Bhandari, Y., & Vora, A., & Thirupathy, S., & Singh, R., & Azofeifa, O. (2017, June), A Practicum on Energy and Sustainability Engineering  Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--27497

\bibitem{asee_peer_27497}
  Bhandari, Y., \& Vora, A., \& Thirupathy, S., \& Singh, R., \& Azofeifa, O. (2017, June), \emph{A Practicum on Energy and Sustainability Engineering}
  Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Columbus, Ohio.
  10.18260/1-2--27497

Yogesh Bhandari, Akshay Vora, Sengavi Thirupathy, Rashi Singh, and Oscar Azofeifa.  "A Practicum on Energy and Sustainability Engineering".  2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio, 2017, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2017.  https://peer.asee.org/27497 Internet.  15 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_27497}
  Yogesh Bhandari, Akshay Vora, Sengavi Thirupathy, Rashi Singh, and Oscar Azofeifa.
  "A Practicum on Energy and Sustainability Engineering".
  \emph{2017 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Columbus, Ohio, 2017, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2017.
  https://peer.asee.org/27497 Internet.  15 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_27497
author = "Yogesh Bhandari, Akshay Vora, Sengavi Thirupathy, Rashi Singh, and Oscar Azofeifa"
title = "A Practicum on Energy and Sustainability Engineering"
booktitle = "2017 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2017"
month = "June"
address = "Columbus, Ohio"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/27497}
number = {10.18260/1-2--27497}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -  Yogesh Bhandari, Oscar  Azofeifa, Brogan Michael Faso, Kevin R. Kubis, Michael T.           McNulty, David Pratt,PE,  Thomas Satrom, Pallav Nirmal Shah, Rashi Singh, Sengavi Thirupathy, Akshay C. Vora, Rizwan-uddin
                      Master of Engineering in Energy Systems
                   University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61801

Sustainability is a practical concept.  Engineers have to make choices between practical, economically viable and sustainable designs and operations.  We will report our recent experience from a one-hour practicum course in which students were encouraged to take part in a sustainability competition organized by the student sustainability committee (SSC) at the University of Illinois.  Goal of the four-hour practicum course required for the Master of Engineering in Energy Systems degree (ENG 572/573) at the University of Illinois [1] is to provide all students with a project or practicum (internship) opportunity to gain practical experience as well as develop written and oral communication skills. This year all new students in the program were required to sign up for one hour of ENG 573 (the remaining three hours will be fulfilled in later semesters) to provide the skills for group work and help develop written and communication skills; students formed groups and participated in the student sustainability competition organized yearly by the SSC.  
“The Student Sustainability Committee (SSC) is a student-led organization charged with the distribution of two student fees – the Sustainable Campus Environment Fee and the Cleaner Energy Technologies Fee. With the ultimate goal of making the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign a leader in campus sustainability, SSC reviews, recommends, and funds projects that increase environmental stewardship, inspire change, and impact students [2].” These two fees bring in over $1.1 million annually, which is one of the largest sustainability fund of its kind in the United States [2]. Funds are made available for sustainability projects proposed by the students. 
Students in ENG 573 formed groups, studied and analyzed options available to them, developed sustainability projects to be proposed, presented their ideas in front of their colleagues (in ENG 573) for critical feedback, consulted with personnel at university’s facilities and services (F and S) and other departments, prepared the proposals, and then submitted them before the deadline.   
We will report our experience.

Key words:	energy, sustainability, project, proposal writing, communication skills
1.	go.illinois.edu/energysystems 
2.	http://ssc.sustainability.illinois.edu/ 
AU  - Yogesh Bhandari
AU  - Akshay Vora
AU  - Sengavi Thirupathy
AU  - Rashi Singh
AU  - Oscar Azofeifa
CY  - Columbus, Ohio
DA  - 2017/06/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A Practicum on Energy and Sustainability Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/27497
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--27497
ER  -