Teaching Environmental Systems Engineering

The Systems Engineering Department at the U. S. Naval Academy has introduced a track in environmental systems engineering. The track consists of a sequence of two courses. The first course is taught within the Systems Engineering Department. This course addresses areas where systems engineers impact environmental issues. The course concentrates on environmental hardware, sensors, data handling, and modeling. For the second course in the track, students choose from two traditional environmental courses in the Ocean Engineering Department at the Naval Academy. One course centers on marine pollution: its causes, effects and remediation. The other course centers on ocean resources: their identification, recovery and utilization. This paper presents an overview of the Environmental Systems Engineering track and focuses on the Systems Engineering Department's environmental course. It discusses the course philosophy, content, and labs.