IRES: A Global Perspective on Engineering Sustainable Building Systems

主要研究员是佛罗里达大学的Esther Obonyo博士，他将带领15名美国本科生和研究生与肯尼亚内罗毕的Eco-Build Africa合作开展建筑工程研究。全球对建筑物的设计和管理、材料和建筑性能、能源和资源消耗等问题都很感兴趣。该提案的目的是为建筑工程专业的学生创造国际研究经验。该计划的重点将是给予本科生，硕士和博士学位。学生有机会获得一个全球视角的发展创新，可以使建筑工艺，产品和服务更具可持续性，在内罗毕建设的背景下。具体的研究目标是：1）描述发达国家（如美国）和发展中国家（如肯尼亚）之间可持续建筑工程方法的差异，并定义一个全球学习框架; 2）使用合适的评估模型，调查发展中经济体不同类型的建筑商使用的建筑工程方法的适当性;（3）结合可持续和负担得起的建筑材料、水和卫生系统的创新和低成本使用; 4）展示可持续建筑系统，在研究中利用不同地区的思想交叉施肥。相应的教育计划将通过1）引导建筑工程师应对全球化带来的挑战。通过国际经验提高他们对背景问题的理解; 2）促进以问题为中心和基于团队的学习;以及（3）根据学生的研究开发新的教育材料。现有的可持续建筑课程为实施拟议的教学法和将研究计划的要素融入课堂提供了论坛。该研究计划将促进学生的积极和合作学习，从而开发重要的工程和管理属性。最后，这一倡议将创建具体的教育产品，包括网络和多媒体课程模块，供包括行业专业人员在内的更广泛的受众使用，该项目将通过使美国和肯尼亚的学者能够在共同感兴趣和能力强的领域联合收割机互补人才和共享研究资源来促进科学知识。智力优点：通过捕捉最佳实践，改进肯尼亚和美国的建筑工程实践，评估各种建筑工程战略的适用性的新框架的演变，以及在建筑工程教育中纳入国际测试的可持续建筑方法。更广泛的影响：对可能适当的工具和技术的全球清单作出贡献，确定这些工具和技术的适当性，确定所需的适应以及这种适应所需的研究和开发支持。该计划还将专门招收少数民族学生。此外，这些经验将促进美国研究生和本科生的早期职业介绍给国际研究界的领先学者和专业人士，他们参与了建筑环境中可持续实践的推进。

The Principal Investigator, Dr. Esther Obonyo of the University of Florida, will lead 15 US undergraduate and graduate students in carrying out research in construction engineering in partnership with Eco-Build Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. There is a global interest in issues such as design and management of buildings, materials and building performance, energy and resource consumption. The aim of this proposal is to create International Research Experiences for Students in construction engineering. The focus of the program will be on giving undergraduate, Masters and Ph. D. students an opportunity to acquire a global perspective on developing innovations that can make construction processes, products and services more sustainable, in the context of building in Nairobi. The specific research objectives are: 1) To characterize the differences in approaches to sustainable construction engineering between developed countries, such as the USA, and developing countries, such as Kenya, and define a framework for global learning; 2) To investigate the appropriateness of construction engineering approaches used by the different types of builders in developing economies using suitable assessment models; 3) To contextualize innovative and low cost use of building materials, water and sanitation systems that are both sustainable and affordable; 4) To demonstrate sustainable building systems that exploit cross-fertilization of ideas across the different regions in the research.The corresponding education plan will prime construction engineers for the challenges associated with globalization by 1) improving their understanding of contextual issues through international experiences; 2) facilitating problem-focused and team-based learning; and (3) developing new educational materials based on the students research. Existing courses in Sustainable Construction provide the forum for implementing the proposed pedagogy and integrating elements of the research program into the classroom. The plan for the research will promote active and cooperative student learning, which develops important engineering and management attributes. Finally, this initiative will create specific educational products including web-based and multimedia curriculum modules for use by a wider audience including industry based professionals.The project will advance scientific knowledge by enabling scholars in the United States and Kenya to combine complementary talents and share research resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence. Intellectual merit: Contribution to improving construction engineering practices both in Kenya and the US through capturing best practices, the evolution of a new framework for assessing the suitability of various construction engineering strategies and the incorporation of internationally tested sustainable construction methodologies in construction engineering education. Broader impact: Contribution to the worldwide inventory of possibly appropriate tools and technologies, establishment of the appropriateness of such tools and technologies, definition of the required adaptation and the required research and development support of such adaptation. The program will also specifically set out to recruit minority students. In addition, the experiences will facilitate early career introduction of U.S. graduate and undergraduate students to leading scholars and professionals within the international research community who are involved in the advancement of sustainable practices within the Built Environment.