Progress on the SMART-CN Education Modules for Engineering Curriculum
Debalina Sengupta, Yinlun Huang, Thomas F. Edgar, Cliff I. Davidson, Mario R. Eden, Mahmoud M. El-Halwagi*
* corresponding author, el-halwagi@tamu.edu
The Sustainable Manufacturing Advances in Research and Technology (SMART) project funded by National Science Foundation aims to bridge the gap between academic knowledge discovery and industrial technology innovation for sustainable manufacturing. The SMART project involves a multidisciplinary team which has created an interdisciplinary and international Research Coordination Network (RCN) through the joint effort among a number of leading academic laboratories, centers, non-government organizations, and major manufacturing industries.
Meeting the educational goals of the SMART CN has begun through the creation of research coordination among member universities and developing online modules specific to sustainable manufacturing. These modules are highly structured class room ready materials for use by instructors at undergraduate or graduate level. These modules can also be used by industrial entities aiming to further their knowledge in sustainable manufacturing through self-study.
The presentation will provide an overview of this educational component of the project with emphasis on the ongoing development of modules supported by computer tools for incorporation into engineering curriculum. These modules include topics like life cycle assessment, green design and engineering, green chemistry, process intensification, process integration, optimization, process safety etc. among the core module elements and can be adopted by chemical, mechanical, civil, environmental and other engineering disciplines. Extensive case studies demonstrating these concepts are also provided for classroom teaching, homework assignments and term projects. The modules already available through the CACHE website have been reviewed by corporate sustainability teams, as well as academic instructors. This presentation also discusses future plans for module development and dissemination.
Reference: http://cache.org/super-store
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