The mechanical engineering department is planning to change its curriculum to prepare students for sustainable jobs.
Professor Andrea Mammoli said he thought of starting a renewable-energy program while he was on sabbatical in 2004.
"We are trying to put in a curriculum that looks at all aspects of sustainable energy. That's the focus. That is where the future is," he said. "We're trying to cover a whole range of topics, and it really is a wide range."
Student Zach Zelle said students in the department need to incorporate sustainability into their education before they graduate.
"I think it will help us find a proper insight and help us come up with ways to become a sustainable society," he said. "I think that it is definitely important for people to take (classes on sustainable energy) just so that they know what our situation is as a country with pollution and energy dependence. We need to get rid of those."
Mammoli said changing the curriculum of the department will not be an easy task but that it will help students who graduate from the program get jobs.
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"It has been a fairly slow process," he said. "There is a lot of inertia because we have existing courses that we still need to teach."
Mammoli said two sustainability-related classes are available to students: a graduate course on sustainable energy and an undergraduate course on the societal implications of energy.
He said classes cover a broad range of issues so students can develop an idea about what might interest them.
"The idea is to show undergraduates at the beginning of their college careers what their options are in terms of renewable energy from a societal point of view and from an environmental point of view," he said.
Department chairman Juan Heinrich said that five years ago, there were no classes on sustainable energy in the mechanical engineering department.
The new classes are a step toward teaching students the importance of energy conservation and renewal, he said.
"I wish we had more means to put a stronger effort into this area, but every step is a small step, and every step is an important step, but what happens is that these efforts really quickly become larger," he said.
Heinrich said he would like to see more people in the department get involved in promoting renewable energy among students.
"Right now, we have one faculty member who is spearheading this, but he needs help, and we need to bring more people to work with him and do similar things and multiply the efforts to make more progress faster," he said.
Heinrich said now is the time to expand the department's focus.
"You want to educate people into what is renewable, sustainable energy and why we need it and what are the implications if we do not move in that direction - that is why the last part is social issues," he said. "It is dependent on the economics and the awareness to the fact that we are burning ourselves to death here and we need sustainable sources."
