REU Site: REU in Sustainability

摘要- Mihelcic 0453174该奖项支持REU网站的可持续性。在未来50年里，世界人口预计将翻一番，达到120亿人。稀缺的、不可再生的资源正以前所未有的速度被使用，几乎没有考虑到子孙后代。面对这些事实，问题出现了：地球和它的居民是可持续的吗？人类和工业系统的设计是否能够确保人类对自然资源的利用和循环不会导致生活质量的下降？这个“可持续发展的REU”挑战本科生研究人员与位于五大湖盆地的密歇根理工大学（MTU）、南方大学和巴吞鲁日A&amp；M学院（SUBR）的教职员工并肩工作，帮助回答这个问题。巴吞鲁日学院是位于路易斯安那州密西西比河走廊的HBCU。来自MTU不同学科的教职员工一直在可持续发展问题上进行合作，他们的活动产生了一个可持续发展的未来模型，作为这个REU网站的主题基础和智力焦点。可持续未来模型侧重于四个领域的研究和教育：(1)环境系统，(2)工业系统，(3)社会系统，以及(4)将前三个领域结合在一起的综合举措。最近，MTU成立了可持续未来研究所（SFI），以帮助创造和传播新的方法和过程，以产生支持可持续发展决策和教育的科学知识。随后，SFI开始与南方大学工程学院、纳尔逊·曼德拉公共政策与城市事务学院（NMS）以及巴吞鲁日a&m学院（SUBR）合作开展一些教育和研究项目。该REU网站通过创建由来自这两个领域的学生和教师导师组成的团队，将工程和社会科学学科结合起来，对各种可持续性问题进行跨学科研究，从评估家庭消费过程的公共政策研究到拆卸工厂的设计和操作以及产品价值回收的研究。一个专注于可持续发展问题的暑期本科生研究经历是激发学生对该领域兴趣和培养学生研究技能的宝贵途径。这份可持续发展报告产生了四个主要影响。首先，它为学生提供了一个学习可持续发展问题的机会，同时他们也培养了研究技能，为研究领域及其随之而来的职业可能性打开了一扇窗。其次，它为教师提供了指导那些可能没有经历过亲密指导的学生的机会。第三，该项目通过扩大少数民族本科生在联合研究中的参与，通过共同管理项目，以及通过教师和学生在接触不同文化和地理的校园之间的访问，加强了MTU-SUBR的伙伴关系。最后，可持续发展问题的研究对社会至关重要。这两个校区是研究可持续发展的理想地点。五大湖盆地拥有世界上25%的新鲜地表水，并产生了我国三分之一以上的制造业产出。流经巴吞鲁日的85英里长的密西西比河沿岸的工业占路易斯安那州有毒物质排放总量的80%以上，该地区提供了一个重要的环境滥用案例研究和相关研究工作的基础。

Abstract - Mihelcic 0453174This award supports an REU site on sustainability. In the next 50 years, the world's population is expected to double to 12 billion people. Scarce, nonrenewable resources are being used at ever-faster rates, with little regard for future generations. Facing these facts, the question emerges: are the Earth and its inhabitants sustainable? Can human and industrial systems be designed to ensure that humankind's use of natural resources and cycles does not lead to a diminished quality of life? This "REU on Sustainability" challenges undergraduate researchers to work side by side with faculty colleagues at Michigan Technological University (MTU), located in the Great Lakes Basin, and Southern University and A&M College of Baton Rouge (SUBR), an HBCU located along Louisiana's Mississippi River corridor, to help answer this question affirmatively. Faculty members from a diverse set of disciplines at MTU have been collaborating on sustainability issues, and their activity has produced a Sustainable Futures Model that serves as the thematic basis and intellectual focus of this REU Site. The Sustainable Futures Model focuses on research and education in four areas: (1) environmental systems, (2) industrial systems, and (3) societal systems, and (4) integrative initiatives that bring the first three areas together. Recently, MTU formed the Sustainable Futures Institute (SFI) to help create and disseminate new methods and processes for generating scientific knowledge in support of sustainability decisions and education. SFI then began to collaborate with the College of Engineering and Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs (NMS) at Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge (SUBR) on several educational and research initiatives. This REU Site joins the disciplines of engineering and social sciences by creating teams of students and faculty mentors from both fields to pursue interdisciplinary research on a variety of sustainability issues, as varied as public policy research that assesses the processes of household consumption to a study of the design and operation of disassembly factories and product- value recovery. A summer undergraduate research experience focused on sustainability issues is a valuable way to stimulate interest in this field and to develop student research skills. This REU on Sustainability generates four principal impacts. First, it offers students an opportunity to learn about sustainability issues while they also develop research skills, opening a window to the world of research and its attendant career possibilities. Second, it offers faculty the opportunity to mentor students who have probably not experienced close mentoring. Third, this project strengthens the MTU-SUBR partnership by broadening the participation of minority undergraduate students in the joint research, by co-administration of the project, and by faculty and student visits between campuses where they are exposed to diverse cultures and geography. Finally, the research into sustainability issues is of vital importance to society. These two campuses are ideally situated for research on sustainability. The Great Lakes Basin contains 25% of the world's fresh surface water and generates over one-third of our Nation's manufacturing output. Industries along the 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River that passes through Baton Rouge contribute more than 80% of the total toxic releases in Louisiana, and the region provides an important case study in environmental abuse and a basis for relevant research efforts.