Stevens Institute of Technology: Admissions Blog

Green Engineering in the News

A very timely option for students to focus on, Green Engineering – one of the many relevant minors available at Stevens – is gaining momentum and drawing attention. Today, two Stevens students were featured in an article in the Star-Ledger dedicated to the importance of the study of environmental issues. Nick Faust (Mechanical Engineering, ’09) and Danielle Bisson (Environmental Engineering, ’10) are both pursuing the Green Engineering minor and weigh in on why they feel strongly about this course of study.

Check out the full article here: http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2009/03/new_courses_prepare_students_f.html

To learn more about the Stevens Green Engineering minor, visit: http://www.stevens.edu/sit/admissions/academics/upload/greenengineering.pdf

Engineers Without Borders Project Updates

In the Fall of 2007, a group of five Mechanical Engineers completed a conceptual research project for a Water Purification System as their senior design. Jonathan Da Silva, Abdul Karim Dawan, Kim Fellenz, Kevin Gonzales and Emanuel Rios have optimized the system to provide clean drinking water at the lowest possible cost.

Read more about this project here.

In the Spring of 2008, a team of Chemical Engineers consisting of Barbara Korda, Amanda Rogers, Kelsea Wilks and Natalia Malantchouk will continue research begun in Spring 2007 to find an efficient source of biomass for ethanol production.

Read more about this project here.

Stevens Launches Green Engineering Minor

A new Green Engineering minor has been approved in Stevens Institute of Technology’s Charles V. Schaefer Jr. School of Engineering and Science, and is open to engineering undergraduates from all majors. The new minor’s first core course, EN 301 Sustainable Engineering, will be offered in the spring 2008 semester. This course can also be taken for general elective credit by students not planning to complete the Green Engineering minor.

Issues of environmental sustainability are of increasing concern for both developed and developing nations of the world. In the design, implementation and use of products, processes and systems that impact all facets of our lives, fundamental decisions are made by engineers. The application of the principles by which engineers can have a positive impact on sustainability is known as sustainable engineering, or more colloquially as green engineering. While elements of sustainable engineering are permeating the broad-based Stevens undergraduate engineering programs, the new minor helps students explore sustainable approaches to engineering more in-depth.

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Stevens EWB Chapter in ASCE Newsletter

Stevens' Engineers Without Borders student chapter was featured in the December newsletter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) North Jersey Branch:

Examples of types of challenging and inspiring projects that are taken on by EWB chapters can be found locally at the Stevens and NJIT student chapters. EWBSIT is currently in the process of finalizing the design for a micro-hydro electric generator, to be constructed in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. The Jarabacoa community of El Dulce includes sixtyfive homes and one schoolhouse that currently have no source of electricity. Together with the Obra Social Salesiana (OSS), a local NGO, EWB-SIT is working to alleviate this problem by bring electrical power to the community.

EWB-SIT has already sent several students to the Jarabacoa to meet with the community and an engineer, who is an expert at designing micro hydroelectric systems in the area. While in the community, the EWBSIT team scouted a location for the systems and assessed the feasibility of providing adequate power. After the assessment trip, a feasibility study was conducted on the chosen system location to determine the characteristics of the water source, survey the surrounding land, and determine the potential power output. The Stevens team worked with the OSS and local engineers to create a design for the system components, which include: intake, penstock, powerhouse, turbine-generator, and control system. The EWB-SIT team has reached 80% of their fundraising goals for this project and currently they are finalizing design calculations so that a power generating turbine can be selected and ordered for the community. After the turbine is ordered a project team will travel to Jarabacoa to install the equipment and bring electricity to a community for the first time. For their next challenge the Stevens chapter is working on an application for a future community center/clinic in a community that is neighboring Jarabacoa.

Download the ASCE newletter (PDF) to read the full article.

EPA Honors Stevens Sustainability Project

Students from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey have received an Honorable Mention designation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their project submitted for the 2007 "People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability (P3)":

The Stevens Institute of Technology students are developing a process to turn ocean wave energy into electricity. While this may smack of science fiction at first glance, the project essentially takes one form of energy, the up and down movement of ocean waves, and converts it to another form of energy, electricity. The electricity is generated by incorporating a cable reel, a magnet shaft and surrounding coil, on a buoy that moves as a result of waves on the ocean surface. This process produces no greenhouse gases and may become part of a worldwide sustainable energy resource.

Read the project abstract >>

Podcast: Keith Sheppard

Listen to an interview with Keith Sheppard, Associate Dean of Engineering of the Schaefer School of Engineering and Science at Stevens Institute of Technology:

 

Stevens plans Green Engineering, Entrepreneurship minors

From The Record:

Green engineering

New Jersey's technical universities are developing degree programs designed around computer and environmental themes. At Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, undergraduates are now being schooled in how to be green.

"We are looking at a more holistic approach in the context of engineering to how man interacts with the environment," said Dr. Keith Sheppard, associate dean of engineering. "We are in the process of putting together a green engineering minor that we hope to offer in spring for undergraduates. This would supplement any student's engineering degree."

The minor would be used to relate how electrical, chemical or mechanical engineers do their work to improve the environment as they develop or manufacture products or build electrical systems.

"There seems to be more interest in this type of thing in England, where, for instance, a potato chip company just started putting the carbon footprint of its potato chips on the bag," said Sheppard, who is a native of England. "But the interest here is growing and more emphasis is being given to determining the carbon footprint of any process."

Stevens Institute's location near New York City and its emphasis on technology also has prompted the creation of a cyber-security specialty within the computer science department. The studies have applications for homeland security issues as well as such things as identity theft. Because of the research nature of Stevens, the school also has developed an entrepreneurship minor that encourages both faculty and students to turn their projects into businesses.

"Students graduating now know they are not going to work for one company for their entire career and they need to be prepared to do a number of things," Sheppard said. "In keeping with that, we want to encourage a greater sense of entrepreneurship, which means they will take a technology and transition it to a commercial product. They end the course, if they have a viable product, by making a pitch to venture capitalists for funding."

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