Greener Solutions: A Safer Design Partnership

Topics

• This 4-unit interdisciplinary, project-based course is intended for undergraduate students in public health, chemical engineering, chemistry, environmental studies, and engineering. The course draws on students’ disciplinary expertise and teaches new skills to identify safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals currently used in a product or manufacturing process 1. Understand the principles of green chemistry and bio-inspired design and be able to apply them in developing safer alternatives to a hazardous chemical or material in a specific application; 2. Understand principles of chemical exposure, hazard and risk and be able to apply them in the process of evaluating alternatives to a chemical of concern; 3. Effectively access information and use tools to evaluate and compare the hazard profiles of chemicals and materials; 4. Frame research questions and propose solutions, working in the applied setting of a partner company’s challenge; and 5. Communicate complex technical ideas clearly and effectively in written and oral form.
• Student teams complete interim assignments during the six-week, session-long research project, which culminates in a final report and presentation. While class lectures, discussion and assignments support the technical aspects of the project, significant emphasis is also placed on developing the requisite processoriented skills: gathering information, working in teams, and communicating effectively in both written and oral forms.

Official catalogue course objectives and student learning outcomes