Designing Sustainable Products
Cliff Davidson is educating engineers and managers around the globe about the importance of engineering and sustainability. A professor of civil and environmental engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, Davidson most recently led a workshop in Bangalore, India.
"Animals, plants and entire habitats, as well as our current lifestyles, are at risk from continued unsustainable development," said Davidson, the winner of Carnegie Mellon's prestigious 2009 William H. and Frances S. Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching. "It is up to us to help educate future engineers about preserving limited resources through sustainable methods."
A leader in developing sustainable engineering programs across the United States, Davidson has been spearheading workshops around the globe for professors without experience in sustainability to apply the concepts they learn to their engineering efforts and coursework.
The workshop in India, co-sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Indian Institute of Science, brought together experts from India and the United States to discuss the social, economic, environmental and technological challenges of designing sustainable systems.
As founding director of the university's innovative Center for Sustainable Engineering, Davidson has galvanized programs into action — including the establishment of the CSE electronic library that makes educational materials on sustainable engineering accessible at no cost.
Individual engineering instructors can submit lecture materials, homework assignments, projects, and other material to the CSE website for peer review; if accepted, they are posted free of charge.
Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the center is designed to help future engineers better manage increased stress on the world's limited resources. It's a collaborative effort between Carnegie Mellon, the University of Texas at Austin and Arizona State University.
The center also conducted a benchmark study of sustainable engineering education, led by the University of Texas partners, to list current courses and degree programs in sustainable engineering around the country.
Davidson's creative teaching methods span everything from dissecting toasters to monitoring dangerous airborne particles in old industrial rustbelt towns throughout western Pennsylvania.
Related Links: Center for Sustainable Engineering | College of Engineering
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