USDA Awards UTEP Grant to Further Research and Education in Sustainability Engineering
September 29, 2009
The University of Texas at El Paso College of Engineering has been awarded nearly $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to further research in the field of sustainability engineering. The three-year grant will allow the University to develop graduate and undergraduate programs with a focus in sustainability engineering and conduct research in green operations, sustainable manufacturing, energy sustainability, life cycle analysis, and design for sustainability.
The project team of Dr. Heidi A. Taboada and Dr. Jose F. Espiritu, Assistant Professors in the Industrial, Manufacturing & Systems Engineering Department, and Dr. Connie Gomez and Dr. Noe Vargas-Hernandez, Assistant Professors in the Mechanical Engineering Department, will work to bridge current engineering education with sustainable design, manufacturing, and process principles.
As Dr. Taboada notes, “There is a need to better understand how complex systems can achieve both short-term continuity and long-term ecological integrity. As we move to a more carbon-constrained world, businesses will ultimately have to meet customer needs in a way that generates fewer carbon emissions.”
