Multipronged Approach for Incorporating Sustainability into an Undergraduate Civil Engineering Curriculum
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141, Issue 2
Abstract
Over the past few decades, there has been growing emphasis on sustainable development and a growing need to train students to think sustainably in preparation for their careers as practicing engineers. Thinking sustainably requires the consideration of not only environmental impacts but also societal and economic impacts. Thus, teaching future engineers to think sustainably requires a multifaceted, multipronged approach. To that end, a team of faculty from the Departments of Civil, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington acquired funding from the National Science Foundation to implement a project entitled “Engineering Sustainable Engineers.” The project was designed to infuse undergraduate curricula in the three departments with sustainability, which was augmented by incorporating sustainability emphasis into other aspects of the undergraduate experience. Key program elements were (1) learning modules developed for courses across all levels of matriculation within the three curricula, (2) quality sustainable internships, and (3) a multidisciplinary senior design project with a sustainability focus. This paper summarizes the rationale, approaches, and results for integrating sustainability into the civil engineering undergraduate learning experience.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation, IEECI award number 0935202, and work performed by the lead author while serving at the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors also gratefully acknowledge Geraldine E. Jackson, MBA, for copyediting this manuscript.
References
ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission. (2013). “Criteria for accrediting engineering programs.” 〈http://www.abet.org〉 (Nov. 15, 2013).
Allenby, B. (2007). “Sustainable engineering education: Translating myth to mechanism.” IEEE Proc., 2007 Symp. on Electronics and the Environment, IEEE, New York, 52–56.
ASCE. (2008a). “A question of ethics: The seven fundamental canons of ASCE’s code of ethics.” 〈http://www.asce.org/Publications/ASCE-News/2008/04_April/A-Question-of-Ethics/〉 (Oct. 25, 2013).
ASCE. (2008b). Civil engineering body of knowledge for the 21st century: Preparing the civil engineer for the future, 2nd Ed., Reston, VA.
Aurandt, J. L., and Butler, E. C. (2011). “Sustainability education: Approaches for incorporating sustainability into the undergraduate curriculum.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 102–106.
Bhandari, A., Ong, S. K., and Steward, B. L. (2011). “Student learning in a multidisciplinary sustainable engineering course.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 86–93.
Bielefeldt, A. R. (2011). “Incorporating a sustainability module into first-year courses for civil and environmental engineering students.” J. Prof. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 78–85.
Ernzer, M., Lindahl, M., Masui, K., and Sakao, T. (2003). “An international study on utilization of design for environment methods (DfE): A pre-study.” Proc., EcoDesign2003: 3rd Int. Symp. on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee, New York, 124–131.
Ernzer, M., Wegner, O., and Birkhofer, H. (2001). “The information system: An advisory tool for how to select the ‘right’ support for DfE.” Proc., EcoDesign 2001: 2nd Int. Symp. on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee, New York, 256–261.
Hardin, G. (1968). “The tragedy of the commons.” Science, 162(3859), 1243–1248.
Hon, K. K. B., and Di, Y. (2003). “Assessment for product sustainability.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Design and Manufacture for Sustainable Development, B. Hon, ed., Professional Engineering Publishing, Suffolk, U.K., 291–298.
Jahan, K., and Mehta, Y. (2007). “Sustainability across the curriculum.” Int. J. Eng. Educ., 23(2), 209–217.
Lindahl, M. (1999). “E-FMEA: A new promising tool for efficient design for environment.” Proc., EcoDesign ’99: 1st Int. Symp. on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee, New York, 734–739.
Mattingly, S. P., et al. (2012). “Multi-disciplinary sustainable senior design project: Design of a campus biodiesel refinery.” Proc., Annual Conf. of the American Society for Engineering Education, American Society for Engineering Education, Washington, DC.
National Academy of Engineering. (2005). Educating the engineer of 2020: Adapting engineering education to the new century, National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
National Academy of Engineering. (2008). Grand challenges for engineering, National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
Nickel, R. M. (2013). “Strategies for incorporating sustainability into the curriculum.” Wisconsin Technical College System Foundation, Waunakee, WI.
Pearson Weatherton, Y., Chen, V., Mattingly, S., Rogers, K. J., and Sattler, M. (2012a). “Sustainable engineering internships: Creation and assessment.” Proc., Annual Conf. of the American Society for Engineering Education, American Society for Engineering Education, Washington, DC.
Pearson Weatherton, Y., Sattler, M., Mattingly, S., Chen, V., Rogers, J., and Dennis, B. (2012b). “Engineering sustainable engineers through the undergraduate experience.” Forum Public Pol., 2012(2), 1–12.
Sattler, M., Pearson Weatherton, Y., Chen, V. C. P., Mattingly, S. P., Rogers, K. J. (2011). “Engineering sustainable civil engineers.” Proc., Annual Conf. of the American Society for Engineering Education, American Society for Engineering Education, Washington, DC.
United Nations. (1987). Our common future: Report of the world commission on environment and development, United Nations, New York.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 31, 2013
Accepted: May 28, 2014
Published online: Jul 15, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 15, 2014
Published in print: Apr 1, 2015
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.