Search

Introduction: Environmental education (EE) has been extensively studied and promoted in Latin America, particularly in Colombia, through educational policies and regulations at all educational stages. While EE is well-established, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is gaining increasing global importance, especially with the advent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite this, there remains a lack of knowledge, application, and research of ESD within engineering programs in higher education. This study aims to explore these gaps and assess the acceptance of ESD compared to EE among engineering students in Colombia. Methods: A survey was conducted among 406 engineering students from eight universities in Colombia that offer undergraduate engineering programs. The survey included both Likert scale questions and open-ended questions. The objective was to measure students' knowledge and perception of ESD, identify the roots of EE within engineering programs, and evaluate the progressive integration of ESD in these curricula. Results: The results revealed the deep-rooted presence of EE in Colombian engineering programs and a gradual incorporation of ESD into these curricula. However, significant gaps were identified. The majority of students demonstrated limited knowledge of ESD and Sustainable Development (SD). Furthermore, there was a noticeable lack of academic areas or subjects within the engineering curriculum that specifically promote the knowledge and application of ESD. Students' responses also highlighted the unusual convergence between EE, a traditionally conservationist field, and ESD, which is more developmentoriented. Discussion: This research identifies several critical challenges faced by engineering education in Colombia. The limited awareness of ESD among students suggests a need for enhanced integration of sustainable development concepts within engineering curricula. The lack of academic subjects dedicated to ESD further exacerbates this issue. Based on these findings, a transition strategy is proposed to bridge the gap between EE and ESD in Colombian higher education. This strategy aims to provide a smoother transition and better integration of sustainable development principles within engineering programs, ultimately supporting the development of engineers equipped to address contemporary global challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering education is pivotal in driving sustainable development forward, yet many engineers encounter hurdles stemming from insufficient preparation for sustainability challenges. A major factor contributing to this is the lack of a structured and practical framework to guide the integration of sustainability into engineering education. This study addresses this gap by presenting a system-based framework tailored to ‘engineering education as sustainable development.’ The framework outlines a dynamic and inclusive organisational system, incorporating inputs from key stakeholders, a value-and-belief subsystem, throughput processes, and resultant outcomes. These outcomes encompass the cultivation of a new cohort of engineering graduates equipped with sustainable development knowledge, skills, and values/attitudes, thereby fostering the sustainable well-being and prosperity of all stakeholders involved. Additionally, the study examines the intricate relationships, including feedback loops, among system components and concludes by offering insights for practitioners to consider for future action and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability research findings are imperative to reach a wide audience but are often hard to interpret for the general public because of their complex and interdisciplinary nature. Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging tool in education and research dissemination that can make information more accessible and engaging. This case study leveraged VR, gamification theory, and art design to develop an immersive experience that educates the general public with environmental engineering and sustainability knowledge. Through a series of informative and interactive games, this experience presented scientific findings while providing realism and entertainment throughout. This paper presents step‐by‐step guidelines for transferring engineering knowledge into a pedagogical VR experience, including human–computer interactions, storyboard development, data visualization, and gamification theory implementation. Participants provided positive feedback on the learning experience and stated that the experience sparked a curiosity to learn more about sustainability concepts. Improving opportunities for future development proposed during beta‐testing were also documented to guide future development. This case study contributes to the body of knowledge by validating the feasibility and effectiveness of incorporating VR and gamification theory in engineering education. Practically, the proposed development procedure can be implemented in various engineering education contents and scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim of assisting students in acquiring the practical knowledge required for sustainable engineering practices, a new intervention method in the form of flipped micro-modules was developed. The perceived quality of the flipped micro-modules and their relationship with the students' attitudes towards using them were then evaluated using an extended technology acceptance model (TAM-extended model). The quality of the flipped micro-modules was measured based on three aspects: the quality of the framework, the quality of the content, and the quality of the operation. The findings revealed that the students considered the framework of the flipped micro-modules to be the most important aspect. The findings also demonstrated that the flipped micro-modules have the potential to improve engineering education and prepare students for future sustainable engineering practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global challenges regarding climate changes, food and energy resources security, poverty and human rights have received serious attention in the recent years. The solutions provided by policy-makers and researchers have clearly not been able to be effective on a global scale. For instance, nearly one-third of the world's population do not have enough access to safe drinking water, the devastating effects of global warming pose threats to environment and people's health and relative poverty and conflicts have spread in many parts of the world. These situations alert global and futuristic perspectives to the sustainable development. Since the concept of sustainability is inherently complex with interdisciplinary nature including economic, environmental and social aspects, it requires sustainable development education in all fields of university study, especially for engineering students. By describing the characteristics of sustainable engineering education and a domestic and foreign literature review in this field, this article tries to provide a scheme to include the interdisciplinary aspects of sustainable development in the curriculum of engineering students. In this regard, the subject of an integrated course was proposed and analyzed with emphasis on strengthening the social knowledge of engineers and increasing their ability to find and understand the mutual effects of different aspects of sustainability. It was argued that such a subject could prepare future engineers to confront and find sustainable solutions to the complex challenges of the modern world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability tools should be taught to civil engineers to make the most sustainable engineering decisions in projects. This study is conducted mainly to compare the application of the sustainability approach in civil engineering education in Iran and some developed countries. In this study, the investigated factors are measured using the comparative-descriptive method. In this regard, the importance of sustainability education is discussed in addition to examining the views of domestic and foreign professional organizations. Besides, some solutions for sustainability education in civil engineering are provided by describing sustainability education topics in some world-class universities and comparing them with the approved civil engineering education program in Iran. Studies show that the educational programs of the country's higher education centres can be revised in some aspects to teach sustainability concepts. Sustainability concepts should be taught operationally by modifying and updating teaching methods and connecting students with industry and knowledge-based companies. In this way, students will get the necessary preparation to apply these concepts in the design, construction, and operation of civil infrastructure after passing the relevant courses. The quality of teaching sustainability tools and concepts can be improved by using interactive and encouraging approaches and group activities of civil students and engineers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education of engineers and other professionals to address the global grand challenge of sustainable food production will require much more than excellent technical skills. New mindsets, human-centered design principles, and collaborative leadership skills will be required to develop leaders who will be successful in addressing the complex political, economic, and societal challenges inherent in sustainable agriculture and food production today. This will require supplementing--not replacing--the technical core of engineering education with new pedagogical models and extracurricular experiences. One such model that has proven effective in this area and has spread to nearly 100 universities globally is the Grand Challenges Scholars Program. This article explains how the complexities of agriculture and food production today can be addressed by future engineering leaders based on this program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to discuss how the theory of complex thinking can be considered an interesting element in engineering education, especially in the context in which challenges toward sustainable development are multidisciplinary. Design/methodology/approach: This viewpoint synthesizes the main reflections and discussions generated during a process of debate, research and creation of a proposal for an undergraduate engineering course at a higher education institution in Brazil. The literature on engineering education, sustainability and complexity was considered in an integrated way. Debates were conducted considering the authors' knowledge and experience as professors of engineering courses and researchers in the field of sustainability. A qualitative and reflexive approach was used to organize the main discussions. Findings: The prevailing classical engineering paradigm trains professionals to think from a Cartesian, reductionist perspective, appropriate for solving well-structured problems with known solution paths and convergent answers. However, addressing sustainability challenges requires a different kind of thinking capable of dealing with situations characterized by uncertainty, emergence and incompleteness of knowledge. Complexity thinking can be useful for this purpose as it provides a broad system approach to deal with ill-defined, ill-structured and unpredictable problems. This study can be understood as a call to researchers and professionals to consider the value and importance of complexity thinking to advance engineering education for sustainability. Originality/value: The need to overcome the limits of the classical engineering paradigm is emphasized in the context of sustainability. Complex thinking is considered as a path toward a paradigm shift in engineering education for sustainability. It can contribute to the training of professionals to face pressing challenges now and in the future. This viewpoint provides some insights to enhance debates on education engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze how a tangram activity improved students' abilities to explain sustainability, articulate a positive perception of sustainable design and relate sustainability with innovation in engineering design. Design/methodology/approach: The concept of paradigm shift was introduced in the classroom by using a tangram activity to help students understand that sustainable design requires out-of-the-box thinking. Instructors from three institutions teaching various levels of sustainability courses to engineering majors used the activity to introduce sustainable design, then measured the understanding and appreciation of the concepts introduced through the tangram activity with pre- and post-activity surveys. Findings: Findings from the study indicate that students' perceptions of sustainability significantly improved due to the activity, without regard to the institution. The activity also significantly improved students understanding of the connection between sustainability and innovation, across all three institutions, across all majors and across all years of study except second-year students. Improving engineering students' views on sustainability may lead, over time, to changes in the industry, in which environmental performance is incorporated into the engineering design process. Originality/value: Active learning approaches are needed for affective-domain learning objectives in the sustainability field for students to learn the necessary attitudes, values and motivations to implement sustainability in engineering design. Simple, easily implemented active learning techniques, such as the tangram activity presented here, can be implemented across the curriculum or to the public to introduce the paradigm shift necessary with sustainable design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the differences in first-year and senior engineering students' engineering agency beliefs and career goals related to sustainable development. The authors also sought to understand how topics related to sustainable development in engineering courses affect senior engineering students' goals to address these issues in their careers. This work provides evidence of how students' agency beliefs may be shaped by higher education, which is essential to workforce development. Design/methodology/approach: Findings stem from two national surveys of engineering first-year (Sustainability and Gender in Engineering, n = 7,709) and senior students (Student Survey about Career Goals, College Experiences, n = 4,605). The authors compared both groups using pairwise testing by class standing. Findings: The results indicate that undergraduate studies tend to reinforce students' engineering agency beliefs to improve their quality of life and preserve the environment. Significantly more senior students selected career goals to address environmental issues compared to first-year students. In general, students undervalue their roles as engineers in addressing issues related to social inequities. Those topics are rarely addressed in engineering courses. Findings from this work suggest discussing sustainability in courses positively impact setting career goals to address such challenges. Research limitations/implications: The study compares results from two distinct surveys, conveyed at different periods. Nonetheless, the sample size and national spread of respondents across US colleges and universities are robust to offer relevant insights on sustainable development in engineering education. Practical implications: Adapting engineering curriculum by ensuring that engineering students are prepared to confront global problems related to sustainable development in their careers will have a positive societal impact. Social implications: This study highlights shortcomings of engineering education in promoting social and economic sustainability as related to the engineering field. Educational programs would benefit from emphasizing the interconnectedness of environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development. This approach could increase diversity in engineering education and the industry, and by ripple effect, benefit the communities and local governance. Originality/value: This work is a first step toward understanding how undergraduate experiences impact students' engineering agency beliefs and career goals related to sustainability. It explores potential factors that could increase students' engineering agency and goals to make a change through engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we present electronic engineering as a discipline called to propose solutions to achieve energy sustainability. This field of knowledge has been supported to accelerate energy consumption with technological contributions to al low the comfort s of the modern world. Consequently, electronics has influenced advances such as transport systems, innovations in means of communication, automation of production, domotics, and all direct impacts in the economic, political, and educational sectors. In the same way, it is then possible for electronic technology to promote development both in generating energy resources in a sustainable way and by reducing micro and macro consumption. Up to now, engineering education has promoted scientific and technological training to provide solutions that address the different needs of society, including alternative energy transformation systems. However, it has not been concerned with including in each lesson an awareness of energy efficiency and developing solutions based on sustainable use of energy. Up to now, engineering education has promoted scientific and technological training to provide solutions that address the different needs of society, including alternative energy transformation systems. Nevertheless, it has not been concerned with including in each lesson an awareness of energy efficiency and developing solutions based on sustainable use of energy. As a resource of help, we propose in this work the inclusion of "energy competences" in each topic and learning space from an Electronic Engineering program. The work presented shows that it is possible to include energy competences in electronic engineering curricula as a part of an educational sustainable social commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to analyse how the materials selection courses of engineering undergraduate programmes can be better aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Design/methodology/approach: Initially, a content analysis was performed in 39 materials selection course descriptions from 40 engineering undergraduate programmes of Brazilian higher education institutions, and subsequently, Delphi method procedures were conducted with professors that teach or have taught the course and are knowledgeable in the subject of sustainability. Findings: Considering the analysed course descriptions, it was shown that most of the materials selection courses do not consider or present little emphasis on sustainability aspects. Regarding the Delphi method, eight items were evidenced to consider sustainability aspects in the analysed courses. Originality/value: This study contributes to the debates about sustainability insertion in engineering undergraduate programmes. More specifically, the findings presented consolidated information that professors and coordinators can use to align materials selection courses with the SDGs better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial ecology and sustainability education have evolved over time, as this relatively new discipline has emerged and has been refined. Courses engaging with these topics are often found in engineering departments, and feature project or problem‐based learning (PBL) commonly with an industrial partner. This provides students the opportunity to apply the topics that they have learned in class in a real‐world situation, complete with the constraints and uncertainties inherent in practice. Community‐based learning (CBL), a combination of service learning and PBL, allows students to not only apply the material from a sustainability course, but also to do so in service of a community partner. This work presents an analysis of a multi‐year effort in teaching a CBL course on the topic of industrial ecology and sustainability in a North American context. Knowledge probes are utilized to quantify student preparation for the course and confidence in knowledge gained during the course in a longitudinal manner. Meanwhile, evolving student reflection is utilized to assess the impact of how the CBL element of the course influenced student thinking about the role of sustainability and industrial ecology within engineering education. The findings suggest that applying CBL to industrial ecology education has the potential to further enhance student learning experiences, while also providing a valuable service experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The master's seminar "Competencies for Social and Sustainable Engineering Design" at RWTH Aachen University is part of the study programs Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Engineering. Focusing on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), this course covers, teaches and reflects relevant competencies for socially responsible and sustainable engineering design. Following a research-orientated focus, the following research question was addressed: "Which competencies are considered relevant by future engineers in the context of sustainable and socially responsible engineering design?". The purpose of this paper is to present this approach and, on the basis of the seminar, to explain how relevant competencies for socially responsible and sustainable engineering design can be acquired by engineers. Moreover, the seminar concept is explained and a methodology for teaching the aforementioned topics is described that can also be transferred to other courses. The evaluation of course-specific feedback allows to present both conclusions and corresponding solution approaches, as well as challenges associated with the concept. Results show that engineering students call for competencies which go beyond pure technical knowledge, and, at the same time, determine that these competencies, like social competencies, are missing in their studies. Accordingly, this leads to implications for future curricula development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Environmental sustainability and social contexts are becoming increasingly important concepts. The infusion of sustainability and humanitarian engineering (HE) into the academic core curriculum is often challenging. This study aims to provide an understanding of students' perceptions and attitudes toward the incorporation of active learning of sustainability and humanitarian concepts into engineering education. Design/methodology/approach: A project-based sustainability course was developed and offered to engineering undergraduates. A HE international field experience was also provided to students as an extracurricular activity. Pre- and post-surveys were conducted to assess students' perceptions and attitudes toward sustainability and HE project learning experience. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine the statistical significance of the results and demographic influences on students' experiences. Findings: Both project-based and international field learning experiences positively influenced the students' perceptions of sustainable practices, social change and appreciation of the engineering profession. Multidisciplinary learning also helped students become more motivated, engage in sustainability-promoted activities and community work and improve their social interactions. Students gained practical engineering skills that they did not typically receive in traditional classroom settings and recognized the global and social responsibilities that are core to sustainable development education. Originality/value: The study demonstrates a mixed undergraduate educational model in which students acquired sustainability concepts through a project-based engineering course and practiced social responsibility through international HE projects. The findings help engineering educators understand students' perceptions toward sustainability and HE, providing insight into effective curriculum design and strategic inclusion of social responsibility in traditional engineering education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of applying sustainability to the engineering curriculum at a university in China. Design/methodology/approach: A new curriculum, "ethics, involvement and sustainability," was designed and presented to engineering students from an undergraduate major in quality management engineering. This curriculum incorporated knowledge acquisition and skills training into sustainability via various teaching approaches in a mandatory curriculum at Tongling University, China. Pre- and post-questionnaire surveys, as well as a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model, were adopted to evaluate the changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of respondents before and after curriculum implementation. Findings: Significant changes in knowledge and attitudes were observed following the implementation of the curriculum. In terms of the development of new behaviors, the changes tended to be moderate. Generally, respondents were satisfied with the effectiveness of the new interdisciplinary curriculum post-implementation. Practical implications: Positive results were observed for the pilot and practice of the new engineering education (NEE) strategy at the cooperating university in China. Specifically, the integration of sustainability into curriculum design, implementation and evaluation inspired greater social responsibility in engineering students' decision-making processes. Additionally, it shed light on how to integrate the concept of sustainability into curricula. One limitation of this study was the absence of a comparison group that did not experience the new curriculum. Originality/value: Scant attention has been paid to local universities in the context of the newly-launched NEE strategy. This study provides new insight regarding the implementation of sustainability into engineering curricula and practice via formal, but diversified, teaching approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human world and the biosphere which we inhabit with all other life on earth is a complex socio-ecological system. It is essential to think about the sustainability problem by considering the interventions necessary to achieve our objectives within that system. The paper describes how the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be placed within a systems configuration. In this paper, I outline the development of a dynamic model to explore this system and its plausible trajectories over coming decades and centuries. The results echo the findings of other studies, indicating that urgent action is required to avoid declining average global living standards in the coming century. The key policy interventions required to avoid this are described. The present institutions are insufficient to re-structure the global economy in the timeframe required, meaning that our profession must be elevated in the public discourse, and our voices must become louder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to report on how programme directors address sustainability within engineering education at Swedish universities and engineering colleges. Design/methodology/approach: The study was performed as a survey with follow-up interviews around the following core questions: to what extent do programme directors possess a deep understanding of the subject of sustainable development? Which are the core competencies in sustainable development that programme directors identify as important for their engineering students to acquire during their basic training? To what extent are those competencies integrated into engineering education today and what kind of support do programme directors receive from their department to integrate these competencies into the curriculum? Findings: Programme directors believe that learning for sustainable development is important mainly based on their personal convictions. However, out of 10 potential learning objectives extracted from the literature, only four-six are implemented in degree programmes. Learning objectives and activities are not always aligned, as students are required to learn about interdisciplinary collaboration without working with students from other faculties. The programme directors receive some support from the department, but they express a need for additional support. Examples of support that they suggest are faculty training, efficient teaching material and incorporation of sustainability in the quality assessment instruments for degree programmes. Originality/value: This study is the first comprehensive, national survey of what programme directors think about sustainability in higher education. Their views are important in the attempt to accelerate the integration of sustainability in higher education curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contribution: An analysis of the extent to which sustainability is present in the syllabi, project briefs, report templates, and student final reports of the three Iberian European project semester (EPS) providers, over a five-year period. Background: EPS is a one-semester capstone project framework that adopts project-based learning and multicultural, multidisciplinary teamwork. Educating engineers for sustainable development requires fostering critical and ethical thinking and a desire for equity, solidarity and preservation of natural resources, and cultural and genetic diversity. Existing engineering capstone design programs emphasize solving real world problems, hands-on training, and soft skills, but few focus on sustainability aspects of engineering design. The three Iberian EPS providers adopt project-based learning and teamwork methodologies, promoting the development of transversal skills and addressing sustainability in a multicultural and multidisciplinary background. Intended Outcomes: To show that the three Iberian EPS providers follow these recommendations and contribute to raising students’ awareness of sustainable development. Application Design: The proposed sustainability learning assessment method collects evidence from syllabi, project briefs, report templates, and final reports to extract faculty and student perspectives. The sustainability-related terms collected were processed into word cloud format, allowing a simple and intuitive interpretation of students’ understanding of sustainability, and in co-occurrence network format, to understand if sustainability has a pervasive or confined presence within the reports. Findings: Iberian EPS faculty and students are aware of the social, economic, and environmental impact of their projects, in terms of quality of life, social responsibility, the use of resources, and environmentally friendly technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change risk and environmental degradation are the most critical issues of our society. Our technology influenced daily life style involves many software and apps which are used by large society and their use is increasing than ever before. Sustainability is a significant topic for future professionals and more so for Information Technology (IT) professionals and software engineers due to its impact on the society. It is significant to motivate and raise concern among students and faculty members regarding sustainability by including it into Software Engineering curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to evaluate the engineering students' perception regarding sustainability. For this, a survey was developed based on sustainability parameters from a detailed analysis of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance (BICG). The parameters were initially divided into seven groups: Financial and Productivity Aspects (FPA); Concern With Employees (CWE); Support for Local Communities (SLC); Ethical and Corporate Governance Issues (ECI); Environmental Aspects (ENA); Sustainable Aspects in the Operations Network (SON); Customers, Development of New Products and Services (CPS). The survey was conducted with engineering undergraduate students from two Brazilian universities. The data were analyzed through structural equation modeling technique, namely the PLS-SEM algorithm. The collected 162 answers enabled the validation of the model tested, and showed that the students, in general, do not consider SLC and CWE when they are analyzing sustainability. Additionally, the most important construct was the CPS. This is an exploratory study and we believe that these findings may contribute to expand the debate about the sustainability insertion in engineering courses, helping educators in their didactic activities. There were not found similar studies in the literature, which highlight the originality of the research. The statistical validation of the results and the contribution to expand the debate regarding sustainability in engineering education justify the value of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to present an assessment of the sustainability content of the Nigerian engineering curriculum in universities. Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis is used to generate and analyse data from three engineering documents, namely, the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards for Engineering Programmes in Nigeria and the engineering handbooks of two Nigerian higher education institutions. Findings: The Nigerian engineering curriculum is revealed to have a low sustainability content, with environmental concepts being the most cited themes and social topics as the least stated issues. Research limitations/implications: The sustainability assessment approach adopted in the study is constrained by the question of what constitutes a sustainability syllabus. Expert-derived sustainability themes used in the study are unavoidably incomplete and may limit the conduct of an exhaustive sustainability content assessment. Practical implications: Based on the research outcome, the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria and other stakeholders can consider ways to adequately incorporate sustainability themes in the Nigerian engineering curriculum. Originality/value: The research is an effort to determine the presence of sustainability issues in the Nigerian engineering education, which has hitherto been scarcely documented. This study provides a baseline and a rationale for sustainability education interventions in the Nigerian engineering curriculum. It also presents a methodology for analysing sustainability content in university curriculum and contributes to the continuing sustainability education discourse, especially in relation to sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to deal with the skills for sustainable development in engineering courses. The main objective is to identify which competences should be developed in these courses to contribute to the resolution of conflicts related to sustainability, as well as the means used by universities for their development. Design/methodology/approach: The research is divided into two strands: a theoretical and an empirical one. Concerning the theoretical part, the webibliomining method was adopted, to select the articles that were relevant to the theme, and 22 works were selected. Regarding the empirical study, structured questionnaires were applied to 30 specialists in the field, aiming at validating the competencies found in the literature. Findings: In the literature, eight main competencies required to the engineering professional, related to sustainability, were found. The empirical study showed that some competences are considered more relevant than others by the interviewees. Practical implications: The competencies verified in the present study and the relative relevance between them found in the empirical study can contribute to the engineering courses that wish to develop the sustainable behavior of the engineers in their professional or daily life. Originality/value: The originality of the work consists in presenting to engineering students and teachers as well as professionals of the market and the government the competencies that can contribute to the formation of an engineer capable of bringing adequate solutions to the conflicts of sustainability in the twenty-first century. This paper also presents learning teaching methodologies indicated for this purpose. No other works were found with these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to report on a case study concerning the development of sustainable energy partnerships involving engineering faculty and undergraduate students at the University of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Design/methodology/approach: Faculty were motivated to seek partnerships with public and private entities in the local area for the purposes of realising mutually beneficial outcomes. The educational programmes of future engineers, when sustainability is considered, are analysed. Education for sustainable development has to include multidisciplinary active learning as a desirable competence. Active learning can be obtained when problems are based on real life because they are most motivating for students. Constructive alignment component is obtained because learning objectives are linked with learning activities related to the needs of public and private entities. Findings: Through the provision of technical expertise, the adoption and success of renewable energy projects was facilitated on the one hand, while final year undergraduate students benefited in terms of hands-on experience in helping to bring these projects to life, drawing on the knowledge and skills they had acquired throughout their degree programmes. These works are addressed to students by faculty members with the aim of developing and promoting renewable energies. Outcomes from partnerships surpassed expectations; not only were different benefits realised as were initially hoped for, but this success led to partnerships being sustained over time. Originality/value: Fossil fuel-based energy systems are associated with a myriad of negative environmental and social externalities. It is difficult to overstate the importance of transitioning towards alternative low carbon energy sources for climate change mitigation which are less centralised compared to the status-quo for energy security and energy independence. By actively facilitating the development of decentralised renewable energy sources in Catalonia, the projects reported herein are of significant value in social environmental and educational terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The Mechanical Engineering course at the University of Campinas is composed of different disciplines in the areas of materials, mechanical design, manufacturing (production and manufacturing), computational systems, thermal and fluids. In the manufacturing area, in particular, there is a discipline entitled Productive Systems whose main objective is to offer to the student a global vision about operations management. In the field of operations management, sustainability is gaining more and more importance; thus, it is important to develop in the students a critical sense about social and environmental aspects. Thus, this paper aims to present the main initiatives developed in the discipline to promote sustainability in engineering students. Design/methodology/approach: Since 2015, the professors responsible for the Productive Systems discipline, assisted by post-graduate students and professors from other universities, have begun to redesign the discipline, including debates, lectures, projects and other initiatives to provide a critical view concerning the traditional concepts taught. The discipline has been performed three times with this new conception. The methodology to structure this research was literature review, documental analyses of the discipline records and meetings with professors that participated in the initiatives. An Action Research approach was performed by two professors and a graduate student. The authors of this paper also compared the results with those obtained by initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden). Findings: This study allowed to reinforce some results from initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden); however, some differences were identified. For example, similar to the initiatives mentioned, the professors of University of Campinas had problems with didactic books, as they loosely integrate the basic operations management concepts with sustainable development fundamentals. On the other hand, debates related to social sustainability were considered positive from the point of view of the professors and students, differing from initiatives performed at Chalmers University of Technology. Research limitations/implications: Results come from one field study (University of Campinas) when professors of the Mechanical Engineering course try to integrate operations management concepts and sustainable development. Different results may be observed by other higher education institutions. Practical implications: The authors of this paper believe that the diffusion of these initiatives can stimulate other professors and researchers in the field to broaden the academic debate about the insertion of sustainability into engineering courses. Originality/value: There are few papers presenting didactic experiences and empirical results about the integration of operations management concepts and sustainable development. Results of this paper reinforce some good practices and they also present other ones, in a way that extend the debate about educational engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting excellence in sustainable manufacturing has emerged as a strategic mission in academia and industry. In particular, universities must prepare the next generation of engineers to contribute to the task of sustaining and improving manufacturing by providing appropriate types of sustainability education and training. However, engineering curricula are challenged in delivering educational training for assessing technical solutions from the three domains that define sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. In the research presented here, an educational framework is developed with an aim to improve student understanding of sustainable product design (PD) and manufacturing. The framework is founded on the analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate (ADDIE) model for instructional design. The developed framework is demonstrated using an example of a sustainable PD activity. This instructional design case study illustrates how engineering students would be able to investigate the impacts of raw materials, unit manufacturing processes, manufacturing locations, and design changes on product sustainability performance by integrating PD information and manufacturing analysis methods during the PD phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The engineering profession has been highlighted in the context of a growing need for professionals capable of addressing the pressing challenges of sustainability. The purpose of this study is to present innovative experiences in engineering education for sustainable development in Brazil. This research was conducted in three stages: first, innovative initiatives were mapped through document research, literature review, grey literature, and the press; second, 37 academics who created and/or participated in these initiatives were interviewed, including professors, program coordinators, department heads, engineering school directors, and university chancellors; and third, the initiatives were analyzed and discussed with a team of specialists. The initiatives can be categorized into two types: innovative actions, projects, and structures (i.e., isolated actions, institutional projects, and institutional structure) and engineering programs with innovative characteristics (i.e., innovative curricula and pedagogical approaches, and new organizational paradigms to support engineering schools). Key characteristics, conceptual foundations, examples, and contributions to the sustainable development goals are discussed for each type of initiative. Emerging topics related to engineering education for sustainable development were identified and related to real cases. A shift towards a sustainability paradigm in engineering education is dependent on university top management commitment and can be accelerated by integrating initiatives at multiple levels of the university system. [Display omitted] • Innovative EESD initiatives in Brazilian universities are mapped. • Interviewees held key positions in the main Brazilian engineering schools. • Contributions from EESD initiatives to achieve SDGs are discussed. • Emerging EESD-related topics are identified and linked to real cases. • A systems perspective on innovative EESD initiatives is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Educación en Ingeniería is the property of Asociacion Colombiana de Facultades de Ingenieria and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Characterizing sustainability as a ‘super-wicked’ problem alerts us to issues beyond where current thinking about problem structuring enables engineers to deal with the merely wicked. Time is running out, no one authority is in control, we are the cause of the problem anyway, and we inherently discount the future in our everyday decision-making. When these are added to the usual definitions of wicked and messy problems, which only now are we addressing in engineering education, what are the potential limits and opportunities for the methodology of engineering in sustainability? Some modest extrapolations are discussed, based on the results from a recent research project in addressing energy planning in a city development zone. An analysis from another case study is also presented, which provides some triangulation of the ideas developed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability issues are increasingly important in engineering work all over the world. This article explores systematic differences in self-assessed competencies, interests, importance, engagement and practices of newly enrolled engineering students in Denmark in relation to environmental and non-environmental sustainability issues. The empirical base of the article is a nation-wide, web-based survey sent to all newly enrolled engineering students in Denmark commencing their education in the fall term 2010. The response rate was 46%. The survey focused on a variety of different aspects of what can be conceived as sustainability. By means of cluster analysis, three engineering student approaches to sustainability are identified and described. The article provides knowledge on the different prerequisites of engineering students in relation to the role of sustainability in engineering. This information is important input to educators trying to target new engineering students and contribute to the provision of engineers equipped to meet sustainability challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes and highlights the presentations and discussions that took place during a workshop on sustainable engineering design in both practice and education. Supported by Harvey Mudd College's Center for Design Education, Mudd Design Workshop VI, 'Sustaining Sustainable Design,' was held at Mudd during 29-31 May 2009. This paper describes both the key ideas that emerged from the presentations and discussions of the participating engineering design educators, practitioners and researchers, and the methodology used to capture and retain those ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have illuminated our understanding of the kinds of competencies and behaviors exhibited by effective designers. Against the backdrop of global challenges made more urgent by unintentional negative impacts of engineered products and systems, however, we are left to deduce that our ways of educating engineering designers is fundamentally flawed. We assert that one can trace the cause of our collective, unintended negative consequences to the mental models of reality that we consciously or unconsciously carry. In this paper, we present the case for developing awareness and facility with mental models. We also suggest an alternate mental model as the foundation for sustainable design. This model depicts reality as embedded systems of economies inside society and inside the environment. We also discuss how the engineering educator can use the model to build a foundation for holistically viewing design for sustainability. Student responses to a course based on the proposed ideas are also presented as evidence that students' can value mental models and that working with them effectively changes their world conception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the major undertaking of providing real problems with actual community partners as the basis of design projects for approximately 900 first-year engineering students. The initiative was dubbed the ROXIE project. 'Real Outreach experiences In Engineering'. The goal was to have engineering students work on real projects with actual clients rather than contrived less meaningful projects. Sustainability is a key element in three primary aspects of the ROXIE project. First, numerous projects for the community were directed at finding sustainable solutions to problems around their operation or economic viability. The second sustainability aspect for the ROXIE project involves identifying hands-on activities and associated materials for the once per week workshop sessions associated with the large lecture course. The third aspect of sustainability for the ROXIE project addresses issues of how to sustain and maintain the partnerships and instructional infrastructure of such a large undertaking for the long-term. This paper provides the motivation and greater detail of the background of ROXIE and then expands upon the three aspects of sustaining sustainable design highlighted above. Early results of integrating an area of social significance into design education have been very positive. Reflections from students, community partners and the instructional team are shared. Summary and future plans are also included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many senior engineering capstone projects focus on an open-ended design experience, often ignoring the concept of design sustainability. In contrast, the work reported on in this paper described as multi-disciplinary engineering team that was given the opportunity to research detailed design factors that contribute to sustainable designs. This paper focuses on the reverse engineering and comparison of design sustainability of four consumer inkjet printers using given design metrics that influence sustainability. Some metrics were open to modification, using these case studies and prior research as an empirical benchmark. The capstone team established a teardown and assessment procedure to standardize the reverse engineering process, the apparent antithesis of their pre-conceived notions for the course (students generally think 'to design' is 'to construct'). In a clear effort to convey the current opportunities in designing for sustainability, the students were able to draw insight from the design comparison of a discontinued printer model (manufactured in 2001) with those currently on the market. While one would intuitively expect the older model to rank lower on a sustainability scale, students also theorized opportunities pertaining to both form and functional improvements in sustainability for all printers involved. Using specific design attributes that have proven implications on design complexity, and therefore design [1], the capstone team has developed a database tool to classify and score consumer products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the author's keynote address to a workshop on sustainability and design education held at Harvey Mudd College in May 2009. The remarks draw upon the author's experience applying sustainable design to buildings and communities over the past thirty years of professional engineering practice. Key points include: the need to include 'right brain' concepts into the study of sustainability; the opportunities for increasing sustainable impacts at a community scale (rather than a single building); the need to incorporate holistic 'closed loop' thinking into sustainable design solutions; and the need to provide today's engineering students with tools and concepts that will enable them to expand the application of sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to developing deep knowledge of a single discipline, engineers must also be able to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries and develop interdisciplinary expertise to successfully address the complex challenges of the contemporary workplace. While numerous descriptions of interdisciplinary courses and projects appear in the literature, educators still lack rigorous research about learning barriers, outcomes, and concrete interventions to support this interdisciplinary development. This paper addresses that gap by pairing a review of the literature with a case study of students in a sustainable engineering program to identify the key challenges to success in interdisciplinary contexts. The findings suggest that students (1) lack the ability to connect interdisciplinary subjects to their own more narrowly defined fields of expertise, and (2) fail to identify and value the contributions of multiple fields to complex problems. This paper concludes with possible teaching interventions to address these barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide variety of engineering students and professionals are interested in sustainability issues, but do not come from environmental backgrounds. As a result, courses designed for such students must strike a balance between providing useful environmental and sustainability knowledge and yet remain appropriate for those coming from a non-environmental background This paper outlines such a course that has been taught and refined for the last three years in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Windsor, to a mixed class of civil, mechanical, environmental and industrial engineering graduate students. The paper provides examples and descriptions of what was done in the class and their effectiveness for teaching sustainability, as well as what difficulties were encountered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trends in innovative product design and manufacture require a paradigm shift in traditional methodologies because they are becoming increasingly ineffective for applications built for sustainable timbres. The well-known concept of sustainable development, which is based on sustained growth for environmental, economic and societal benefits, is brought into focus for highlighting the significance of product design and manufacture. The technological challenges posed by the need for implementing innovative design and manufacture call for a need for developing and implementing new educational and training programmes for next generation design and manufacturing engineers. We aim at tackling these challenges with a proposed new curriculum at five different levels. Perpetual material flow and multi life-cyclelmulti-use self-healing materials, innovative product and process design and development are in the core of the proposed design for sustainability educational programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical innovation is necessary but should not be overestimated on the way towards sustainability. Asking ourselves what kind of knowledge and skills engineers need for a more sustainable design of technologies, processes and products, we came to at least three answers: 1) Knowledge about targets and impacts: scientific knowledge about possible impacts on health, safety and the environment and on 'carrying capacities' of socio-ecological systems (sources and sinks); 2) Knowledge about technologies and interventions: methods to analyse and evaluate technologies, processes and products and to design more sustainable and robust solutions; 3) Knowledge about innovation processes, about the complexity of socio-economic systems (e.g. innovation systems) and knowledge about the options for engineers to influence processes within these systems, as well as skills that lend the ability to make optimal use of these options. The curriculum development in the Division of Technological Design and Development at the University of Bremen's Production Engineering Department can thus be summarized by the terms 'impacts', 'methods' and "innovation processes', with a scope that is influenced strongly by the emerging field of industrial ecology. One of the strengths of our research and course programme is the full integration with the rest of the engineering department making both very practice orientated. We attach special importance to the taught knowledge being relevant in everyday engineering practice and implement this, among other things, by complementing our lectures and seminars with field trips, guest speakers from academia and industry, and interdisciplinary student projects in co-operation with other divisions and industry partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new sequence of courses at Carnegie Mellon University exposes students to concepts in the emerging discipline of Sustainable Engineering and prepares them to play leadership roles in the years ahead. This sequence includes four half-semester courses: (1) Introduction to Sustainable Engineering," (2) Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Engineering Design; (3) Life Cycle Assessment, and (4) Case Studies in Sustainable Engineering. Students successfully completing this sequence have an appreciation for the myriad ways in which engineering decisions can affect the environment and for the responsibilities of engineers in helping society cope with future challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]