Incorporating a Sustainability Module into an Introduction to Engineering Course
- Conference
- Location
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Atlanta, Georgia
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2013
- Start Date
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June 23, 2013
- End Date
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June 26, 2013
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
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FPD 9: First-Year Engineering Courses, Part III: Research, Sustainability, and Professionalism
- Tagged Division
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First-Year Programs
- Page Count
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12
- Page Numbers
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23.726.1 - 23.726.12
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--19740
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/19740
- Download Count
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456
Paper Authors
Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia Colorado State University, Pueblo
Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering at Colorado State
University, Pueblo. He received his M.Sc. in system engineering and his Ph.D. in engineering management
from the National University of Colombia and Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, respectively.
His research interests include scheduling, operations research, and modeling and simulation in health
care and energy planning. He has participated in several funded projects through various sources such
as NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, NSF, and the Colombian Research Institute. He also have
several years of experience working as a consultant for pharmaceutical and energy companies in the U.S.
and Latin America.
Ding Yuan Colorado State University - Pueblo
Ding Yuan received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in industrial automation from Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China, in 1998 and a Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, in 2006. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Colorado State University-Pueblo.
Jane M. Fraser Colorado State University, Pueblo
Jane M. Fraser is Chair of the Department of Engineering at Colorado State University, Pueblo. She was formerly on the faculty at the Ohio State University and Purdue University. She has a B.A in mathematics from Swarthmore College and a M.S. and a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of California, Berkeley.
Abstract
Incorporating a Sustainability Module into an Introduction to Engineering CourseSustainability has become an increasingly central topic for the engineering profession. Thesustainability concept requires of all of us, as engineers and citizens, to consider much morewidely than before the impact of our own lives and of the products and services engineersdesign. Through a Department of Education funded grant, our university has initiated a longterm effort to incorporate the sustainability concept into the engineering courses.Initially, freshman engineering students at our university will be introduced to sustainabilitythrough the completion of an additional module added to their required introduction toengineering course. This traditional course includes study skills in engineering, the engineeringprofession, the engineering design process, and ethics in engineering among others. From thisadditional module, students will be able to define sustainability, to assess the sustainability oftheir individual lifestyles, and become aware of sustainability efforts on their community.During the fall semester of 2012 two sections of the introduction to engineering course are beingtaught. The first section, the experiment group, is exposed to the sustainability concept,sustainability in the engineering design process, and the strategic sustainability plan for the localCounty through presentations, hands-on exercises, and conferences where County officials willpresent their Strategic Sustainable Plan for the County. The exposition to sustainability for thesecond section, the control group, will be accomplished through lectures.Data from the two sections will be collected through surveys, exams, and presentations in orderto evaluate student attitudes toward sustainability and the level of elicitation of the concept. It isexpected that the awareness about sustainability on both the experiment and the control groupswill increase. However, the experiment group should have a better understanding of thesustainability concept.
Bedoya-Valencia, L., & Yuan, D., & Fraser, J. M. (2013, June), Incorporating a Sustainability Module into an Introduction to Engineering Course Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19740
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