Term Project Description

ENGS 171: Industrial Ecology

Spring 2009

Instructors: Benoit Cushman-Roisin and Mike Gerst

Teaching Assistants: TBA

2009 Teams & Topics

Objectives

1. Development of experience in the application of industrial ecology principles and methodologies, such as Design for Environment (DfE), Material Flow Analysis (MFA), and Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA), to a specific product, service, or system in the surrounding community.

2. Application of project management and engineering skills to real-world problems. Emphasis will be placed on how to make recommendations and present analyses when problem structure may be ill-defined and information incomplete.

Overview

The term project for ENGS171 involves making environmental performance recommendations on actual products, services, or systems in use at Dartmouth College or the surrounding community. Each team of 3 to 4 students will select from a list a general area of activity in which they are to identify and analyze a product, service, or system in which it is thought that an environmentally-relevant improvement can be made. Students will be a given a contact at Dartmouth who is familiar with each area of activity who will be able to provide relevant information.

Listed below are the general areas of activity.

1. Transportation

2. Solid waste collection, storage, and treatment

3. Delivery of water and treatment of liquid wastes

4. Service industry (specifically, the Hanover Inn)

5. Grounds maintenance.

Because the term project involves real-world activities, students should expect that there will be gaps in information needed on their topic, and that the criteria used to make recommendations may be ambiguous. Teams are expected to take full account of the uncertainty of their recommendation by highlighting data gaps and the sensitivity of recommendations to assumptions. In actual practice, analyses which highlight gaps in information, identify critical assumptions, and place bounds around a possible answer are often just as useful as analyses which are able to provide clear-cut solutions. Consequently, teams will be evaluated on the thoroughness and creativity of their analyses and recommendations.

Deliverables

Students are expected to meet the following requirements during the course of the term project. Written and oral communications are important skills for the successful engineer, and will be taken into account at times of project evaluation.

1. In-class oral presentation near mid-term reporting on progress and outstanding issues

2. 10-20 page final report (including text, figures, and tables)

3. Oral presentation of project results. Presentations will be open to the public, and your campus collaborators will be encouraged to attend.

Evaluation

Instructors will evaluate the students based on the following criteria:

- (15 points) Appropriateness and application of industrial ecology methods.

- (10 points) Quality and reasonableness of recommendations.

- (5 points) Mid-term progress presentation.

- (10 points) Final presentation and written report.

Total of 40 points toward the 100 points for the entire course.