Integrating Sustainable Engineering Principles in Material Science Engineering Education

Author(s):  
Bandita Mainali ◽  
Joe Petrolito ◽  
John Russell ◽  
Daniela Ionescu ◽  
Haider Al Abadi

The increasing demands on earth's resources require the need for engineering disciplines to address the limitations of materials and energy as well as the need to reduce waste production. This requirement is particularly acute for material science engineers as their work has a lasting impact on our future sustainability. Recent developments and innovations in material science can be useful tools for achieving sustainable development, provided material science engineers are aware of the issues. They should be particularly aware of global sustainability challenges, and should be able to understand how they can contribute to the solutions of these problems. Therefore, this chapter discusses how sustainable engineering principles can be introduced into material science education. It also discusses the curriculum for the subject Sustainable Infrastructure that is offered at La Trobe University in Victoria (Australia) for senior Civil Engineering students.

Author(s):  
Bandita Mainali ◽  
Joe Petrolito ◽  
John Russell ◽  
Daniela Ionescu ◽  
Haider Al Abadi

The increasing demands on earth's resources require the need for engineering disciplines to address the limitations of materials and energy as well as the need to reduce waste production. This requirement is particularly acute for material science engineers as their work has a lasting impact on our future sustainability. Recent developments and innovations in material science can be useful tools for achieving sustainable development, provided material science engineers are aware of the issues. They should be particularly aware of global sustainability challenges, and should be able to understand how they can contribute to the solutions of these problems. Therefore, this chapter discusses how sustainable engineering principles can be introduced into material science education. It also discusses the curriculum for the subject Sustainable Infrastructure that is offered at La Trobe University in Victoria (Australia) for senior Civil Engineering students.


Author(s):  
Arkadii Dmitrievich Ursul

The subject of this research research is the resolution of socio-natural contradiction, which consists in the fact that the growing needs of mankind are no longer satisfied by the biosphere, which can escalate into a planetary catastrophe. The resolution of this contradiction consists in the achievement of global sustainability that takes place in accordance with the certain “algorithms of development”, which opens horizons for a long-term and safer socio-natural evolution on Earth. The global world,  although becoming sustainable,  is not isolated from the space processes and factors due to the natural-spatial connection of the planet with its extraterrestrial environment, and even more so, due to the beginning of space exploration. Even the global world created in the future would not long endure without further sustainable space exploration; its longevity would require transition of the industrial complex in the outer space. Thus, the achievement of global sustainability will be accompanied by transition to an even safer type of evolution with focus on reaching geospatial sustainability. The further socio-natural evolution clearly indicated geospatial trend, which connects the vectors of global and extraterrestrial mainlines of sustainable development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iñigo Capellán-Pérez ◽  
David Álvarez-Antelo ◽  
Luis J. Miguel

There is a general need to facilitate citizens’ understanding of the global sustainability problem with the dual purpose of raising their awareness of the seriousness of the problem and helping them get closer to understanding the complexity of the solutions. Here, the design and application of the participatory simulation game Global Sustainability Crossroads is described, based on a global state-of-the-art energy–economy–environment model, which creates a virtual scenario where the participants are confronted with the design of climate mitigation strategies as well as the social, economic, and environmental consequences of decisions. The novelty of the game rests on the global scope and the representation of the drivers of anthropogenic emissions within the MEDEAS-World model, combined with a participatory simulation group dynamic flexible enough to be adapted to a diversity of contexts and participants. The performance of 13 game workshops with ~420 players has shown it has a significant pedagogical potential: the game is able to generate discussions on crucial topics which are usually outside the public realm such as the relationship between economic growth and sustainability, the role of technology, how human desires are limited by biophysical constraints or the possibility of climate tipping points.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8733
Author(s):  
Gisela Cebrián ◽  
Mercè Junyent ◽  
Ingrid Mulà

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflects the urgency to embed the principles of education for sustainable development (ESD) into all levels of education. ESD, understood as an integral part of quality education and where all educational institutions, from preschool to higher education and in non-formal and informal education, can and should foster the development of sustainability competencies. This Special Issue entitled “Competencies in Education for Sustainable Development II” responds to this urgency and the papers presented deliver recent developments in the field of sustainability and ESD competencies. They focus on various perspectives: systematic literature reviews and conceptual contributions; curriculum developments and pedagogical approaches to explore competencies’ development, such as action research, serious games, augmented reality, multi-course project-based learning and group model building processes; testing and validation of assessment tools and processes for linking sustainability competencies to employability and quality assurance processes. The contributions show how the field of sustainability and ESD competencies has become a major focus in recent years and present emerging research developments. Further research efforts need to be put into operationalizing sustainability competencies and developing tools that help measure and assess students’ and educators’ competencies development.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 141
Author(s):  
Marcin Surówka ◽  
Łukasz Popławski ◽  
Helena Fidlerová

The work discusses issues of the infrastructure, its instruments, and specifics of infrastructure in Polish and Slovak rural areas. The aim of this article is to analyze the level of technical infrastructure development in rural regions of the Małopolskie Voivodeship in Poland and the west part of Slovakia—Trnava self-governing region (Trnava region) as two regions with a similar position regarding regional competitiveness index. Following the topic, after identification of strengths and weaknesses of mentioned regions, the opportunities, and threats of sustainable development of infrastructure in rural areas have been analyzed using the SWOT method. The development of sustainable, reliable, and functional infrastructure does not only refer to the chosen regions of Poland and Slovakia but also other regions in the European Union. Sustainable infrastructure is a factor stimulating social and economic progress as one of the most important determinants of sustainable development and regional competitiveness. The authors notice a particular lack in the sustainable development of infrastructure in the field of water and sewerage management together with the supply of water. Therefore, this article tries to complete the gap in research focusing on the concept of a more systematic approach to technical infrastructure improvement in the context of sustainable development, and strategy of cooperation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuok Ho Daniel Tang

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of a sustainable development course on the beliefs, attitudes and intentions of a cohort of engineering students in a university in Miri, Malaysia, towards sustainability. Design/methodology/approach Questionnaire survey was conducted among the cohort of students encompassing the three facets mentioned. Findings The respondents expressed low to medium agreement towards all the survey items related to beliefs, attitudes and intentions. A sense of moral obligation towards sustainability is linked to higher sustainability awareness, willingness to safeguard sustainability and a sense of responsibility towards sustainable development. The respondents were generally perceived to have fundamental knowledge of sustainable development. Research limitations/implications This study shows that a sustainable development course called Engineering Sustainable Development offered in a university in Miri, produced positive impacts on the beliefs, attitudes and intentions of the engineering students towards sustainable development. Sustainable development courses are generally instrumental to impart the value and practices of sustainability among university students. Originality/value As limited correlational studies on whether sustainable development courses effectively shape the beliefs and attitudes of students have been previously conducted, this study provides insight into the effectiveness of one of such courses and how the course can be further improved to enhance its effectiveness.


2013 ◽  
Vol 392 ◽  
pp. 725-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael José Gomes de Oliveira ◽  
Mauro Hugo Mathias

The application of the HFRT (High-Frequency Resonance Technique), a demodulation based technique, is a technique for evaluation the condition of bearings and other components in rotating machinery. Another technique MED (Minimum Entropy Deconvolution) has been the subject of recent developments for application in condition monitoring of gear trains and roller bearings. This article demonstrates the effectiveness of the combined application of the MED technique with HFRT in order to enhance the capacity of HFRT to identify the characteristic fault frequencies of damaged bearings by increasing the signal impulsivity. All tests were done using data collected from an experimental test bench in laboratory. The Kurtosis value is used as an indicator of effectiveness of the combined technique and the results shown an increase of five times the original kurtosis value with the application of MED filter together with the HFRT.


2015 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 215-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Grecu

Abstract There is rarely an optimal solution in sustainable development but most frequently a need to build compromises between conflicting aspects such as economic, social and environmental ones and different expectations of stakeholders. Moreover, information is rarely available and precise. This paper will focus on how to use indicators to monitor sustainable development, integrating the information provided by many of them into a complex general sustainability index. Having this general indicator is essential for decision makers as it is very complicated to evaluate the performance of the organization based on multiple indicators. The objective of this paper is to find mathematical algorithms for simplifying the decision-making process by offering an instrument for the evaluation of the sustainability progress.


1987 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 641-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ram Sankar Pathak ◽  
Lokenath Debnath

This paper is concerned with recent developments on the Stieltjes transform of generalized functions. Sections 1 and 2 give a very brief introduction to the subject and the Stieltjes transform of ordinary functions with an emphasis to the inversion theorems. The Stieltjes transform of generalized functions is described in section 3 with a special attention to the inversion theorems of this transform. Sections 4 and 5 deal with the adjoint and kernel methods used for the development of the Stieltjes transform of generalized functions. The real and complex inversion theorems are discussed in sections 6 and 7. The Poisson transform of generalized functions, the iteration of the Laplace transform and the iterated Stieltjes transfrom are included in sections 8, 9 and 10. The Stieltjes transforms of different orders and the fractional order integration and further generalizations of the Stieltjes transform are discussed in sections 11 and 12. Sections 13, 14 and 15 are devoted to Abelian theorems, initial-value and final-value results. Some applications of the Stieltjes transforms are discussed in section 16. The final section deals with some open questions and unsolved problems. Many important and recent references are listed at the end.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document