Non-Traditional University Research Partners That Facilitate Service Learning and Graduate Research for Sustainable Development

Abstract

. Maya A. Trotz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. Her area of interests include the development of treatment technologies for inorganic contaminant remediation with a special emphasis on arsenic in drinking water and in landfill leachate; investigating the effect of climate change on mercury fate in aquatic environments; and understanding the effect of water storage containers on water quality in developing countries. She has an ongoing interest in multidisciplinary projects that encourage sustainable development and provide affordable and efficient technology to developing areas, especially with respect to improving water quality and reducing the incidence of water borne diseases and water related diseases and other health complications. She believes in holistic approaches to providing engineering solutions which incorporate women's perspectives and needs and which build local capacity. In Guyana, she works on projects with NGOs like WWF-Guianas, Conservation International Guyana and the Guyana's Citizen's Initiative. She is the faculty advisor for USF' Stuart's scholarly interests are primarily related to air pollution and its impacts on human health and the environment. Through her research, she seeks to understand the multi-scale interactions of air pollutants with the natural and built environments and to elucidate the effects of these interactions on public health and on sustainability. Her current research project topics are interactions between transportation infrastructure, air quality, and health equity; and mercury and sustainability in the Tampa Bay and in Guyana. She is a recipient of an NSF Career Award. An NSF research project situated in Bolivia allows undergraduate and doctoral graduate students to work with a non-government organization and rural community water committees to research issues of water supply, water scarcity, sanitation, and watershed management. An interdisciplinary graduate course allows students to investigate concepts of sustainability and research methods using a case study focus that focuses on mercury in Guyana and research approaches across disciplines, implement population surveying methods, and apply simple systems modeling. These cases provide opportunities for meeting globalization and sustainability outcomes as elaborated in the proposed Environmental Engineering BOK.

Evolution Of A Sustainability Focused First Year Environmental Engineering Course

“…The lecture slides included: a definition of sustainability from the Brundtland Commission 8 ; a definition of sustainable engineering 9 and unique challenges of international sustainable development 10 ; a discussion of the pillars of sustainability 11 ; the Limits of Growth 12 ; the importance of sustainability as articulated by ABET 1 and the American Academy of Environmental Engineers in the Body of Knowledge 3 ; incorporation of sustainability into the engineering design process 13 ; global climate change evidence 14 and its potential impacts 15 ; ASCE grades for environmental-related infrastructure 16 ; global water demands 17 ; and life cycle assessment and ecological footprint analysis. The students were supplied with the lecture slides and associated references to learn more on their own.…”

Using Social Media to Create a Global Community of Sustainability-Engaged Students

“…Programs that enable engineering students to study outside of the United States have been effectively integrated with engineering education (1). These programs are exposing students to global concepts of sustainability (2).…”

Graduate Student Qualifying Exam Approach: Course To Guide Students Through Writing A Research Proposal

“…Structured training in research methods is also endorsed in international communities such as in Ersta Skondal University College in Stockholm, Sweden 9 and National University of Singapore 10 . Some programs provide training on the research proposition or research methods via workshops or on the job training [11][12][13] . Most programs leave this aspect of graduate school experience entirely to the one-on-one mentoring between advisors and their graduate students 14 .…”