Asee peer logo

Integration of Sustainability in a Multidisciplinary Engineering Department

Download Paper |

Conference

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Indianapolis, Indiana

Publication Date

June 15, 2014

Start Date

June 15, 2014

End Date

June 18, 2014

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Programs and Curricula

Tagged Division

Multidisciplinary Engineering

Page Count

10

Page Numbers

24.791.1 - 24.791.10

DOI

10.18260/1-2--20683

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/20683

Download Count

412

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Jane M. Fraser Colorado State University, Pueblo

visit author page

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
BA in mathematics from Swarthmore College and MS and PhD in industrial engineering and operations research from the University of California-Berkeley.

visit author page

author page

Leonardo Bedoya-Valencia Colorado State University, Pueblo

author page

Jude L. DePalma Colorado State University, Pueblo

biography

Nebojsa I. Jaksic Colorado State University, Pueblo Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-1695-790X

visit author page

Nebojsa I. Jaksic received the Dipl. Ing. degree in electrical engineering from Belgrade University in 1984, the M.S. in electrical engineering, the M.S. in industrial engineering, and the Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the Ohio State University in 1988, 1992, and 2000, respectively. From 1992 to 2000 he taught at DeVry University in Columbus, OH. In 2000, he joined Colorado State University-Pueblo, where he is currently a professor and the mechatronics programs director. Dr. Jaksic's interests include robotics, automation, and nanotechnology engineering education and research. He is a member of ASEE, IEEE, SME, and MRS.

visit author page

author page

Ananda Mani Paudel Colorado State University, Pueblo Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4929-501X

biography

Hüseyin Sarper Colorado State University-Pueblo

visit author page

Hüseyin Sarper, Ph.D., P.E. is a professor of engineering and former associate director of Colorado NASA Space Grant Consortium. His degrees, all in industrial engineering, are from the Pennsylvania State University (BS) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (MS and Ph.D.). He is a registered professional engineer in Colorado. His interests include Space, reliability, economic analysis, and renewable energy. He is a member of the Alpha Phi Mu, ASEE, IIE and the MARS Society.

visit author page

biography

Ding Yuan Colorado State University, Pueblo

visit author page

Ding Yuan received the Bachelor of Engineering degree in industrial automation from Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning, China, in 1998 and the Ph.D degree in Electrical Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, in 2006. She is currently an Associate Professor of Engineering at Colorado State University-Pueblo.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Integration of Sustainability in a Multidisciplinary Engineering DepartmentAs a small department with two unique engineering programs, we face challenges in offeringprograms efficiently and in introducing new topics of importance in engineering. Our solutionhas been to take a multidisciplinary approach to each program and to new topics.We illustrate this approach through the integration of sustainability into our programs.Sustainability involves products, processes, and practices that meet the needs of currentgenerations while preserving the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The topic isrelevant to and requires the use of many engineering disciplines. It also requires the integrationof engineering knowledge with knowledge of other disciplines outside engineering.Students need to be presented with topics in sustainability throughout the curriculum, startingwith awareness, and moving to knowledge and application. We present examples of how weaccomplish these different levels in different courses, from introduction to engineering throughthe senior design project. For example, we have introduced a module on sustainability andseveral related in-class labs to the introduction to engineering course. Pre and post tests show anincrease in awareness. At the senior level, we have introduced a requirement for each team toevaluate their proposed solution on sustainability and we have developed a rubric for evaluation.We present rubrics for and the results of assessment and we present future plans for morechanges to the curriculum related to sustainability. We also relate our approach to specific ABEToutcomes.

Fraser, J. M., & Bedoya-Valencia, L., & DePalma, J. L., & Jaksic, N. I., & Paudel, A. M., & Sarper, H., & Yuan, D. (2014, June), Integration of Sustainability in a Multidisciplinary Engineering Department Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20683

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2014 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015