Environmental Engineering: Finding Problems

1. Environmental Engineering: Finding Problems Michael Bobker Director, CIUS Building Performance Lab 9-17-09

2. This evening’s Objective: • Think about how issues become projects • Consider nature of innovation • Look at engineering and engineering projects in broad historical terms

3. How do we come to see needs? Sometimes obvious. But think carefully about what seems obvious. * Terrain * Social Impacts * End-use Study the details of situations

4. How do we come to see needs? Baseline studies • Find out what the conditions really are • Collecting good data can be a challenge Marketing studies • Find out how people perceive a situation, a work process, etc • “Pull factors” in the product development process

5. Sometimes given to the engineer Client has concept of what is desired Translate into engineering Scope Ethical issues in client relations Confidentiality of client intentions, plans Who owns rights to ideas, techniques? What if client goals are unethical? What if there are unintended impacts? How do we come to see needs?

6. Engineers serve market needs. Needs change over time. The history of the steam engine • Engineers involvement with power sources and energy conversion

7. The history of the steam engine • 18th century England. Transition from wood to coal. • Coal mining constraint - removal of water

8. The history of the steam engine. Engineering often proceeds by innovation James Watt’s improvement - separate condenser - multiplies efficiency Initiates the Industrial Revolution!

9. The history of the steam engine. • Engineering often proceeds by innovation • Addition of rotary power from action of piston

10. The history of the steam engine. • Application to transportation Further innovation to apply steam to electric power generation

11. The history of the steam engine. Is James Watt responsible for Global Warming?

12. Innovation – some issues • Waves of Innovation as new “paradigms” appear • Multiple, often similar, approaches to the same perceived problem • Who “owns” a solution?

13. History of modern engineering: An EXTRACTIVE economy Basis of global society Extraction - transport - conversion

14. Modern Coal Industry • Once main urban fuel. Now less visible but …. • 50% of electricity in US is produced from coal. • Rapid growth in China and India • Major global source of Greenhouse Gas

15. Oil Industry: global logistics

16. The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stones • Sheikh Zaki Yanami, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister

17. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction:an emerging paradigm for engineering • Ecological restorations and ecosystem services. Incorporating nature and environmental impacts into economic valuation.

18. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction:an emerging paradigm for engineering • Using biological systems as part of technological applications

19. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction:an emerging paradigm for engineering • Using biological systems as part of technological applications

20. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction:an emerging paradigm for engineering • Reducing extractive services, especially by changing end-uses in the built environment • Building design and retrofit for energy efficiency • Electric Grid efficiency, energy storage • Vehicles and transportation • Renewable energy • Materials • System Optimization