ASEE EOP Faculty Mini Grants

The ArtCenter proposes a new curriculum model that integrates sustainability course learning outcomes (S-CLOs) into all core studio courses in the Product Design Department. The team is developing Modules for each S-CLO to deliver targeted learning and meaningful experiences and build a library of design heuristics that they are expanding to include diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice strategy exercises.

Bradley University’s project has been the development of modules for engineering classes from the perspective of business law. Topics include environmental literacy, responsible business and economy, and social responsibility. These topics provide a fundamental understanding of the role law plays in helping or hindering the advancement of solutions to environmental issues.

Without social justice there is no sustainability. If people can’t meet their basic needs to live with dignity, they won’t prioritize the environment over daily survival. How can we achieve sustainability by prioritizing social justice? How can engineering facilitate connections between social justice and sustainability? These questions guide innovations in four engineering courses: Cornerstone (first-year design), Projects for People (junior-level design), Capstone (senior year design), and Advanced Engineering for Sustainable Community Development (graduate level).

The purpose of this project is to utilize the EOP Framework to help foster student ownership of education in sustainability. This is achieved through curricular changes that develop research skills and ability, and develop communication and team working ability while creating alignment with engineering fields. In an introductory engineering course, students will approach their choice of profession, professional respect, major retention, and dominant images within their discipline through a diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice lens. An evaluation of the change in attitudes towards sustainability education will be performed at the conclusion of the project.

The EOP program was used to help refine content taught in PES 320: Polymer Sustainability and PLET 464: Failure Analysis at Penn State Behrend. PES 320 currently has a strong focus on sustainability and life-cycle assessment for plastics systems. Additional modules on justice and equity issues in the plastics industry were developed through this grant.

Students in civil engineering need to be prepared to contribute positively to a more sustainable world. This team’s project focuses on introducing students in the Civil Engineering Technology Program at RIT to sustainability concepts using the EOP framework while advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. The goal is to eventually integrate sustainability in several courses within the program to ensure that RIT graduates students that are well grounded and prepared to be sustainability change agents in their chosen careers.

San Jose State University’s project focuses on incorporating concepts of sustainability in senior chemical engineering capstone experiences. Through field trips, lectures, formative assessments, and senior projects, students will learn about the three pillars of sustainability – environment, society, and economics. The relationship of these fundamentals will be explored individually and as teams over two semesters with industry applications and advisors. Anticipated outcomes of this work include students learning a measured amount about sustainability and leveraging improved instruction methods for the betterment of our department and college.

Investigators on this team propose to magnify the focus on sustainability in engineering programming at TNTech by systematically incorporating the EOP Framework into core components of the design process of up to four chemical engineering courses. Student-team-developed prototypes of innovative technology will address societal challenges as required outcomes. The integration of the EOP Framework as a structured approach to sustainable design will help guide student-teams to address societal challenges as part of their formation as  holistically-trained professionals. Specifically, student-teams will learn approaches to systems thinking, knowledge and understanding, skills, experiences, and behavior as part of the design processes.

The investigator from UDC, an HBCU, is creating a totally new design of a course for undergraduate students called “Introduction to Quantum Computing with Implications of Sustainability.” It will introduce sustainability concepts through a focus on the energy effectiveness of quantum computing.

Two courses in the engineering program at University of Maryland Eastern Shore are selected to incorporate the topics of sustainable engineering. Junior and senior students taking these courses will be exposed to the concept and importance of engineering sustainability and learn to apply energy effectiveness and whole system mapping through discussion, video, exercise, lecture, etc.

The project team is integrating sustainability-centered curriculum into the robotics/mechatronics courses taught at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The curriculum modules are centered on mini-projects that are aligned with the project-based learning (PBL) framework. The overarching theme of these mini-projects focuses on the two key concepts of “robotics for sustainability” and “sustainability for robotics.” These mini-projects will also be completely in line with the leadership vision about the curricular innovations at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

The project is undertaking the creation of both a Minor and Major (BS) in Sustainability Engineering. The Minor is expected to be open by Fall 2023, and the Major by Fall 2025. The project involves creation of new courses and curricula; stakeholder building; fundraising; and research on sustainability mindsets. Recruitment of women, workforce development, and the development of a Community of Practice are all featured elements.

The University of Texas at Arlington has created numerous programs to integrate sustainability into the curriculum. However, these programs have only reached a small subset of the faculty population, and as a result, a small subset of courses. This project aims to implement the EOP Framework into a core engineering class that has little to do with sustainability as part of a course project and demonstrate that sustainability can be integrated into any engineering course.