Engineering Sustainable Engineers through the Undergraduate Experience

In order to meet the challenges of sustainable development, our approach to education must be modified to equip students to evaluate alternatives and devise solutions that meet multi-faceted requirements. In 2009, faculty in the Departments of Civil, Industrial and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington began implementation of a project entitled "Engineering Sustainable Engineers" to infuse the departments' curricula with sustainability. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, was designed to improve students' awareness of and ability to use sustainability in alternative analysis for engineering decision making. Key outcomes of the project are discussed. These include: (1) course modules for engineering courses that are common to most engineering curricula; (2) a sustainable design checklist, which is a tool that the team designed to facilitate alternative analysis on the basis of sustainability; and (3) models for implementing quality sustainable industry internships and multidisciplinary sustainability-related senior design projects. Engineering Sustainable Engineers is one of the many efforts at UT Arlington to emphasize sustainability, not only as a campus initiative, but also in teaching future engineers to consider the impacts of their design solutions on future generations and on the environment. The modules and tools that have been developed can serve as models for other institutions to implement. (Contains 2 tables and 7 figures.)