Your major project for this class is a proposal that you will write to apply for a grant of money to solve a particular sustainability problem in the Austin area. All proposals will be written in response to one of two requests for proposals (one from the Regional Environmental Protection Program, one from the University of Texas at Austin). You will conduct your investigation as a member of a consulting firm ( your lab group), but your proposal will be developed in collaboration with a client: someone at a company, agency, or institution interested in competing for the particular grant.

Choosing your semester-long project is an important decision. The scope of your project dictates what you will write about in all the sections of the Proposal to your client and funding source, as well as what you will speak about in your oral presentations. All projects will investigate how environmental technologies may be used to solve a particular sustainability problem for a particular client. There are of course several definitions of “sustainability,” and one of your first tasks will be to review those definitions and pick or modify one as the defining framework for your project.

Here is an overview of the proposal-based assignments for this semester: PROPOSAL PROJECT OVERVIEW

In class, we will discuss the Request for Proposals (RFP) to which you will respond – for now, be thinking of the sorts of sustainability topics you might want to investigate.  If you choose to respond to the regional RFP, you should seek a local client to partner with on preparing your proposal for a grant. Here are some sustainability needs that clients might have a need to investigate (this is not a comprehensive list -- you may think of others):

• Alternative energy, such as wind and solar power or biodiesel fuels, and refinements of existing local power generation techniques such as coal gasification
• Programs relating to transportation-related issues such as public transportation, alternative fuels, and relief of traffic congestion
• Refinements to the region’s distribution and consumption of electricity, such as “smart grids”
• Improvements to the management of sewage and stormwater systems, or other approaches to the problem of Combined Sewer Overflows and their associated hazards
• Bioremediation and other emerging environmental restoration techniques
• Any program designed to improve local air and/or water quality
• Agriculture: agricultural waste, sustainable farming techniques
• Treatment or disposal of specific waste products, pollutants, and hazardous substances of particular interest to the Wabash Valley, such as dioxin, mercury
• Green computing and electronic waste recycling

If you choose to respond to the RFP from the University of Texas at Austin, you might seek a partnering client interested in applying one of these technologies (this is not a comprehensive list -- you may think of others):

• Garden with greenhouse for research projects and supplementing meals
• Constructive use of storm water run-off, such as rain gardens, watering the athletic fields with runoff rather than well water (current practice), or building a small wetlands
• Biomass generator for heating campus buildings
• Prairie restoration of large grassy fields (not those used for recreational purposes)
• Sustainable building standards (New Apartment Residence Hall is currently being monitored to see if it is sinking
• Motion-sensors
• Solar heaters
• Wind turbines (built off-campus but to offset the amount of energy Rose derives from coal)

Within a couple of weeks , you must have a defined scope of work and a specific client for whom you will develop a proposal, section by section, throughout the semester. To understand this client’s problem, you will interview him or her. Accordingly, all clients must be local (or near your home, which you visit often). Understanding the specific problems, needs, and communication preferences of clients, customers, and managers is an important part of being a successful engineer.

Project Description >>