Conference Session

Service - Learning Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mansour Rahimi, University of Southern California; Alex John, USC

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

measurements. Planning for a final assessment trip in March of 2008 has also beenfinalized. EWB-USC is partnering this effort with a number of humanitarian organizations, andthe International Rotary Organization’s “Decade of Water Improvement” to provide some of thesupplies and equipments for this project. This paper highlights the key experiences in organizational development, project funding,trip planning, assessment trip and lays out a five-year project plan for our future efforts. Thehope is that through exposure to these experiences, other newly formed EWB studentorganizations will plan for their activities in a more efficient and responsive way.1. Laying the Foundation The programmatic goal of EWB-USC is to provide students with

Conference Session

Sustainability and Engineering Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Curtis Larimer, University of Pittsburgh; Michaelangelo Tabone, University of Pittsburgh; Matthew Mehalik, University of Pittsburgh; Kim Needy, University of Pittsburgh

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

AC 2008-2064: AN INTERNATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHEXPERIENCE IN SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERINGCurtis Larimer, University of Pittsburgh Curtis James Larimer is a senior undergraduate majoring in Engineering Physics in The University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering. He expects to graduate in the spring of 2008 and plans to go on to pursue a graduate engineering degree.Michaelangelo Tabone, University of Pittsburgh Michaelangelo Tabone is a junior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in Chemical Engineering. While in school, he works as resident assistant in on-campus housing, volunteers as a teaching assistant of Organic Chemistry, and has served as a paper reviewer for the

Conference Session

Assessment Issues in Environmental Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Bower, The Citadel; William Davis, The Citadel

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

, creating detailed assessment plans and maps, anddeveloping on-line assessment tools. The authors have previously presented a detailedliterature review in Bower et al.[3]. References have been included for the reader’sconvenience [4-10].The objective of this paper is to provide a useful summary as to how instructionalmaterial and course goals for environmental engineering courses contained within anundergraduate civil engineering curriculum are efficiently mapped, measured, evaluatedand improved in support of quantifiable program outcome assessment. This paperidentifies and delineates adopted departmental procedures used to facilitate systematiccurriculum decision making, produce readily usable assessment documentation andsustain evidence-based

Conference Session

Service - Learning Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heather Wright, Michigan Technological University; Linda Phillips, Michigan Technological University; James Mihelcic, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

projects forengineering students that allow them to obtain six credits working on an engineering project inthe developing world. This paper provides information on the first phase of a long-termassessment, to begin analyzing the impact of our International Senior Design (ISD) program onyoung practitioners after graduation.Our contact with program graduates suggests that the ISD experience has a larger impact on astudent’s professional practice compared to traditional senior design projects. We are currentlyimplementing a more rigorous assessment program to evaluate this assumption. In this paper, weinitiate Phase I of our assessment program by presenting our plan to track graduates from theISD program that are currently in graduate school, or

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Research

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Lambrechts, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

. Asshown, only in a few locations were groundwater levels always below Elev. 5 (see dark andhatched areas on the figure). In most other areas, the groundwater was at some time found to bebelow Elev. 5 (light shading areas).Concerns for groundwater levels and wood pile preservation have been on the minds of localengineers since the 1880s. In Stearns’s report of 1894 for the planning of the Charles RiverDam10, it was noted that groundwater levels in 1878 and 1885, which are before and one yearafter construction of the Boston Main Drainage sewer system, were about the same andgroundwater levels were between Elev. 6.7 and 8.5. However, he noted that observation wellsinstalled in the 1890s, for a study of the proposed Charles River dam showed some

Conference Session

Sustainability and Engineering Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Lynch, Dartmouth College

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

integration andevaluation of social, economic, and physical factors – the three aspects of sustainability.Achievement at this level requires the “B” achievement described above to be advanced inpractice to the analysis level, through structured experience and in synergy with other realworks, built or planned. Successful progression of cognitive development in thisexperiential phase must be demonstrable. Page 13.1129.5A Curricular ApproachA teaching approach to sustainable engineering based in Natural Resources can be devised forEngineers, taking advantage of the scientific and mathematical skills already demanded of them.As a first principle, we need

Conference Session

Assessment Issues in Environmental Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Debra Reinhart, University of Central Florida

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

includes, but isnot limited to planning, design, teaching, applied or fundamental research, publicadministration, or utility operation and the EnVEBOK must address all these forms ofpractice. Individuals receiving a degree in environmental engineering may neverpractice environmental engineering, but rather may seek other professional degrees, suchas law or medicine, or follow an entirely different career path. Therefore some pathsbeginning with a baccalaureate degree in environmental engineering may not lead tocomplete EnVEBOK fulfillment.The EnVEBOK builds on the body of knowledge appropriate for all engineers thenexpands into areas specific and unique to environmental engineering. The EnVEBOKprovides a guide for curriculum development and reform

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Research

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Goodarz Ahmadi, Clarkson University; Suresh Dhaniyala, Clarkson University; John Mclaughlin, Clarkson University; Cetin Cetinkaya, Clarkson University; Stephen Doheny-Farina, Clarkson University; Fa-Gung Fan, Xerox Corp.

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

computational modules to make the coursepresentations of the materials more interactive. The plan is to have sufficient number ofcalculation modules for the student to experiment with. As a result the student willdevelop a physical understanding of some of the more complex concepts. Figure 2shows a sample of the fundamental module dealing with the lift force acting on a particlein a shear flow. Lift Force u f u du f 1 / 2 du f Saffman (1965) FL

Conference Session

Service - Learning Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bradley Rogers, Arizona State University; Mark Henderson, Arizona State University; Thomas Sugar, Arizona State University; Chell Roberts, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

theproject steps, the resulting prototype and plans to solve the water problem in Famanye.Product Development ProcessA conventional engineering product development process was used for this project includingproblem definition, identification of customer needs, development of target specifications,concept generation, concept selection and prototyping and testing the chosen concept.Implementation in the village is currently being pursued as is funding to deliver and install thepurifier.For the purpose of this project, the customer is defined as an average family in the village ofFamanye. This family customer is chosen over the customer “the village” in order to minimizesocial and political concerns relating to the maintenance and ownership of the

Conference Session

Sustainability and Engineering Programs

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Qiong Zhang, Michigan Technological University; Julie Zimmerman, Yale University; James Mihelcic, Michigan Technological University; Linda Vanasupa, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

. Table 4 summarizes thehypotheses and our assessment plan toward each.TABLE 4: Summary of Assessment Strategy. Instruments that will be developed during theproposed research are indicated by .Transformational learning practices and peer-to-peer networks:Hypothesis 1: Enable Implementation of sustainable practicesevidenced by assessed through1. students’ advanced Comparison of performance of partner universities understanding of connections students to control cohort performance between engineering solutions direct measure of understanding and global issues2. students utilizing peer-to-peer Student questionnaire networks to implement effective direct measure of students

Conference Session

Innovations to Curriculum and Program

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ralph Ocon, Purdue University; Opal McFarlane, Hadady Corporation

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

quo. To avoid complacency and obsolescence, “if it’s not broke- improve it” should be themotto used in every organization.Identify Several Solutions: When solving problems, the creative problem solver should lookbeyond the obvious solutions and instead, focus on identifying the best solution. By identifyingseveral solutions for a given problem, the problem solver can compare solutions and identify thebest solution.Seek Opportunities in Problem: Creative problem solvers believe that with every problem thereare opportunities. By anticipating and planning where the organization should be in the future,leaders can avoid complacency and make the best choices when solving a problem. There is adifference between being open to opportunities and

Conference Session

Innovations to Curriculum and Program

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado at Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

AC 2008-2289: INCORPORATING ENERGY ISSUES INTO ENVIRONMENTALENGINEERINGAngela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado at Boulder Page 13.729.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Incorporating Energy Issues into Environmental EngineeringAbstractNo single engineering discipline has integrated renewable and sustainable energy topics intotheir core curriculum. Environmental engineering programs may benefit from includingsustainable energy in their curriculum. Many students in a freshman-level introductoryEnvironmental Engineering (EVEN) course viewed EVEN as a potential major to studyrenewable energy, but many have since indicated that they plan to switch into

Conference Session

Innovations to Curriculum and Program

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado at Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

important to recognize cultural differences. Future studies will expand on thiswork by surveying more students and try to combine the quantitative responses to these surveyswith qualitative information that reflects cultural competency.AcknowledgmentsThe authors recognize Marie L. Miville for providing the MGUDS-S survey and scoring guide.This material is partially based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation underDepartment Level Reform Planning Grant No. 0431947. This material is also based on worksupported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ESI-0227558, which funds the Page 13.345.11Center for the Advancement of

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Research

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Reisel, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

may predispose them to not even consider going tograduate school upon completion of their undergraduate education, and the opportunity to workon an undergraduate research project in their last year or two of school is not sufficient to changetheir views. Further study is needed on this issue.Project Management IssuesWhile providing undergraduate students with the opportunity to conduct research is a noble goal,there are a number of project management issues that a faculty member needs to be concernedwith before planning on primarily using undergraduate students for a long-term research project.Some of the issues that developed over the course of this project are discussed below.1) The use of undergraduate students as the primary