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A Framework to Assess an Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Curriculum in Addressing the Grand Challenges for Environmental Engineering in the 21st Century

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Division Technical Session 2

Page Count

18

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40609

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40609

Download Count

278

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Paper Authors

biography

Cristian Robbins United States Military Academy

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Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Cristian Robbins serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at the United States Military Academy located in West Point, New York. His research interests include advanced water treatment via membrane technologies, logistics and transportation aspects of wastewater treatment and management, and food waste diversion for enhanced biogas production. Additionally, he serves as his program's environmental engineering curriculum coordinator and department personnel officer.

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biography

Michael Butkus United States Military Academy

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Michael A. Butkus is a Professor of Environmental Engineering at the U.S. Military Academy (USMA). He earned a B.S. in Marine Engineering Systems from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (1989), a M.S. (1995) and Ph.D. (1997) in Environmental Engineering from the University of Connecticut. He is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Connecticut, a Board Certified Environmental Engineer, and an ABET program evaluator. He recently completed a five-year tour as the USMA Environmental Program Director. His research has been focused on engineering education and advancements in the field of environmental engineering.

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Andrew Pfluger United States Military Academy

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Andrew Pfluger is a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army and an Associate Professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He currently serves as the Chair of the Environmental Engineering & Science Program.

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Abstract

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published “Environmental Engineering for the 21st Century: Addressing Grand Challenges” in 2019. The challenges are daunting but addressing them with engineering solutions is critical for our growing population and to protect the health of our planet for future generations. A graduate from an ABET-accredited undergraduate environmental engineering program could likely be expected to provide leadership on interdisciplinary teams who develop comprehensive solutions to these Grand Challenges. In this study, a framework is proposed to assess how well an undergraduate environmental engineering program addresses the Grand Challenges within its curriculum. This framework provides a method to quantitatively assess and evaluate curriculum alignment with the Grand Challenges using course lesson objectives or points allocated on graded events. The assessment framework will provide educators within a program insight on how well their curriculum prepares their students to address the Grand Challenges. A case study is provided using an ABET-accredited undergraduate environmental engineering curriculum to demonstrate the insights provided from our assessment framework and to provide a baseline for comparing course content and educational experiences across programs.

Robbins, C., & Butkus, M., & Pfluger, A. (2022, August), A Framework to Assess an Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Curriculum in Addressing the Grand Challenges for Environmental Engineering in the 21st Century Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40609

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