Approach in Education and Research toward Sustainable Development in Amirkabir University of Technol

1
Approach in Education and Research toward
Sustainable Development in Amirkabir University
of Technology (AUT), Iran
M.R. Alavi Moghadam, A. Taher-shamsi, R.
Maknoun Faculty of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology
(AUT), Tehran, Iran M. Sotoudeh Institute of
Technology Assessment, Austrian Academy of
Sciences, Austria
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Introduction

• Sustainable development and Education
• Chapter 36 of Agenda 21 "Promoting Education,
  
• Public Awareness and Training
• Education is critical for promoting sustainable
  
• development and improving the capacity of
  the people
• to address environment and development
  issues.

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Introduction

• Sustainable development and Education
• Universities play a leading role in developing
  a
• multidisciplinary and ethically oriented
  form of
• education designed to devise solutions for
  the
• problems linked to sustainable development
• Education and training are essential components
  in
• the dynamics of environmental protection,
  especially
• in engineering

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Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT)

• AUT was established in 1958 and began
  activities with
• five engineering departments
• At present, AUT offers undergraduate and
• postgraduate programs for more than 6400
  students in
• 132 disciplines

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Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT)

• Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) has
  chosen
• the strategy pioneer of sustainable
  development in
• Iran for the next decade.
• It was approved for AUT to be Green
  University in
• 2003 in Iran

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New Educational Programs In AUT

• AUT, as one of the main technical universities
  in Iran
• has adopted several strategies to modify its
  
• engineering education program for all levels
  
• Engineering education systems of AUT is going
  to be
• modified in order to cover the entire
  concept of
• sustainable development

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New Educational Programs at AUT
Main strategies of AUT
Strategy 1 Start of Environmental Engineering
Course (MS Degree)
Strategy 2 Content change of some traditional
courses
Strategy 3 Addition of new lectures for all BS
students
Strategy 4 Establishment of Environmental
Research Institute
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New Educational Programs at AUT
Strategy 1 Environmental Engineering Course (MS
Degree)

• Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
  faculty of AUT has established MS degree of
  environmental engineering since 2003 .
• At the same time, the name of Civil Engineering
  Faculty changed to Civil and Environmental
  Engineering (CEE) Faculty .

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New Educational Programs at AUT
Strategy 1 Environmental Engineering Course (MS
Degree) Fields of study
Water and wastewater
Water resources
Solid waste management
Air Pollution
Environmental Management
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New Educational Programs at AUT
Strategy 2 Content change of some traditional
courses

• The traditional environmental engineering lecture
  has
• been presented in the CCE and Chemical
  Engineering
• (CE) faculties for a long time at AUT
• During the last 3 years, a considerable part of
• environmental engineering lecture has been
  devoted to items related to sustainable
  development

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New Educational Programs at AUT
Environmental Engineering course (new Contents)
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New Educational Programs at AUT
Environmental Engineering

• Class projects main campus of AUT is considered
  as a large laboratory and almost all class
  projects are emphasized on the campus issues such
  as air pollution, sound pollution, pollution
  prevention, and hazardous waste management.
• The students have gained interesting experiences
  with sustainable development idea during their
  study

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New Educational Programs at AUT
Strategy 3 Addition of new lectures for all BS
students
Environmental Engineering
Green design
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New Educational Programs at AUT
Environmental Engineering

• It was distinguished that not only the students
  of civil and chemical engineering, but also other
  undergraduate students must know some basic
  information and concepts about their environment
  and sustainable development concepts

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New Educational Programs at AUT
Green design (syllabus)
it is necessary for all new engineers to know new
concepts about green design especially in their
fields. For example, a civil engineer must have a
basic knowledge about green material, sustainable
building design and green operation and
maintenance.
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New Educational Programs at AUT
Green design contents in CEE Faculty
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New Educational Programs at AUT
Strategy 4 Establishment of Environmental
Research Institute (IER)

• ERI was established in 2002 in order to promote
  
• research and development in the fields related
  to
• environmental issues as well as
  multidisciplinary
• research on sustainable development in Iran
• Collaboration with AUT faculties, other local and
  
• International universities, research
  institutes and
• organizations, which are dealing with
  environmental
• fields, are the important duties of ERI.

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New Educational Programs at AUT
Challenge of the change

• Driving forces for change at AUT
• Iran government encouragement
• AUTs chancellor and board encouragement and
  staffs interest
• Students needs and interest

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New Educational Programs at AUT
Challenge of the change

• obstacles
• budget limitation
• Lack of knowledge and experience
• Resistance of some people for any change
• Difficulties in official procedure for the change
  of educational system.

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Summary

• Although a lot of effort is accomplished at AUT
  in
• order to reach to the final goals toward
  sustainable
• development, but there are several barriers
  within this
• way
• Lack of knowledge and experience regarding to
  these
• types of activities is one the main obstacle
  in this way.
• It is necessary for us to use the useful
  experience
• of other universities which are pioneer of SD
  

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Thanks for kind attention