorporates sustainability in engineering and technology curricula at Drexel University (DU) and University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). A critical component of a national “green industries/green jobs” effort is to motivate our citizenry to become proficient in STEM and associated manufacturing fields and societies, thus ensuring we have a 21st century workforce. Sustainable engineering is about design that recognizes the constraints applied by natural resources and the environmental system. The needs for engineering students and practicing engineers to understand sustainability concepts and concerns have been noted by many educators, scientists or engineers, and it is the philosophy of the authors that all engineering students need to become versed in sustainability ideas. This paper describes key factors in enhancing the ability of future engineering graduates to better contribute to a more sustainable future, preserving natural resources and advancing technological and societal development. Two approaches are used to incorporate sustainability into the undergraduate engineering and technology curricula that can be adopted or adapted by science and engineering faculty for this purpose. The two approaches described in the paper include: (1) redesigning existing courses through development of new materials that meet the objectives of the original courses and (2) developing upper division elective courses that address specific topics related to sustainability, such as green manufacturing, clean energy, and life-cycle assessment. The efforts presented in the paper also include an increase in social responsibility, development of innovative thinking skills, better understanding of sustainability issues, and increasing students’ interests in the engineering and technology programs. Projects, included in the senior courses or in the senior design project course sequence have been also part of them.

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.…”

“…A summary of the topics covered in the course is given in Table 1. The course structure, content and instructional approach, discussed in the next section of the paper are in part based on the experience gained by one of the authors, when he was involved in the design, development and teaching of similar courses, as well as in the design, test and implement of the course associated laboratory and experiments for other institutions that he used to work for [9][10][11][12][13] .…”

“…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 .…”