Energy and Sustainability

ENGRD 251
Engineering for a Sustainable Society
Case studies of contemporary environmental issues including pollutant distribution in natural systems, air quality, hazardous waste management, and sustainable development. Emphasis is on the application of mathematics, physics, and engineering sciences to solve energy and mass balances in environmental sciences. Students are introduced to the basic chemistry, ecology, biology, ethics, and environmental legislation relevant to the particular environmental problem.

ENGRI 113, CEE 113
Sustainability Design for Appledore Island
The course utilizes a unique environment, Appledore island, as an example of how sustainability is addressed in the design of basic components of the built environment; energy, water supply and waste treatment. Students will present preliminary designs of sustainable systems to the engineering staff of Appledore Island. Students learn how to design: reservoirs to provide water during droughts, aqueducts to transport water, and water treatment plants to prevent waterborne diseases. The course includes field trips, building a computer-controlled miniature water  treatment plant, and exploring new technologies for making safe drinking water.

BEE 401
Renewable Energy Systems
Introduces energy systems with emphasis on quantifying costs and designing/optimizing renewable energy systems to convert environmental inputs into useful forms of energy. Covers solar energy, small-scale hydropower, wind, bio-conversion processes, house energy balances. Focuses on the technologies and small-scale system design, not policy issues. Use of spreadsheets is extensive.

BEE 487
Sustainable Energy Systems  
Offers a systems approach to understanding renewable energy systems (solar, wind, and biomass) and their conversion processes, from various aspects of biology, physics, engineering, environmental impacts, economics, and sustainable development.

CEE 455
AguaClara: Sustainable Water Supply Project
Student teams conduct research, build working models, design full-scale prototypes, create design algorithms, and create educational materials for technology transfer to improve drinking water quality in Honduras.

CEE 665
Environment/Energy and Transportation Planning and Management
The course focuses on the nexus of transportation and environment, energy, and climate-change concerns. It is interdisciplinary: drawing upon transportation, environment, urban planning, statistics, economics, and policy. The course covers both the theoretical and practical aspects of relevant topics including mobile emissions inventory estimation, renewable fuels, air quality impact and life cycle benefit assessment of alternative fuels/vehicles, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and urban sprawl, and congestion mitigation and air quality (CMAQ). Students will apply course materials to realworld cases and projects.