Texas A&M University

Energy 101 By Susan E. Cotton

A new course and certificate program introduces undergrads to all kinds of energy and new ways of thinking about them.

Dr. Nancy Amato
Professor and Albert B. Stevens Chair Christine Ehlig-Economides has developed and coordinates Engineering 101, Energy: Resources, Utilization and Importance to Society, and the Energy Engineering Certificate.

Engineering 101 isn’t only for engineering students; it’s for everyone else, too. And everyone else ought to learn about its subject: energy.

“The general public actually knows very little about energy — where it comes from, how it’s transmitted or how it’s used,” says Stephen Holditch, head of the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering and holder of the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Chair in Petroleum Engineering.

So to increase students’ knowledge and understanding of energy, one of Holditch’s faculty members, professor and Albert B. Stevens Chair Christine Ehlig-Economides, has developed and now coordinates the four-credit-hour course, Energy: Resources, Utilization and Importance to Society.

Engineering 101 — or Energy 101, if you will — is a core-curriculum natural science elective for undergrads in all disciplines, from accounting to zoology. Ehlig-Economides and Holditch say they estimate more than 1,000 students a year, most of them freshmen, will take the course.

“That’s the vision: a great many students learning about energy and how it affects their lives,” Ehlig-Economides says.

“That’s the vision: a great many students learning about energy and how it affects their lives,” Ehlig-Economides says.

Ehlig-Economides and her co-instructor, professor Thomas Blasingame, invite faculty members from other departments to teach students about different kinds of energy sources and how each affects society. These energy sources include coal, natural gas, nuclear fission and fusion, oil, and renewables like sunlight, water and wind. Then the students consider what they learned in the context of sustainable development — the development of energy sources so coming generations can easily develop their energy sources.

“The recitation is focused entirely on sustainable development,” she says. “As such, 25 percent of the course is focused on sustainable development aspects. It’s a very strong component of the Engineering 101 course.”

Engineering 101 is the first of four courses any undergrad who has passed the prerequisites can take to earn the Energy Engineering Certificate. Students pick the other three courses from a list of 10 whose subjects include energy conservation; electric power systems; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning; internal combustion engines; and safety.

“Only one or two of the courses currently listed have much emphasis on sustainable development,” Ehlig-Economides says.

And this emphasis on sustainable development is what sets Engineering 101 apart from the rest. Ehlig-Economides has even asked the National Science Foundation to fund the development of materials to integrate sustainable development into the honors sections of the energy engineering certificate courses. She says she hopes the materials will find their way into the general sections of the courses.

Ehlig-Economides has also teamed with Ramesh Talreja, Tenneco Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, and Sam Mannan, holder of the Mike O’Connor Chair in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, to design sustainable development education and research programs. Talreja says that sustainable development should be more than a “perfunctory elective”  — it should become a keystone for all engineering students.

Department head Holditch says the new courses and eventual energy engineering degree program are in line with the future of energy and especially petroleum engineering.

“I see that this department will slowly transform itself from petroleum engineering to energy engineering,” Holditch says. “The transformation will take several decades, but we want to help set the agenda and lead the way.” end of story