Environmental education for all engineers.

Environmental engineering education at universities is a rapidly changing field globally. Traditionally it has resided in the civil engineering program addressing water and wastewater quality, treatment, design and regulatory issues. In recent years environmental engineering has become a much broader field encompassing water, wastewater, soil pollution, air pollution, risk assessment, ecosystems, human health, toxicology, sustainable development, regulatory aspects and much more. The need to introduce environmental engineering/green engineering/pollution prevention/design for the environment concepts to undergraduate engineering students has become recognized to be increasingly important. This need is being driven in part through the US Engineering Accreditation Commission Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology criteria 2000. Thus there has been a major shift in environmental engineering education and it no longer resides only within the civil engineering discipline. This paper focuses on the development of innovative curricula for a brand new engineering program at Rowan University that integrates environmental education for all engineers. A common course known as "engineering clinic" was developed for all engineering students throughout their eight semesters of engineering education. One of the clinic goals is to integrate engineering design and the environment. The program, in its seventh year, indicates successful implementation of environmental education in all four engineering disciplines in their course work and clinics.

Improving portable inhalation therapy through real-time assessment of patient pulmonary state.

Metered-dose inhalation therapy is the method of choice for a number of respiratory conditions including asthma and bronchitis. Correct use of the metered-dose inhaler (MDI) has been the subject of much research. Devices have been developed to assist with training in their proper use and to enhance the effectiveness of MDI therapy. However, all lack patient pulmonary state assessment. We have approached the development of an improved portable MDI device by focusing on the total system elements that contribute to a smart inhalation therapy device. Components of such a system should include assessment of the patient's therapeutic state, tracking of drug usage, and also include physician-modified alarm thresholds. Therapeutic state is best assessed with end-expiratory CO2 measurements augmented by inspiratory and expiratory flow efforts. Drug usage monitoring needs to include the time history of drug administration. Physician-modified alarms should allow configuration of the smart inhaler to account for patient condition so that appropriate alarm limits can be established; for example, raising the CO2 alarm threshold for patients with chronic lung disease.