Synopsis: Workshop on Frontiers in Environmental Engineering Education James Chip Kilduff Rensselaer

1
SynopsisWorkshop on Frontiers in Environmental
Engineering Education James (Chip )
KilduffRensselaer Polytechnic Institute

• AEESP Meeting, Blacksburg VA
• July 28-Aug 1, 2007

2
Acknowledgments

• Sponsors
• NSF, AEESP, AAEE, ASU (SoE, John Crittenden)
• Planning Committee
• Michael Aitken, Patrick Brezonik (ex-officio),
  Michael Butkus, Chip Kilduff, Nicholas Clesceri,
  Raymond Hozalski, Loring Nies, Susan Powers

3
Participants

• Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
• January 8-10, 2007
• 60 Attendees
• Academia
• Range of sizes and missions
• Government (NSF, EPA)
• Professional societies (AAEE, ASEE, NSPE, ASCE,
  AEESP)
• Water and wastewater utilities
• Consulting engineers

4
Workshop Objectives

• Identify Body of Knowledge outcomes
• Identify ways to transform curricula
• In response to Body of Knowledge
• In response to new science and technology
• To bridge environmental literacy gap
• To improve recruitment
• Identify ways to interact with practicing
  engineers
• As input to curriculum change
• As participants in the educational process
• As customers

5
Nomenclature

• Body of Knowledge (e.g., ASCE)
• Alternative Competencies
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Ways of thinking
• Attitudes
• Experience
• Judgment
• Creativity
• May be taught, encouraged, nurtured, illustrated
  by example, etc.

Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Understanding
Knowledge
6
Purpose of BOK - ASCE

• ASCE recognizes that changes in how (Civil)
  engineering is practiced must occur. That change
  is necessitated by
• Globalization sustainability emerging
  technology increased complexity,
  interdisciplinarity
• Development of an aspirational global vision
• Develop policies to move toward realizing this
  vision
• ASCE Policy 465 MS degree or equivalent is a
  prerequisite for licensure and professional
  practice
• Implement such policies in part by defining the
  BOK, which defines what is required to enter the
  practice of civil engineering at the professional
  level (licensure)
• Combines education and experience

7
ASCE Vision

• Entrusted by society to create a sustainable
  world and enhance the global quality of life,
  civil engineers serve competently,
  collaboratively, and ethically as master
• planners, designers, constructors, and operators
  of societys economic and social engine, the
  built environment
• stewards of the natural environment and its
  resources
• innovators and integrators of ideas and
  technology across the public, private, and
  academic sectors
• managers of risk and uncertainty caused by
  natural events, accidents, and other threats and
  
• leaders in discussions and decisions shaping
  public environmental and infrastructure policy.

8
Purpose of BOK

• Provide a strong foundation for further
  development
• A guide for curriculum development and reform
• Create strong identity
• A guide for employers, future students, society
• Define needs for
• BS degree
• Licensure
• Lifelong learning
• A mechanism to call for specific attributes,
  e.g., creativity and innovation
• Enhance recruitment

9
Potential Pitfalls

• Is a BOK really necessary?
• Should a more in depth discussion of who we are
  and where we are going precede BOK development?
• Much progress has been made in the absence of an
  explicit BOK it should not move us backwards
• Resource constraints
• Faculty
• Faculty workload
• Support for new courses
• New evaluation criteria
• Perceived risk of constraining faculty and
  program creativity, independence of too
  prescriptive

10
Uniqueness of EnvEng

• Serve public welfare, health, and safety directly
• Objectives human and ecosystem health
• Prevention, improvement, remediation
• Systems perspectives interactions and
  interfaces
• Engineered system
• Natural systems processes
• Human systems and processes
• Multi-media and their interfaces interactions
• Complex multi-scale systems
• Global perspective
• Environmental ethics
• Risk environmental, reliability

Systems of systems
11
BOK Attributes

• Reflect our responsibility to address grand
  societal challenges for compelling intellectual
  and practical reasons
• Prepare students for an unknown future
• Provide strong fundamentals
• Promote ability to apply principles to new
  problems
• Promote ability to exploit new opportunities
• Must build on a body of knowledge appropriate for
  all engineers
• May be achieved through some combination of BS
  degree, advanced degrees, experience, life-long
  learning

12
Flexibility

• Allow for multiple pathways to achieve BOK
• BOK should allow for future growth in the field
  in ways that we can not imagine at this time
• Promote expansion into new areas
• BOK should provide a good foundation allowing
  career flexibility outside the field

13
Breadth vs Depth

• Provide an appropriate balance between breadth
  and depth
• In science, among engineering disciplines, and
  within environmental engineering
• To enable determination of impacts of solutions
  to engineering problems in a variety of domains
• Economy, public livelihood, human health,
  ecosystems, and function of the earths life
  support systems

14
Professional Practice

• BOK should address competencies beyond those
  required to enter practice or pass PE exam
• Professional practice one of but not the only
  next step in professional development

15
Sustainability Framework
Culture/behavior Policies, politics,
law Industry/agriculture Economics Historical
context
Atmosphere Hydrosphere Lithosphere Biosphere
16
Resource Interactions and Feedback
Natural Sciences (Environmental Science)
Social Sciences Humanities (Environmental
Studies)
Natural Capital
Social Capital
Financial Capital Economics
Technological Capital
Engineering Applied Sciences (Environmental
Engineering)
Will Focht, Oklahoma State University
17
Systems Perspective and Analysis
impacts
Human Systems Culture/behavior Policies,
politics, law Industry/agriculture Economics Histo
rical context
Natural Systems Atmosphere Hydrosphere Lithosphere
Biosphere
uses
Technical Environmental Engineering Systems

• Basic Math/Science
• Biology/Ecology
• Chemistry
• Physics
• Earth Science
• Stats/prob

• Basic Engrg. Science
• Mass/energy/momentum
• Fluid mechanics
• Thermodynamics
• Computation

• Tools
• Fate and transport
• Risk / exposure
• Impacts/benefits analysis
• Industrial ecology
• Env. Chemistry

18
Beyond the Foundation
Skills communication experimentation com
putation teamwork project mgmt information mgmt
Ways of Thinking systems thinking problem
solving design critical analysis critical
evaluation
Attitudes role of technology in
society ethics respect for diversity respect
for democratic public service professional
service sustainability
19
Importance of Creativity

• Tough Choices or Tough Times, NCEE Commission on
  the Skills of the American Workforce

20
Education vs. Training

• Training ? How to do
• Develop contextual skill for enhancing immediate
  productivity
• Education ? How to think and create
• Develop conceptual skill for thinking beyond the
  prevailing paradigm

Courtesy of Dom Grasso, J. Bordogna, NSF
21
Importance of a University Education

• Provides basis for creativity
• Introduces students to
• Major kinds of knowledge
• Major forms of inquiry to develop new knowledge
• Different means of analysis
• Provides intellectual power
• Critical thinking
• Reasoned judgment
• Ability to engage in the great debates that
  define our times
• Necessary for analysis and solution of complex
  problems

22
Conclusions

• Change drivers include globalization
  sustainability emerging technology increased
  complexity, interdisciplinarity
• BOK should
• Provide a sustainability framework
• Promote systems thinking
• Promote creativity
• Provide a strong technical background while
  recognizing the importance of a university
  education