“If we continue to address the issue of the environment where we live as though we’re the only species that lives here, we’ll create a disaster for ourselves.” These are the words of Wisconsin’s famed environmentalist and former governor Gaylord Nelson. It was his leadership and ability to draw attention to environmental concerns that propelled Wisconsin, and the United States, to the forefront of the environmental movement.
Professor Giri Venkataramanan co-founded the Certificate in Engineering for Energy Sustainability to promote the development of environmentally accountable engineers.
Serving as a state senator, governor and then member of the U.S. Senate, Gaylord Nelson is one of the main reasons why environmental education exists in the first place. As the leading environmentalist in the U.S. Senate from 1963 to 1981, Nelson introduced and helped to pass the National Environmental Education Act, expanding upon a similar law that was already in place in the state of Wisconsin. His actions were some of the biggest influences on environmental education in the United States, making it easier for those that shared his desire to arm themselves with the necessary knowledge to fight for the environment.
Given UW-Madison’s position as a leader in so many areas of education and its strong history of being a responsible steward of the environment, it makes sense that there are so many opportunities for UW-Madison students to pursue an education with a strong focus on the environment. Many of these educational options are maintained and made available by the Nelson Institute. The Nelson Institute, named in honor of the aforementioned senator, offers nine environmentally focused degrees and certificates to both undergraduate and graduate students at UW-Madison. Other opportunities can be found in the Colleges of Letters and Science, Agriculture and Life Sciences and Engineering. These range in magnitude from a single engineering class in bio-energy to a Ph.D. in biological aspects of conservation.
Many of the opportunities offered by the Nelson Institute are available to all students, no matter their major. This is accomplished by offering certificates that allow students to customize their education and allow for specialization in their own interests. “We’re represented with about 50 majors across campus,” Tristin Klappauf, the undergraduate programs director for the Nelson Institute, says in reference to the 26 credit environmental studies certificate. Currently, 300 students are pursuing the certificate. “We’re one of the biggest certificates, both in number of credits … and in the number of students who graduate each year,” Klappauf says. “I think [students] are realizing it’s valuable to augment their major with a certificate.” Klappauf also noted that numbers may be up due to the current “green jobs push.”
“The goal of the certificate is to integrate multiple perspectives. We’re trying to integrate natural science, humanities and social science,” Klappauf says. To accomplish this, the certificate program offers a long list of classes to choose from and even encourages student internships to gain real world experience. These two features of the program are also a main reason why the certificate is so flexible and appealing to such a wide range of students.
The College of Engineering is also following the trend of expanding options for environmental education by implementing a Certificate in Engineering for Energy Sustainability [EES]. As global warming, economic uncertainties, natural energy resource depletion and population explosion continue to present challenges for our future, sustainability is the driving mantra in research and industry. The College of Engineering is getting to the root of sustainable development by educating and certifying students as future-focused and accountable engineers.
The EES is a 16 credit certificate that focuses on introducing, implementing and enhancing ideas and practices of sustainable energy engineering within the frame of “real world” design. It is the brainchild of several faculty members across campus and was just launched in fall 2009.
“The certificate tries to give an identity [to students] specializing in energy and sustainability, and helps bring them together,” Giri Venkataramanan, professor of electrical and computer engineering and co-developer of EES, says. “Many of the energy sustainability issues are interdisciplinary and one cannot solve them as a single-stream engineer, but rather engineers [from multiple disciplines] have to work together.”
The EES certificate has been designed to include undergraduate students representing a wide range of disciplines and courses across campus. The list of courses is long and exciting: environmental economics, process design, bio-refining, mixture-thermodynamics, electric power systems, chemical engineering materials and others. Furthermore, the wide range of disciplines covered in the certificate indicates that the course plan has been designed to fit into any undergraduate major’s study plan.
The 16 credits can be integrated into the course plan comfortably with prior planning, but Venkataramanan advises undergraduates to “plan very carefully, start early and take the right course credits at the right time,” to avoid having to cram credits towards the end of the degree program.
A very exciting part of the EES program is the capstone course, which is taken near the end of an undergraduate’s degree program. “Students could work with the city of Madison to find ways to reduce energy consumption, or work with the campus, implementing ‘re-conserve’ programs, recycle food waste from housing as fuel, help reduce ‘carbon footprint’ across campus,” Venkataramanan says. He adds that, of late, there has been growing interest in examining wind energy as an energy source with enormous potential.
“From an employer’s standpoint, the EES certificate could imply that, a student will be aware of issues related to energy sustainability, will carry on well-informed conversations, have practical experience and above all, will most likely not build something unsustainable,” Venkataramanan says. “A lot of times, we don’t know enough about the consequences and instead focus on getting things done. To turn the ship around, we have to learn to recognize problems, define and follow principles. By inventing, uninventing and reinventing, our engineers can go out and define sustainable engineering.”
For those current and potential graduate students who feel as though they have missed the opportunity to spice up their education with an environmentally friendly flavor, there is good news. Besides offering multiple environmentally-focused graduate programs, UW-Madison also boasts five graduate level certificates. One of the more technically involved programs is the Energy Analysis and policy (EAP) program which is administered by the Nelson Institute.
The 30-year-old EAP program was once a very restricted certificate available to only three graduate programs. “About 15 to 20 years ago, they made it a general graduate certificate. Now any student on campus can add it to their degree,” Paul Wilson, professor of nuclear engineering and director of the EAP program, says. Like the other certificate programs, the EAP is designed so that students can easily integrate their certificate requirements into their curriculum. “Right now about 42 students [are] engaged in the program. Depending on the degree program and how creative the student is … of the six courses for the certificate, any graduate student on campus can usually get two, maybe three courses to count toward their graduate degree.”
This flexibility is one reason that the EAP has become more popular recently. “We’ve definitely seen a bump in enrollment the last couple of years,” Wilson says. He notes that only five years ago, the program had roughly half as many participants. Increased environmental awareness has also driven up enrollment. “There are a lot of obvious near term policy issues,” pushing students towards an education in environmental policy.
With both students and the general public showing a broader interest in the ever-intensifying environmental issues, UW-Madison is positioning itself to help answer the call and give students all the tools necessary to become responsible citizens in an environmentally conscious world. It is now up to the student to appreciate, pursue and maybe even better these educational options that have been made available.