This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is open to students majoring in the following (or related) disciplines:

• Any field of Engineering,
  
• Social Sciences,
  
• Business/Economics.

Students can elect to perform their 10 weeks of research at either Michigan Technological University (Houghton, Michigan) or Southern University and A&M College (Baton Rouge, Louisiana).
Dates: May 29 to August  3, 2007 (Arrival is on May 27, Orientation is May 28)

Introduction
In only 12 years – between 1987 and 1999 – the world’s population increased by 20 percent, from 5 to 6 billion. This growth, In only 12 years – between 1987 and 1999 – the world’s population increased by 20 percent, from 5 to 6 billion. This growth, combined with dramatic increases in per capita resource consumption, contributes to increasingly serious social and environmental problems.

These problems will only worsen over the next 50 years as the projected world population nears 12 billion and developing nations become more industrialized. We are using finite nonrenewable resources at an ever-increasing rate, with little regard for future generations. Facing these facts, we are compelled to ask: are Earth and humankind sustainable?

People, governments and industries worldwide must adopt policies and practices that promote sustainable development. In the mid-1980s, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, formulated the widely-cited definition of sustainable development: satisfying present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Despite warnings by the Bruntland Commission and others about the threats posed by problems such as climate change, loss of biological diversity, and depletion of nonrenewable resources, little progress has been made in implementing changes that are essential for a sustainable future. Worldwide, society is not on a sustainable course.

In the coming decades, students with expertise in sustainability issues and planning will be in great demand as the world tries to reverse this looming global crisis.

 

Several years ago, faculty members from a diverse set of disciplines at Michigan Tech began collaborating on sustainability issues. Their activity produced the Sustainable Futures Model, which will serve as the thematic basis and intellectual focus of this proposed REU Site.

The Sustainable Futures Model focuses on research and education in four areas:

• (1) environmental systems,
• (2) industrial systems,
• (3) societal systems,
• and (4) integrative initiatives that join all three of these areas.

The Sustainable Futures Model is a meta-disciplinary endeavor that integrates research from across multiple disciplines.

In recognition of the emerging importance of sustainability, Michigan Tech recently founded the Sustainable Futures Institute (SFI). SFI's mission is to help create and disseminate new methods and processes that generate scientific knowledge and engineering products in support of sustainability decisions and education.

SFI has been collaborating with the College of Engineering and the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Southern University and A & M College at Baton Rouge (SUBR) on several education and research initiatives. One unique aspect of this REU program is it joins students and faculty from both the engineering/science disciplines and the social science/economics disciplines to study and to conduct research on sustainability issues.

This REU in Sustainability combines the strengths of Michigan Tech, located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan along the shores of Lake Superior, with those of Southern University, located in Louisiana's capitol city along the banks of the lower Mississippi River.

The two universities are different in many respects, but they share expertise in the field of sustainability and a mutual commitment to the value of undergraduate research. The partnership between the schools broadens the cultural, technical, and world views that each institution can offer its students.

 

Further reading:

Mihelcic, JR “Educating Tomorrow’s Global Engineer through a Unique Partnership with the U.S. Peace Corps,” Woman Engineer, 30-33, Fall, 2004.

Mihelcic, JR, “Educating the Future’s Water Professional, " Water Environment Technology, 16(9): 86-92, 2004.

Mihelcic, JR, et al. “Sustainability Science and Engineering: Emergence of a New Metadiscipline,” Environmental Science & Technology, 37(23), 5314-5324, 2003.