The Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Program at the University of Cincinnati

Transcription

1 Undergraduate Program at the!!!!!! University Replace me of with Cincinnati the correct by Mingming header information Lu, Margaret!!!!!! Kupferle, and Tim Keener UC students on a field trip to a local utility. The Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Program at the University of Cincinnati An overview of the undergraduate environmental engineering program at the University of Cincinnati, which was established in 2012.

2 In the 1880s, Cincinnati was the largest city in Ohio. It was the industrial center for metal works and meat packing, and was a transportation hub for railways and river boats. 1 Meanwhile, air pollution, mainly in the form of smoke, became a byproduct of the city s development and prosperity. The nation s first smoke abatement office was established in Cincinnati, OH. In 1925, work at the laboratory of the U.S. Public Health Service led to the publication of public health bulletin No. 146, A Study of the Pollution and Natural Purification of the Ohio River, by H.W. Streeter and E.B. Phelps. This landmark paper developed and demonstrated the first physically based mathematical model for predicting concentrations of dissolved oxygen in natural water bodies. Many consider this seminal contribution to mark the start of environmental engineering, and Cincinnati as the birthplace of environmental engineering. Smoke continued to plague Cincinnati as a major health nuisance for years. This also resulted in many studies, public awareness, and leaders in air pollution control. Charlie Gruber, who started his career as a Chief Smoke Inspector in 1938, was such an example. He became the first president of the then newly renamed Air Pollution Control Association (APCA; a precursor to A&WMA) in Mr. Gruber was hired by the University of Cincinnati (UC) to develop the air pollution control program in The smoke abatement office then evolved into the Hamilton County Department of Table 1. A sample EnvE curriculum. Source:

3 Environmental Services (HCDOES), which is the contractor of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in managing air and waste issues in the counties of Hamilton, Butler, Clermont, and Warren. The air quality monitoring and permitting of the HCDOES is now the Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency. In 1975, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) opened a major research laboratory adjacent to the UC campus. The primary missions of this federal laboratory are to perform pioneering work into the collection, treatment and distribution of municipal drinking water, wastewater and storm water. The rich resources in environmental protection enabled the growth of the environmental engineering program at UC, which emerged from serving as a specialty area of traditional civil engineering to becoming one of the most well-known environmental engineering graduate programs in the nation. UC s Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Program UC s Environmental Engineering and Science (EES) used to be a graduate program housed within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. It was ranked second in the nation by the Gourman Report (1997), and was consistently listed among the top 20 U.S. environmental engineering programs by the U.S. News and World Report rankings until the 2010s. As a result of college reorganization at UC in 2009, the EES program became separated from civil engineering. Due to the increasing demands for environmental engineering students in the job market, as well as the national trend toward the establishment of undergraduate programs in environmental engineering, the undergraduate environmental engineering program at UC was established in the fall of This change also coincided with UC s conversion from Table 2. Example syllabus. EnvE 4011 (Introduction to) Air Pollution Brief Course Description: 3hrs. In this introductory course, the formation, atmospheric transport of air pollutants, and the associated air quality issues at various scales will be discussed. The impacts of anthropogenic air pollutants on human health, economy and the ecosystems will also be discussed. Pollution prevention and control technologies will be presented. Pollutant measurement and air quality regulations will be discussed with examples from students and a local air quality agency. Student Learning Outcomes: After talking EnvE 4011, Introduction to Air Pollution, the students should be able to Develop a basic understanding of the chemical and physical properties of critical air pollutants, and the resultant impacts on human health and the environment/ecosystem. Understand atmospheric transport of air pollutants. Understand various air quality issues, from local to global scales, and the causes, impact and remediation associated with these issues. Develop a basic understanding of technologies used to prevent or control air pollutant emissions, including process operations, process design, and limitations In addition, students will also develop effective written and presentation skills in finding solutions to engineering problems, develop an understanding of the evolvement of the environmental engineering profession, and understand fundamental principles of engineering design through various activities in this course. Prerequisite: material balance (Ch.E or EnvE 345) or equivalent Breadth of Knowledge (BoK) Areas: critical thinking, knowledge integration Textbook: Air Pollution Control: A Design Approach by C. David Cooper, F. C. Alley, Publication Date: September 1, 2010, ISBN-10: X, ISBN-13: , Edition: 4, Waveland press. Earlier editions of the book are acceptable (such as the 3rd or 2nd), but the students are responsible for finding the correct homework assignments. Helpful websites: the US EPA s website and the Southwest Ohio Air Agency site. Course Materials: Blackboard will be used to post most class materials with the exception of class notes. Blackboard functions used include syllabus and course document, and learning modules (for hwk). Course Contents: Introduction: atmospheric composition, major air pollutants, major sources and air pollution control program history Air pollutant transport and dispersion Air quality issues at various scales and locations Control and prevention of gaseous pollutants from stationary and mobile sources Control and prevention of particulate matter from stationary and mobile sources

4 Undergraduate Program at the!!!!!! University Replace me of with Cincinnati the correct by Mingming header information Lu, Margaret!!!!!! Kupferle, and Tim Keener Table 3. EnvE curriculum by ABET cluster. Note: Terms refer to semesters and columns are grouped according to ABET categories. Both solid and dashed lines are prerequisites. an academic quarter system to a semester system. As of today, the program is housed in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, College of Applied Engineering and Science (CEAS) at the University of Cincinnati ( The first class of seniors graduated in April 2017 with Bachelors of Science in Environmental Engineering (EnvE). Currently, there are 13 EES faculty across the specialty areas: 2 in air quality, 4 in hydro- systems, and the rest in water and wastewater. The faculty members are also engaged in energy, waste, and nanotechnology research. Unlike graduate admission, which is determined by the program, undergraduate student admission is administered by the University s Office of Admissions with assistance from the CEAS Undergraduate Enrollment Office. The minimum criteria to enter this program include ACT of 23, ACT math of 24, and a GPA of 3.3. For the past five years, the average ACT of EnvE freshmen is around 28, with ACT math at 28 and GPA around 3.6. Students transfer into the program from undecided engineering programs, as well as from other schools. UC is on a trimester system, with 14-week for each semester, in order to accommodate co-op requirements. Due to the co-op requirement, the undergraduate curriculum in CEAS is designed for five years. 3 Environmental engineering undergraduate students need to complete 128 credit hours of courses and 3 5 co-op semesters before graduation. Students start to participate in the co-op program during their sophomore, pre-junior, and junior years, alternating between work semesters and on-campus academic semesters beginning in the spring of their sophomore year. Table 1 shows the most recent curriculum for the program, which is posted online, and also given to each student to manager his/her study at UC. Table 2 is an example syllabus of a course relevant to the A&WMA community: (Introduction to) Air Pollution. Table 3 shows the courses by ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology Inc.) clusters, as well as connections of various courses. Continued improvement has been made to this curriculum from other similar undergraduate programs in the US to align better with ABET requirements. In summary, students in EnvE will receive 42 hours of math and basic science courses with laboratory, 56 hours of general engineering science and design courses, and 18 hours of general education (including economics, English composition, and technical writing). EnvE students are prepared for engineering practice by conducting a capstone design project in their senior year, which totals 6 credit hours of senior design for two semesters. Lectures are provided on practical design methods and external speakers provide awareness on current topics. Students selfselect into groups of three or four to solve real world design problems. They will gain experience in preparing project proposals, computation or experimental design, economic analysis, and report writing, with a final presentation to faculty and external engineering judges. The EnvE program offers three tracks for undergraduates: Water Quality, Hydro-Systems, and Air Quality, all are in the context of Sustainability. Students are required to select at least 15 credit hours of environmental electives during

5 Many consider Cincinnati to be the birthplace of environmental engineering their senior year. They should select two courses from two out of three EnvE focus areas (e.g., Air/Hydrology, Air/ Water or Hydrology/Water), and also one sustainability elective. The goal is to provide students with in depth understanding of the environmental engineering field. In addition, an environmental engineering minor is also offered to CEAS students, in Aerospace, Biomedical, Chemical, Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Students need to take 9 10 credit hours of courses from the environmental engineering program in order to receive the certificate. Similar to other CEAS programs, co-op experience greatly facilitated job placements of undergraduate students in EnvE. The students also have opportunities to participate in research through programs such as Women in Science and Engineering, NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates, and NSF S-STEM. The ungraduated students established their own professional society, the Society of Environmental Engineers, and have organized student-faculty exchange activities for the past two years. Summary UC s EnvE program just received ABET evaluation with no deficiencies, which is a great outcome for such a new program. The EnvE undergraduate program is growing steadily from 13 in the class of 2017 to 42 in the class of 2021, with more than 50 incoming freshman in 2017/2018. The program is likely to meet the target of 40 enrollments set by the college in the near future. em Mingming Lu, Margaret Kupferle, and Tim C. Keener are all with the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science, at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH. References 1. Chadwick, C. The History of Air Pollution Control in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1996; Available online at /File/EnvironmentalServices/AirQuality/History/Department%20History.pdf (accessed Nov. 2017). 2. Keener, T.C. In memory of an air pollution control pioneer, Charles W. Gruber, ; J. Air & Waste Manage. Assoc. 2003, 53 (10), Bishop, P.L.; Keener, T.C.; Kukreti, A.R.; Kowel, S.T. The ACCEND program: a combined BS and MS program in environmental engineering that includes co-operative work experience; Water Sci. Tech. 2004, 49, In Next Month s Issue Waste Management The March and April issues will focus on the various aspects of sustainable waste management, including waste prevention/ minimization, recycling, and beneficial re-use of waste materials, energy recovery from waste, and disposal practices such as modern landfilling.