Incorporating Sustainability Principles into the First-Year Engineering Design Curriculum for International Students

Courses focusing on engineering design present an excellent opportunity for the introduction of the concepts of sustainability. The purpose of the proposed work is to enhance students’ understanding of sustainability through a project-based approach. For that purpose we developed a new exploratory project consisting of 3 possible real-world inspired case studies and implemented them in the introductory engineering design course. Results show that nearly all of the participating students generally consider sustainability a key aspect of their education; however, the particularities of student opinions with respect to sustainability outcomes in designs largely vary and seem to depend on the goals and design focus of each program. Our analyses show that the project-based learning course had a moderate to large impact on student competencies including systems thinking, environmental literacy, responsible business and economy, social responsibility, environmental impact measurement, materials choice, design, critical thinking, and communication and teamwork. The particular design project implemented here is an excellent learning tool for first-year engineering students, directing them to include sustainability considerations in their products and systems design. It also creates a space for open discussions about global considerations related to sustainability, together with an opportunity for international students to share their personal experience and previous exposure to sustainability issues.