An overview of the undergraduate environmental engineering program at the

University of Cincinnati, which was established in 2012.

The Environmental EngineeringUndergraduate Programat the University of Cincinnati

UC students on a field trip to a local utility.

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em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • February 2018

Undergraduate Program at the University of Cincinnati by Mingming Lu, Margaret Kupferle, and Tim Keener

Undergraduate Program at the University of Cincinnati by Mingming Lu, Margaret Kupferle, and Tim Keener

In the 1880s, Cincinnati was the largest city in Ohio. It was the industrial center for metal works and meat packing,and was a transportation hub for railways and river boats.1

Meanwhile, air pollution, mainly in the form of smoke, became a byproduct of the city’s development and prosperity.The nation’s first smoke abatement office was established inCincinnati, OH.

In 1925, work at the laboratory of the U.S. Public HealthService led to the publication of public health bulletin No.146, “A Study of the Pollution and Natural Purification of theOhio River,” by H.W. Streeter and E.B. Phelps. This landmarkpaper developed and demonstrated the first physically basedmathematical model for predicting concentrations of dissolved

oxygen in natural water bodies. Many consider this seminalcontribution to mark the start of environmental engineering,and Cincinnati as the birthplace of environmental engineering.

Smoke continued to plague Cincinnati as a major health nuisance for years. This also resulted in many studies, publicawareness, and leaders in air pollution control. Charlie Gruber,who started his career as a Chief Smoke Inspector in 1938,was such an example. He became the first president of thethen–newly renamed Air Pollution Control Association(APCA; a precursor to A&WMA) in 1950. Mr. Gruber washired by the University of Cincinnati (UC) to develop the airpollution control program in 1966.2 The smoke abatementoffice then evolved into the Hamilton County Department of

Table 1. A sample EnvE curriculum.

Source: http://ceas.uc.edu/current_students/curriculum_information/environmental_engineering.html

em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • February 2018

Undergraduate Program at the University of Cincinnati by Mingming Lu, Margaret Kupferle, and Tim Keener

em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • February 2018

Environmental Services (HCDOES), which is the contractor ofthe Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in managingair and waste issues in the counties of Hamilton, Butler, Clermont,and Warren. The air quality monitoring and permitting of theHCDOES is now the Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency.

In 1975, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)opened a major research laboratory adjacent to the UC campus. The primary missions of this federal laboratory areto perform pioneering work into the collection, treatment and distribution of municipal drinking water, wastewater and storm water.

The rich resources in environmental protection enabled thegrowth of the environmental engineering program at UC,which emerged from serving as a specialty area of traditionalcivil engineering to becoming one of the most well-knownenvironmental engineering graduate programs in the nation.

UC’s Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Program UC’s Environmental Engineering and Science (EES) used tobe a graduate program housed within the Department ofCivil and Environmental Engineering. It was ranked second inthe nation by the Gourman Report (1997), and was consistentlylisted among the top 20 U.S. environmental engineering programs by the U.S. News and World Report rankings until the 2010s.

As a result of college reorganization at UC in 2009, the EESprogram became separated from civil engineering. Due tothe increasing demands for environmental engineering students in the job market, as well as the national trend toward the establishment of undergraduate programs in environmental engineering, the undergraduate environmentalengineering program at UC was established in the fall of2012. This change also coincided with UC’s conversion from

Table 2. Example syllabus.

EnvE 4011 (Introduction to) Air Pollution

Brief Course Description:3hrs. In this introductory course, the formation, atmospherictransport of air pollutants, and the associated air quality issues atvarious scales will be discussed. The impacts of anthropogenicair pollutants on human health, economy and the ecosystems willalso be discussed. Pollution prevention and control technologies willbe presented. Pollutant measurement and air quality regulationswill be discussed with examples from students and a local airquality agency.

Student Learning Outcomes: After talking EnvE 4011, Introduction to Air Pollution, the students should be able to • Develop a basic understanding of the chemical and physical

properties of critical air pollutants, and the resultant impactson human health and the environment/ecosystem.

• Understand atmospheric transport of air pollutants. • Understand various air quality issues, from local to global

scales, and the causes, impact and remediation associated with these issues.

• Develop a basic understanding of technologies used to prevent or control air pollutant emissions, including processoperations, process design, and limitations

In addition, students will also develop effective written and presentation skills in finding solutions to engineering problems,develop an understanding of the evolvement of the environmentalengineering profession, and understand fundamental principlesof engineering design through various activities in this course.

Prerequisite: material balance (Ch.E. 2064 or EnvE 345) or equivalent

Breadth of Knowledge (BoK) Areas: critical thinking, knowledge integration

Textbook:“Air Pollution Control: A Design Approach by C. David Cooper,F. C. Alley”, Publication Date: September 1, 2010, ISBN-10:157766678X, ISBN-13: 978-1577666783, Edition: 4, Waveland press.

Earlier editions of the book are acceptable (such as the 3rd or2nd), but the students are responsible for finding the correcthomework assignments.

Helpful websites: www.epa.gov, the US EPA’s website andwww.hcdoes.org, the Southwest Ohio Air Agency site.

Course Materials: Blackboard will be used to post most class materials with the exception of class notes. Blackboard functions used include syllabus and course document, and learning modules (for hwk).

Course Contents:• Introduction: atmospheric composition, major air pollutants,

major sources and air pollution control program history       • Air pollutant transport and dispersion• Air quality issues at various scales and locations • Control and prevention of gaseous pollutants from stationary

and mobile sources • Control and prevention of particulate matter from stationary

and mobile sources

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em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • February 2018

Undergraduate Program at the University of Cincinnati by Mingming Lu, Margaret Kupferle, and Tim Keener

Table 1 shows the most recent curriculum for the program,which is posted online, and also given to each student tomanager his/her study at UC. Table 2 is an example syllabusof a course relevant to the A&WMA community: “(Introductionto) Air Pollution”. Table 3 shows the courses by ABET(Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology Inc.)clusters, as well as connections of various courses. Continuedimprovement has been made to this curriculum from othersimilar undergraduate programs in the US to align betterwith ABET requirements.

In summary, students in EnvE will receive 42 hours of mathand basic science courses with laboratory, 56 hours of generalengineering science and design courses, and 18 hours ofgeneral education (including economics, English composition,and technical writing).

EnvE students are prepared for engineering practice by conducting a capstone design project in their senior year,which totals 6 credit hours of senior design for two semesters.Lectures are provided on practical design methods and externalspeakers provide awareness on current topics. Students self-select into groups of three or four to solve real world designproblems. They will gain experience in preparing project proposals, computation or experimental design, economicanalysis, and report writing, with a final presentation to faculty and external engineering judges.

The EnvE program offers three tracks for undergraduates:“Water Quality,” “Hydro-Systems,” and “Air Quality,” all are inthe context of “Sustainability”. Students are required to selectat least 15 credit hours of environmental electives during

an academic quarter system to a semester system. As of today,the program is housed in the Department of Chemical andEnvironmental Engineering, College of Applied Engineeringand Science (CEAS) at the University of Cincinnati(http://ceas.uc.edu/). The first class of seniors graduated inApril 2017 with Bachelors of Science in Environmental Engineering (EnvE).

Currently, there are 13 EES faculty across the specialty areas:2 in air quality, 4 in hydro- systems, and the rest in water and wastewater. The faculty members are also engaged inenergy, waste, and nanotechnology research. Unlike graduateadmission, which is determined by the program, undergraduatestudent admission is administered by the University’s Officeof Admissions with assistance from the CEAS UndergraduateEnrollment Office. The minimum criteria to enter this programinclude ACT of 23, ACT math of 24, and a GPA of 3.3. Forthe past five years, the average ACT of EnvE freshmen is around28, with ACT math at 28 and GPA around 3.6. Studentstransfer into the program from undecided engineering programs, as well as from other schools.

UC is on a trimester system, with 14-week for each semester,in order to accommodate co-op requirements. Due to the co-op requirement, the undergraduate curriculum in CEAS isdesigned for five years.3 Environmental engineering under-graduate students need to complete 128 credit hours ofcourses and 3–5 co-op semesters before graduation. Studentsstart to participate in the co-op program during their sopho-more, pre-junior, and junior years, alternating between worksemesters and on-campus academic semesters beginning inthe spring of their sophomore year.

Table 3. EnvE curriculum by ABET cluster.

Note: Terms refer to semesters and columns are grouped according to ABET categories. Both solid and dashed lines are prerequisites.

Undergraduate Program at the University of Cincinnati by Mingming Lu, Margaret Kupferle, and Tim Keener

em • The Magazine for Environmental Managers • A&WMA • February 2018

Research Experience for Undergraduates, and NSF S-STEM.The ungraduated students established their own professionalsociety, the Society of Environmental Engineers, and have organized student-faculty exchange activities for the past two years.

SummaryUC’s EnvE program just received ABET evaluation with nodeficiencies, which is a great outcome for such a new program.The EnvE undergraduate program is growing steadily from13 in the class of 2017 to 42 in the class of 2021, with morethan 50 incoming freshman in 2017/2018. The program islikely to meet the target of 40 enrollments set by the collegein the near future. em

their senior year. They should select two courses from twoout of three EnvE focus areas (e.g., Air/Hydrology, Air/ Wateror Hydrology/Water), and also one sustainability elective. Thegoal is to provide students with in depth understanding ofthe environmental engineering field.

In addition, an environmental engineering minor is also offeredto CEAS students, in Aerospace, Biomedical, Chemical, Civiland Mechanical Engineering. Students need to take 9–10credit hours of courses from the environmental engineeringprogram in order to receive the certificate. Similar to otherCEAS programs, co-op experience greatly facilitated jobplacements of undergraduate students in EnvE. The studentsalso have opportunities to participate in research throughprograms such as Women in Science and Engineering, NSF

References1. Chadwick, C. The History of Air Pollution Control in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1996; Available online at http://www.southwestohioair.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_

3788196/File/EnvironmentalServices/AirQuality/History/Department%20History.pdf (accessed Nov. 2017).2. Keener, T.C. In memory of an air pollution control pioneer, Charles W. Gruber, 1910–2001; J. Air & Waste Manage. Assoc. 2003, 53 (10), 1170-1171.3. Bishop, P.L.; Keener, T.C.; Kukreti, A.R.; Kowel, S.T. The ACCEND program: a combined BS and MS program in environmental engineering that includes

co-operative work experience; Water Sci. Tech. 2004, 49, 73-79.

Mingming Lu, Margaret Kupferle, and Tim C. Keener are all with the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering,College of Engineering and Applied Science, at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati OH.

Many consider Cincinnati

to be the birthplace of

environmental engineering

In Next Month’s Issue…

Waste ManagementThe March and April issues will focus on the various aspectsof sustainable waste management, including waste prevention/minimization, recycling, and beneficial re-use of waste materials,energy recovery from waste, and disposal practices such asmodern landfilling.