(186b) Incorporating Circular Economy in Chemical Engineering Education: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Students entering universities, will have to live in a world beyond the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Chemical engineers of the future will have to design process and products that fit within sustainable production and consumption (SDG: Goal 12). It is no longer an aspiration, but a reality that achieving economic growth and sustainable development requires that we urgently reduce our ecological footprint by changing the way we produce and consume goods and resources. This requires engineers to understand social, economic, and environmental needs of product including the end of life. Engineering education focuses on technical feasibility of a product, and often lacks the accounting of human interactions with consumer targeted products. PRODUCT X: Innovations for Future Economies Bootcamp is a ground-level initiative of faculty from multiple Universities located in Qatar’s Education City Universities (https://www.qf.org.qa/education/education-city) to engage students with the scope, methods, and principles of interdisciplinary innovation responses to complex issues. It brings together engineering students with students from different majors such as graphic design, business, political science, culture, and sociology across five universities. This bootcamp provides a multiversity platform for students to collaborate in innovating product concepts and system scenarios designed to facilitate socio-technical transitions to future economies that are more sustainable and equitable. This “incubation style” puts together multidisciplinary teams with faculty mentors to form creative, entrepreneurial, and sustainable ideas. The students focused on eliminating or replacing single-use plastic containers products with a sustainable solution. Finding a sustainable solution is complex task that involves addressing consumer behavior, regulations, costs, and footprints. The aim is to promote ‘circular’ thinking in development and consumption, enable students to gain communications skills with other disciplines and provide a holistic understating of sustainable design.