Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

George Mason University to offer new minor in sustainable systems engineering

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 18:41:20 +0000

George Mason University to offer new minor in sustainable systems engineering Nathan Kahl Mon, 02/26/2024 - 13:41

In This Story

Learn More About SEOR

George Mason University’s College of Engineering and Computing will offer a new minor in sustainable systems engineering, partnering with the College of Science and the Institute for a Sustainable Earth, starting in the fall 2024 semester.

Shima Mohebbi, an assistant professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research (SEOR), is leading the effort. She said that with the minor the university is meeting student demand, with recent surveys of SEOR’s rising and graduating seniors identifying climate change and social justice as the two top values in selecting companies/projects in determining where they would like to work.

“We are focused on taking the university-wide systems thinking efforts to the next level and transitioning from conceptual frameworks to methodologies and implementation in undergraduate curricula. The Office of the Provost offers grant opportunities supporting course revision and curriculum scaffolding. For further support, we were fortunate enough to be one of the 2023-2024 curriculum impact grant recipients.” Shima Mohebbi

Mohebbi is collaborating with Jennifer Sklarew of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy in the College of Science and Judit Ungvári of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth to incorporate sustainability, social justice, and community engagement into the undergraduate curriculum in systems and industrial engineering.

Shakira Mangrio, a rising senior systems and industrial engineering major, said, “With this minor we are making systems engineering environmentally friendly for the future. In studying systems engineering, we learn about the whole life cycle of systems and this helps us, as engineers, think about the big picture when creating and improving systems. This new minor teaches us how to protect the environment during new projects and upgrading old ones. There's a growing need for people who understand how our actions affect the environment.”

Sustainable systems engineering draws from numerous disciplines. Image credit: Engineering for One Planet

The minor will attract students from across the university, with its cross-discipline appeal. Morgan Pauley, a student from the Schar School of Policy and Government focusing on environmental policy, said, “Having sustainability studies ingrained in as many fields as possible, including government and engineering, is important to creating a resilient future. Sustainability is and will continue to be a long-term goal for all companies and organizations. By creating this minor, Mason is helping students add practical knowledge and skills to their degree, which will help make students' resumes more appealing and give them a wider range of potential fields that they can work in.”

Mohebbi said numerous things are underway to prepare for the launch, including designing courses, getting mentorship from the provost’s office and Stears Center for Teaching and Learning, and seeking external funding.

At the conclusion of the Spring 2025 semester students who have completed one academic year pursuing the minor will present projects at a one-day workshop, with students and faculty from across the university invited to learn more about the minor. Mohebbi added, “We particularly participate in the Mason Living Lab Initiative with the idea that student projects will benefit our own campus.” Through these projects, the students will partner with Mason’s Fairfax campus community, as well as the surrounding Fairfax County and Fairfax City communities to engage locally in global sustainability challenges involving water, food, energy, and climate change.

(Image provided courtesy Engineering for One Planet, which exists to "integrate sustainability into engineering education to protect and improve our planet and lives.")

Topics

Sustainability

Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Sustainable Engineering

All-star line-up at 14th annual STAR-TIDES

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 16:49:32 +0000

All-star line-up at 14th annual STAR-TIDES 4429684e-ae8d-… Thu, 10/29/2020 - 12:49

The 14^th annual demonstration of the global STAR-TIDES knowledge-sharing network, coordinated by George Mason University’s new Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities, was held virtually October 20-22.

Mason President Gregory Washington kicked off the "Converging Approaches to Sustainable Resilience" capabilities demonstration by highlighting the broad scope of STAR-TIDES and how the university’s three institutes, Sustainable Earth, Digital InnovAtion, and Biohealth Innovation, align with the World Economic Forum’s view.

"It is a tribute to the foresight of George Mason's leadership over many years that the university is positioned to adapt to the many dimensions of this changing, accelerating times and lead in teaching and research related to them,” Washington said.

This is an example of how Mason’s thought leadership in these areas recognizes that the physical, digital, and biological worlds are fusing.

The audience for the event included members of the national security, human security, emergency management, and sustainable development communities. The overall theme focused on how the complex, accelerating challenges that the world faces require coordinated approaches.

The 22 separate events and 10 parallel breakout tracks focused on diverse areas including technologies, narrative and storytelling, and ethics. Students interacted with professionals for advice on job search approaches, as well as practitioners from areas such as global health, geospatial information, emergency management, development, and sustainable resilience during a career track session.

The conference featured 25 speakers and approximately 70 panelists, including several national and international figures.

During his keynote address, Thomas L. Friedman, the New York Times Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist, discussed the fast, fused, deep, and open forces that increasingly affect our lives.

Lt. Gen Michael Plehn, USAF, Military Deputy Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, and Claire Melamed, PhD, CEO of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data, presented keynotes on the second day of the conference.

Participating exhibitors shared examples of how they applied their capabilities in real-world situations. These included perspectives on Navy operational energy, low-cost shelters, power grid cost reduction, advanced disinfectants, and supply chain risk management for open source software, as well as a compelling example of how STAR-TIDES network members helped rebuild a medical clinic in South Sudan.

STAR-TIDES is a global knowledge-sharing network that focuses on building sustainable resilience, promoting human security (freedom from want and freedom from fear), and creating life-changing social and economic activities. These roles have evolved from original support by the U.S. Defense Department’s TIDES (Transformative Innovation for Development and Emergency Support) program to four defense-related mission areas: building partner capacity, humanitarian assistance and foreign disaster relief, defense support of civil authorities, stability and peace-keeping operations.

Follow-up activities will continue throughout the coming year.

Three-day event highlights sustainability research

Colleen Rich — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 16:13:12 +0000

Three-day event highlights sustainability research Colleen Rich Thu, 09/26/2019 - 12:13

This is STAR-TIDES's third year holding its sustainability research demonstration on Mason's Fairfax Campus. Photo provided.

From Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus will host a major technology demonstration focused on a global knowledge-sharing network called STAR-TIDES, which is an acronym for Sharing To Accelerate Research—Transformative Innovation for Development and Emergency Support. STAR-TIDES, which is affiliated with Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE), is devoted to building sustainable resilience and improving humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery.

This year’s demo will open at noon on Monday, Sept. 30, with a keynote address by Vint Cerf, one of the pioneers of the Internet, in Merten Hall, Room 1201, followed by other speakers, in parallel with demonstrations on the lawn near the Panda Express. Cerf, often called the “father of the Internet,” also holds an honorary doctor of science from Mason, which he was awarded in 2000.

The three days of exhibits and demonstrations on the Merten Lawn will address such topics as energy storage, 3D printing, information and communications technology (ICT), drones and geographic information systems, public health, and humanitarian assistance and disaster recovery. The event also will explore how the exhibitors could contribute to two broad scenarios: hurricane and flooding disaster relief and infrastructure resilience, including work being done in Puerto Rico, and increasing resilience in interdependent critical infrastructures in Northern Virginia.

STAR-TIDES is overseen by Mason's new transdisciplinary Center for Resilient and Sustainable Communities, in affiliation with ISE. The center has a vision that communities worldwide can create life-changing social and economic opportunities through locally led, bottom-up resilience and sustainability initiatives supported by cross-cutting approaches and effective, replicable models. It builds on work begun by Mason’s Community Resilience Lab over the past 18 months.

Since this demo is designed to showcase equipment that works under field conditions, there are no rain dates. The hours will be 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, and 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday. There will be incentives for student attendance like free food, T-shirts, contests and, in some cases, class credits.

For more information about the initiative, see star-tides.net.