Introducing sustainability concepts in lower division engineering core courses

Engineers will play a significant role in designing, building and implementing creative solutions to major global challenges that we face. To prepare the 21st century engineer, sustainability concepts needs to be covered systematically throughout the curriculum and in all majors of the engineering departments. This NSF-funded project is integrating fundamental concepts of sustainability into two core lower division engineering courses (Introduction to Engineering and Introduction to Materials). The outcome of the project is three learning modules covering the topics of renewable and non-renewable energy sources, energy conversion and efficiency, water and energy, and product life cycle analysis. The modules include lectures, hands-on laboratories, and interactive Excel spreadsheets. The modules, along with the accompanying equipment and software, are currently being piloted in SJSU courses and will be disseminated to local the community colleges through a hands-on workshop for community college teachers. Preliminary assessment materials have been collected for the past year to determine effectiveness of the modules.