(454f) Progress on the SMART-CN Education Modules for Engineering Curriculum

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