Reverse engineering as an educational tool for sustainability

The undergraduate program in the Materials Science and Engineering department at the University of Florida requires its junior students to take the course ldquoAnalysis of the Structure of Materialsrdquo. This course provides students the opportunity to disassemble an engineered product, characterize and analyze the structure of its components, and correlate the structures with properties and processing addressing the criteria most likely used for materials selection by the manufacturers. In addition to the traditional reverse engineering approach, the students must select at least one component and re-create the life cycle of the material/component. The analysis requires collection and analysis of data from emissions, and waste generated from each step of the mining, processing, manufacturing, fabrication, distribution, use, and typical disposal of the product. The students are required to estimate product impacts on the waste stream, environment and society. The final presentation must also include recommendations from the students to create the same product in a more environmentally responsible way.