Courses
When registering, participants will be given the option of taking one of the courses listed below. Each course has a total duration of 11 hours, distributed during the week as indicated in the symposium agenda. This information maybe subject to change.
Systemic Engineering for Sustainability
Biodiesel and its byproducts as an example
TARGET AUDIENCE: Second to fourth year students.
Course will first set the premise of a need to study the entire energy cycle of a product system. Some examples will be utilized and students will interact to develop those examples.
If possible, a laboratory event will take place in which students will experience themselves the simplicity of making Biodiesel.
Students will then interact in groups to evaluate and compare the petroleum to diesel energy and resource utilization cycle to the Biodiesel cycle. Some detail will be focused on the Biodiesel cycle as it will be assumed that more literature is available on the petroleum process. Reporting will be accomplished in one of the early sessions.
A study of input demands and output products will be the focus of the next session as well as estimation of calculation of the significance of differences in the process. Depending on the attendees, the class may divide into specific target project site to review optimization of natural products appropriate to specific environments.
At this point, the course participants will need to help determine the path of the course. Some participants may wish to create a process design for a specific region and others may wish to develop course materials toward developing sustainable engineering education at a university using biodiesel as a simple means for students to have "hands on" activities.
The objective will be that every attendee has participated in a team that has developed either an example of a sustainable biofuel generation facility for a location or a set of educational experiences that could be used in a university setting to enable students to participate in the development of such a facility.
Introduction to Green Engineering & Sustainable Development
TARGET AUDIENCE: Second to fourth year students.
The chemical industry provides a wide variety of materials and products used as intermediaries in other processes or as consumer end-products. However, these same industries are responsible for the generation of significant amounts of waste and polluting emissions. The disposal of these waste products, or even the remediation of the environment once polluted, costs billions and billions of dollars every year. These environment-related costs continue to escalate as environmental regulations become more stringent.
Green engineering is the design, commercialization, and use of processes and products that are feasible and economical, while minimizing generation of pollution at the source and risk to the environment and human health.
The environmental impact of chemical processing must also be considered beyond the chemical plant by taking into consideration the entire life-cycle of the product: transportation, use by customers, recycling, and ultimate disposal.
Modeling of Chemical Reactors
TARGET AUDIENCE: Fourth year students.
Course description will be posted soon.
Curso-Taller: Plan de Vida
TARGET AUDIENCE: First year students.
¿POR QUÉ UN PLAN DE VIDA?
En los últimos años del siglo XX, en diversas organizaciones públicas y privadas, empezó a circular la necesidad de transmitir a las personas la importancia de identificar el proceso de planeación institucional con un plano personal.
Los esfuerzos fructificaron y en los primeros años de este siglo XXI aparece una estrategia denominada PLAN DE VIDA, actividad de amplia aceptación en las universidades e instituciones de nivel superior en donde se pretende coadyuvar a la formación de un hábito que permita a los jóvenes poner en juego sus mejores y peores recuerdos, sus valores, sus fortalezas y debilidades, para que con base en ellas construir la visión de su ser en nuevas condiciones ambientales y de desarrollo personal.
Luis Castañeda, autor del libro "Un plan de vida para jóvenes" menciona lo siguiente:
"Una persona sin metas es como un avión sin plan de vuelo. Quizá llegue a algún lugar deseable, pero es también probable que arribe a un sitio al que conscientemente no quiere llegar. Hacer un plan de vida equivale a hace un plan de vuelo. Siempre pude haber imprevistos, pero aun en esos casos, el plan puede contemplarlos y sugerir rutas diferentes."
El curso-taller requiere de gente con ganas de triunfar en la vida. Requiere también de personas que estén conscientes de que al final del mismo tendrán en sus manos el documento más valioso que los acompañará en el resto el su vida.
