The innovative development of sustainable technologies in undergraduate programs: Case study? Bio-diesel Project

Abstract

Sustainable principles and the so-called "green" technologies apply to all building systems from planning to design and from construction to operations and deconstruction. The construction industry has recently realized the necessity of having their engineers to get acquainted with green building practices. In this paper, a project has been developed and is aimed at developing two pedagogical models within the curriculum; one is to cover the theoretical and practice-oriented sustainability components, and the other is for implementing applied research in the area of sustainability. Many students undertook both models during their program of study and as a result reaped the benefits of their developed skills in a fairly new realm of engineering, i.e. sustainable engineering and green construction. The outcomes of implementing these two models were visible and appeared in the students' efforts to create and invent new products, some of which have been already built and utilized by them. Some of the students who decided to continue their exposure and hands-on experiential learning in this field have completed the development of a working prototype to produce bio-diesel fuel as an example. This paper summarizes the development stage of the contents of such courses in engineering that led to innovative products and to a positive empirical scholarship. This paper provides presents the outcomes of such combined pedagogical and scholarship encounter along with the lessons learned. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.