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Board 141: Incorporating Sustainability into Engineering Curriculum Through Project-Based Learning (PBL)

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI) Poster Session

Tagged Division

Multidisciplinary Engineering Division (MULTI)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/46700

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Paper Authors

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Aaditya Khanal The University of Texas at Tyler

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Aaditya Khanal, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Tyler. His research interests fall within the energy and climate nexus, aiming to improve prosperity and sustainability through solutions in renewable energy, carbon sequestration, and underground hydrogen storage. He is certified in effective college instruction by The Association of College and University Educators and the American Council on Education.

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biography

Prabha Sundaravadivel The University of Texas at Tyler

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Dr. Prabha Sundaravadivel received her Ph.D. Degree in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas in 2018. Her research interests are focused on developing Application-specific architectures for Smart Healthcare and Smart Cities, Sustainable Cyber-Physical Systems, Edge-Intelligent Embedded Systems for IoT Applications, Reconfigurable Computing, Bio-inspired Robotics, and Applied Machine Learning.

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Mohammad Abu Rafe Biswas The University of Texas at Tyler Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4077-7979

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Dr. Mohammad (Rafe) Biswas is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Tyler Houston Engineering Center in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His expertise and interests include process dynamics and control, fuel cell systems and thermal fluid engineering education. He has taught courses in system dynamics and control, process control, energy conversion, and thermal fluids laboratory.

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Abstract

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of the present time. Economic damages from just 341 weather and climate-related disasters between 1980 and 2023 in the U.S. exceeded $2.481 trillion. As a result, there has been a widespread effort to improve environmental sustainability through rapid decarbonization efforts and a shift towards renewable energy sources. There will be considerable demand for engineers aware of various novel emerging technologies that can be used to support various climate goals. Despite its importance, engineering students must take particular electives to get exposure to concepts aligned with environmental sustainability. Project-based learning (PBL) incorporated into core engineering classes can broaden the exposure of these topics to a larger group of engineering students, which improves environmental sustainability across several disciplines. Hence, we piloted PBL based on the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) framework into various core courses across several engineering disciplines (chemical, mechanical and electrical) at undergraduate and graduate levels within the University of Texas at Tyler. The students were provided reading materials, videos, and lectures on the core values of EOP, specifically focusing on systems thinking, environmental literacy, environmental impact assessment, materials selection, and design. After introducing the EOP concepts, three to five student teams were formed, and each team was tasked to pick an approved topic related to the specific classes. The deliverables for the assignment were a preliminary report, a final report, and an oral presentation to the peers. Finally, an anonymous survey was conducted to gauge the improvement in the student’s understanding of the core EOP concepts and how it helped them improve their understanding of environmental sustainability. Survey responses showed that the students had a more sustainable mindset after performing the PBL based on the EOP framework. Furthermore, the students also improved their technical communication and group work skills, which are critical for modern engineers.

Khanal, A., & Sundaravadivel, P., & Biswas, M. A. R. (2024, June), Board 141: Incorporating Sustainability into Engineering Curriculum Through Project-Based Learning (PBL) Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46700

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