NSLC Program—Engineering

Engineering and Environmental Sustainability (1 or 2 credits)

Course Description: This American University course adds to your NSLC experience by introducing you to the concept of sustainable design. Engineers do a good deal more than build and fix things. As problem solvers, engineers can play a fundamental role in facing environmental challenges - or in making them worse. In this class, we will examine some of the major challenges driving the need for environmentally and socially sustainable engineering, and we will explore possible solutions. Some questions we will discuss are: What does it mean to design products that are good for people and for the planet? How do we build products without negative social and environmental impacts? Using a combination of design exercises, film excerpts and lectures, we will combine your NSLC field trips and workshops with in-class discussions about the challenges of studying and practicing engineering in the 21st century world.

Course Outline PDF—Northwestern University

Course Outline PDF—Berkeley, GW, Georgia Tech

Professor for sessions at Northwestern University: Efe Sevin is a doctoral candidate at the School of International Service at American University and is a research fellow at the Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Communities (COTELCO). His research interests include strategic communication, non-traditional diplomacy, global governance, and research methodologies. His interest in global governance and non-traditional diplomacy has broadened his research agenda to include climate change diplomacy, science diplomacy, and global health policies. He was recently employed as a visiting researcher at Stockholm University School of Business where he studied Swedish climate change and foreign aid policies as part of the country’s branding attempts. This summer will be his third year teaching with the NSLC. Efe received his BS from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey. He completed his graduate level studies at Emerson College, Boston, and received his MA as foreign Fulbright scholar.

Professor for sessions at the University of California, Berkeley: Leah Gates is a fourth-year doctoral student at American University’s School of International Service, where she specializes in military organizational behavior and gender issues. She has taught and assisted courses in human rights, world politics, and peace and conflict studies. Outside of academia, she is an active participant in health education programs, designing innovative strategies in collaboration with Washington, D.C., organizations like The Women’s Collective and V-Day D.C. She also devotes time to young women’s leadership development through mentorship and skills workshops. Leah was proud to present at the AIDS 2012: World Conference on HIV and AIDS, Global Village as a health educator discussing public/private partnerships in health promotion. She is active in national scholastic communities around military behavior, wartime human rights abuses, and women and political leadership, where she regularly presents her own research on these topics.

Professor for first and second sessions at George Washington University: Katherine Reese is a doctoral student at American University’s School of International Service in Washington D.C. She studied at Rice University and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris before beginning her PhD at American University. Her interests integrate international communication, mobility, and environmental politics. Katherine’s article “Reconstructing Automobility: The Making and Breaking of Modern Transportation” was published in Global Environmental Politics in 2010. Katherine has also presented papers on transportation and its effects on human and ecological health at several conferences. She has taught courses on sustainability and engineering for the National Student Leadership Conference program for several years; she has served as a teaching assistant for courses on international communication and world politics in American University’s School of International Service; and she has supervised student research projects as graduate fellow in American University’s University College program. She also serves as a managing editor of the Journal of International Relations and Development.

Professor for third and fourth sessions at George Washington University: Kate Tennis is a PhD candidate at American University’s School of International Service. Her research focuses on global South-North migration, international migration management, and security. She holds an MA in international relations and diplomacy from Leiden University in the Netherlands, and a BA in international development studies from McGill University, Quebec. In addition to her current work, she has conducted research on refugee policy coordination between EU member states, regionalism in the EU, and UN voting cohesion. Prior to her work at American University she worked at the Dutch government’s Scientific Council for Government Policy. This will be her second summer teaching engineering with NSLC.

Professor for sessions at Georgia Tech University: Patrick Litanga is a doctoral student at the School of International Service at American University and he is a research associate at the Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Community (COTELCO). Patrick received his BA in psychology from the University of Kentucky, a Master’s in political science as well as a Master’s in international affairs from Ohio University, both with a focus on Africa. His research interests include post-conflict reconstruction, conflict resolution, child soldiering, and the political economy of land in post conflict settings. Patrick has worked and conducted research on the reintegration of ex-child soldiers and participated in land conflict negotiations and workshops on land conflicts in Northern Uganda. This summer is the first time that Patrick will be teaching the NSLC.

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