The Infona portal uses cookies, i.e. strings of text saved by a browser on the user's device. The portal can access those files and use them to remember the user's data, such as their chosen settings (screen view, interface language, etc.), or their login data. By using the Infona portal the user accepts automatic saving and using this information for portal operation purposes. More information on the subject can be found in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. By closing this window the user confirms that they have read the information on cookie usage, and they accept the privacy policy and the way cookies are used by the portal. You can change the cookie settings in your browser.
Sustainable engineering has strong potential for hands-on multi-disciplinary project-based learning. In particular, projects within sustainable engineering can readily involve electrical, mechanical, computer, civil, and chemical engineering aspects while still being accessible to undergraduate engineering students. In this paper, we discuss a series of renewable energy and alternative energy storage...
A first order assessment was performed to evaluate the tradeoffs involved in transportation mode choice. A total of six potential modes of transportation were evaluated, including a midsize car, hybrid car, motor scooter, city bus, bicycle, and foot. Each mode of transportation was evaluated for energy use, cost, convenience, and health and safety implications. It was concluded that there is no single...
The University of California has recently funded a new Lead Campus program: Research and Education in Green Materials, a multi-campus graduate fellowship program designed to bridge the disciplinary boundaries of engineering, science, toxicology and social science. This paper describes the program and the graduate course on green engineering.
The demand for data center solutions with lower total cost of ownership and lower complexity of management is driving the creation of next generation datacenters. The information technology industry is in the midst of a transformation to lower the cost of operation through consolidation and better utilization of critical data center resources. Successful consolidation necessitates increasing utilization...
In this paper, we propose a methodology for real-time characterization of the operational state of a subsystem, device or process in an ecosystem, with the goal of improving its sustainability. The objective is to re-describe the operational state, identified by a set of relevant sensor measurements and other parameters, in terms of known operational patterns. Each pattern is also associated with...
In traditional process design, engineers aim to use man-made technology to solve practical problems. However, the resulting designs are often directly or indirectly dependent on ecosystem goods and services and this is often ignored. Neglecting these invaluable services has led to unsustainable practices through overexploitation of ecosystems. In addition, narrowly focusing on technological solutions...
Past waves of technological evolution, characterized by core technologies such as steam engines, have been characterized by powerful, and not always peaceful, change across institutions, economies, and cultures. We are currently moving towards an anthropogenic Earth characterized by integrated built/human/natural systems of extraordinary complexity, increasingly defined by technology and technology...
The undergraduate program in the Materials Science and Engineering department at the University of Florida requires its junior students to take the course ldquoAnalysis of the Structure of Materialsrdquo. This course provides students the opportunity to disassemble an engineered product, characterize and analyze the structure of its components, and correlate the structures with properties and processing...
Biobased fuels from renewable resources has gained high research and development priority due to national security and environmental concerns. To ensure resilience and sustainability of the nation's agricultural and fuel sectors, it is essential to evaluate the effect of recent and foreseeable environmental effects from agricultural cultivation. This study examines the environmental impacts of fertilizers...
No two sciences have been more directly informative of sustainability than thermodynamics (the science of energy and material resources) and economics (the science of how those resources are allocated for production, distribution, and consumption). Both disciplines share a preoccupation with understanding efficiency, which is critical to many interpretations of sustainability and so it is not surprising...
In this paper we address the problem of taking the general notion of sustainability as reported in the Brundtland Report and later in Arrow et al approach and interpreting it from a thermodynamics point of view, with a goal of developing operational principles of sustainability in terms of physical principles that complement economic views.
This paper is a case study of the implementation of one of the nation's largest solar array panel arrays, within a year's time frame at a public university. The state funding received for solar energy will create 2 megawatts per day for a savings of 22 million dollars over 30 years.
This article explores concepts and methods to characterize long-term limits on the capacity of technology to deliver energy services based on thermodynamics, or more generally, physical laws. Carnot's law, for example, places an upper limit in the ability of a heat engine to deliver useful work. The framework developed starts with characterizing different energy services deemed necessary for a sustainable...
In this paper, we describe an integrated design and management approach to creating a sustainable IT ecosystem: a physical infrastructure where information technology has been seamlessly interwoven to improve environmental efficiency while achieving lower cost. Specifically, we describe five principles to achieve such integration: ecosystem-scale life-cycle design; scalable and configurable resource...
A dasiagreen scorecardpsila to identify research projects in the digital printing industry is described. The scorecard is intended to be cognizant of life cycle issues without being onerous to use, allows comparison of green dasiagoodnesspsila among scenarios, provides guidelines for use, and reduces subjectivity by requiring quantified input data. The green scorecard is neither a design tool, nor...
Set the date range to filter the displayed results. You can set a starting date, ending date or both. You can enter the dates manually or choose them from the calendar.