Green and sustainable are two of the buzzwords of your generation. These words reflect real and widespread challenges related to water, natural resources, transportation, energy, global health, and population. Engineers like you play a critical role in finding strategies to balance civilization s environmental, economic, and societal needs. Increased demand for sustainability-trained professionals requires that when you graduate from UVa you are competent in traditional science, technology, engineering, and mathematics AND cognizant of how sustainability relates to your specific interest whether they be building houses or building wind turbines. This course will provide you with the foundation of physical and chemical understanding you will need to think critically about sustainability and green engineering. Instructor: Office: Email: Office Hours: Andres Clarens Virginia Environmentally Sustainable Technologies (VEST) Laboratory Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Virginia D220 Thornton Hall aclarens@virginia.edu Monday 2 PM, you can always set up a time to meet with me via e-mail. Lecture: T Th 12:30-1:45 PM, MEC 205 Course Credit: 3 Class Website: https://collab.itc.virginia.edu/ An interactive syllabus (w/ links to reading, etc) is available on collab Teaching Assistant: Office Hours: Bo Liang - bl8bt@virginia.edu Buddy Wilkins - rfw9dt@virginia.edu Friday 3 PM, Thornton Hall B220 Exam: Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 2 PM Course Goals At the end of this semester you will be able to: Discuss and explain at least five of the most important sustainability challenges facing society today Use the methods of inquiry and the problem solving techniques of engineering to address problems related to these challenges Distill complex real world problems into their key elements to enable the use of quantitative models for establishing cause-and-effect relationships Reflect critically on news stories about sustainability problems and identify the opportunities and limitations in emerging green technologies Introduction to Green Engineering - Syllabus Fall 2013 1
Course Mission At the same time that we are grappling with some fairly major sustainability challenges, our country s physical infrastructure is crumbling. How should our generation handle these challenges? How many people will live here in 20 year? In 50 years? How will these people get to work? Where will they get their power or their water? What kinds of houses will they live in? What temperature will it be outside? Why? Are these challenges connected? In all likelihood you will be one of these people. These are the sorts of questions that we, as builders of infrastructure, need to ask now since infrastructure lasts a long time and has huge implications on our economy, our health, and even our happiness. In this course, we are going to dream big about how we want the future to look. We ll do this by providing the computational tools that you ll need to apply all of the math and science that you are learning at UVa to real world complex problems, many of them related to environmental sustainability. Course Objectives 1. Employ dimensional analysis and other tools to orient your problem solving process. 2. Illustrate how spatial and temporal scales impact engineering decision-making. 3. Use conservation of mass and conservation of energy principles to solve a wide variety of realworld problems. 4. Characterize the behavior of both natural and engineered systems using reactor theory. 5. Design materials, products, processes, and systems that are inherently safer, generate less waste, and use energy efficiently. 6. Evaluate how economic factors can influence engineering decision making 7. Explain the different life cycle phases for a product, process, or system and provide examples of anticipated environmental impacts and risks from each phase. 8. Identify resources for continued learning and application of sustainability principles in Civil Engineering. How will you succeed in this course? Participate: Most engineering in the real world happens in teams and so much of the learning we do this semester, both in and out of the classroom will happen in teams. Your peers are valuable resources and you will become one to them. Take this responsibility seriously by preparing for class and participating fully in our discussions. Communicate: For many of you, this course is one of the first engineering courses you will have taken at UVa and it is unlike many of the more traditional lecture courses you took in your first year. The material will be challenging and I am committed to having all of you master it by the end of the semester but I need to know what you are thinking about during the semester. If you have ideas for content or tools that we should be incorporating, let me know. Similarly, if there are concepts we are covering or techniques we are using that are concerning, do not hesitate to contact me. The anonymous feedback tool in collab is great for this. Have fun: Engineering and especially Green Engineering is a lot of fun. Sometimes it is intimidating to think about the huge problems that engineers get asked to address so it is really important to have a good sense of humor. Introduction to Green Engineering - Syllabus Fall 2013 2
Text We will use excerpts from a variety of text books and all are available in pdf format on collab. The original versions of these texts are also on reserve at the Brown Science and Engineering Library. Notes I have prepared notes, posted using Lessons in collab, for each lecture that you should read BEFORE coming to lecture. Why? Because reading these prior to class will significantly improve your understanding of the material and lead to a more fulfilling classroom experience for everyone. How will you and I evaluate your progress? Participation 20% Homework 20% Tests 20% (10% each) Quizzes 20% (5% each) Final 20% Participation In class (10% of course grade) - Your participation grade will be based on clicker response in class as well as small group exercises and the questions you ask in class. Attendance is required at each class session listed on the syllabus. You will be allowed 2 unexcused absences during the semester. Additional absences will impact your final grade. We do have a large class but we will be using peer-topeer instruction that should make it possible for everyone to participate. I will do my best to learn all your names, but please be patient and remind me when you have an opportunity. Warm ups (5% of course grade) - A lot of content of this course will be made available to you online and to encourage you to spend time with this before we cover it in lecture, you will be asked to provide a short warm up question or response prior to each lecture. These warm ups will be posted ovia the lessons tool in collab. These won t be graded but I will give you credit for completing the exercises. Teaching activity (5% of course grade) - In groups, you will prepare an education module related to infrastructure and sustainability this semester for middle school students and we will work to get you paired up with a teacher in the region. More details on the teaching activity will be provided in class. Homework Problem sets (16% of the course grade) - Eight (8) problem sets will be completed this semester using the online interface webwork. The advantage of using webwork, is that it will grade your homework on the spot so you will have immediate feedback on how you did in a given assignment. It will also be configured so that you will have ten (10) opportunities to try a problem. That is, you can try once and if your answer is incorrect, webwork will tell you so you can try the problem again. Your focus should be on understanding the process of solving problems rather than on the particular numerical solution. To learn the material from this course, it is very important that you take the time to carefully complete the homework assignments. Only once you ve worked through the problem and checked your work should you enter your final answer into webwork. Introduction to Green Engineering - Syllabus Fall 2013 3
Book critique (4% of your course grade) - This semester you will select a book from a list of books related to green engineering and you will work in groups (with students that have read the same book) to prepare a 1 page critique of the book. More details on the book assignment will be provided in class. Exams Tests - In class exams will be on October 8 and November 26, 2013. The format of the exam will be 1-2 open ended quantitative questions to assess your general understanding of the kinds of problems you will learn to solve in this class. The tests will only take up approximately half of 1 lecture (~30 minutes) and will be closed book but we will provide you with a detailed equation sheet. Quizzes - You will complete four, short (20 minutes), online, multiple choice quizzes over the course of the semester to assess your progress in understanding the material and to provide you with feedback about specific topics that you (and/or the class) needs to emphasize more. Final - The final exam (December 10, 2 PM) will be in class and consist of 3-4 quantitative openended problems along with 10-15 multiple choice questions. It will be written for 2 hours but you will have 3 hours to complete it. The final will be cumulative but since most of the topics in this class build on the material before, it will provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate everything you have learned this semester! Honor Policy The University of Virginia relies upon and is widely known for its community of trust. In this course we will adhere to all of the rules of the University Honor System. All graded work should be pledged in the spirit of the honor system. On my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received help on this examination (assignment, etc.). The student should sign the pledge. The instructor strongly endorses the principles upon which the System is built, namely, that students not lie, cheat or steal. Students are welcome to discuss problem sets with other students in the class. However, the written work must be your own. You may not discuss problem sets with members of previous classes, or make use of solutions prepared in previous semesters. This will be treated as a violation of the honor code. Introduction to Green Engineering - Syllabus Fall 2013 4
Lecture outline (an interactive version is available on collab) Introduction 27-Aug Course introduction & sustainability overview 29-Aug Equilibrium 3-Sep Conservation laws 5-Sep Engineering problem solving, scale Mass balances 10-Sep Engineered v. natural systems 12-Sep The mass balance equation 17-Sep Batch reactors 19-Sep Cimate (1) - Material flows 24-Sep Reaction kinetics 26-Sep Mixed flow reactors 1-Oct Plug flow reactors 3-Oct Reactor comparison 8-Oct Green chemistry Energy balances 10-Oct Energy balance equation 17-Oct Electricity production 22-Oct The electric grid 24-Oct Climate (2) - Earth's energy balance 29-Oct Hydropower 31-Oct Windpower 5-Nov Green Building 7-Nov Refrigeration and HVAC 12-Nov Transportation 14-Nov Material and energy connections Green systems 19-Nov Thinking in systems 21-Nov Climate (3) - Mitigation and Adaptation 26-Nov Environmental economics 3-Dec Life cycle assessment 5-Dec Life cycle assessment and class wrap up Introduction to Green Engineering - Syllabus Fall 2013 5