Sustainability in Engineering Education and Research at U.S. Universities

Implementation of CDIO Approach in training engineering specialists for the benefit of sustainable development

“…Some colleagues find it necessary to cooperate tightly with industries to be perfectly aware of their need and structure educational programs accordingly [2]. American researches found their way adapting 12 principles of Green Engineering that can be the basis for educational programs for sustainable development [3] and analyzing how comfortably they are incorporated into the education for sustainability. They also indicate the problem common for Universities around the world -the virtual absence of comprehensive educational programs preparing specialists for sustainable development at all three levels of educational process: Bachelor's, Master's and PhD levels.…”

“…This approach is widely used, as it is consistent with the requirements of international standards (IAE Graduate Attributes and Professional Competences) to the engineering HEI's graduate learning outcomes and competences of professional engineers (www.ieagreements.org/IEA-Grad-Attr-ProfCompetencies.pdf). The CDIO approach allows the design and implementation of BEng programs as a 06003-p. 3 basic engineering education in accordance with the criteria for accreditation of engineering programs in the countries -signatories of the Washington Accord, including the accreditation criteria of the Association for Engineering Education of Russia (AEER) [6]. In some Universities "CDIO concept was regarded as a new model for engineering education whose aims were to develop students' ability of engineering application to solve their employment problems efficiently" [7].…”

Preparing future engineers for challenges of the 21st century: Sustainable engineering

“…The CSE sent out two types of questionnaires to benchmark efforts in SE education and research in the U.S. [2,12]. The first questionnaire was distributed in 2007 to 1368 engineering department and program heads at 364 schools where there was at least one program accredited by ABET (formerly Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology).…”

Manufacturing and the Science of Sustainability

“…on the other, with systems modelers of many persuasions in the middle [1], [2], [3], [4]. Manufacturing, as one of the major sub-systems that connects eco-systems services to human well-being has an important role to play in this new emerging field [5], [6], [7], [8]. In this paper, we review various approaches to understanding the concept of sustainability and compare them to sustainability initiatives in the manufacturing sector.…”