Goals:What will our environment look like in twenty years?  Fifty years and beyond? How will that affect our cities, towns, shorelines, industries and lifestyles? Sustainability in a changing world does not only mean developing technologies that reduce our climate impact, such as alternative energy sources.  It also means adapting our built infrastructure to a changing climate and all the environmental changes which result. The EACC team will explore new materials, processes and designs, from more durable and robust synthetic "green" materials to advanced manufacturing processes for a circular economy, including advancements in applications of additive manufacturing/3D printing, all with the focus of improving lives and supporting healthy and safe communities. 

Issues:

Our climate is not only changing, resulting in numerous changes in our environment, but is doing so in a discontinuous and in many ways impossible-to-predict sense, due to the overwhelming complexity of our global natural and engineered systems. In light of this, sustainability means not only meeting the challenges of our societal needs for energy, shelter, food, services and manufacturing via environmentally-benign technologies which seek to limit human contribution to greenhouse gases, non-degradable waste, and ecosystem damage, but also finding new ways to adapt our society and civilization, on a global scale, to the inevitability of radical climate change. Both pathways must be pursued if we have any hope to support a healthy and fulfilling future for humanity and our natural environment. This vital approach must be pursued, not only from a policy perspective but through integration into our engineering materials, technologies and designs.

The research project focus of the team will be to fully integrate critical thinking, engineering design, materials science (and materials choice) and environmental impact. Impact can be measured via life cycle assessment of the materials used and the energy and resource expenditures of the technologies developed for climate change adaptation.  Some research opportunities include:

• Understanding the impact of increasing ocean salinity, acidity, humidity, frequency and intensity of storms, and sea level rise on metal alloys and composite materials used for marine environments.
• Interacting with climate modelers, environmental scientists, designers, engineers from multiple disciplines, and municipal communities and government organizations to develop more accurate models for prediction of engineering failure due to climate change
• Design of accelerated weathering methodologies to test sustainable materials.
• Development of sustainable and durable cementious materials formulation for urban shorelines and off shore wind applications.
• Developing fiber-to-fiber recycling of sustainable textiles for a circular economy
• Design of advanced methods for “green” manufacturing (such as using recycled ocean microplastics for additive manufacturing)

Methods & Technologies:3D printing; chemical synthesis and spectroscopy; composite materials; microscopy; powder sintering; computer modeling; life cycle analysis; electrochemistry; surface science; structural design tools

Disciplines:All engineering majors, chemistry, physics, sustainability studies, environmental and health sciences, art and design, economics, business, computer science; Coastal Environmental Studies; Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences; Biochemistry; Business Management; Engineering Chemistry; Environmental Design, Policy, and Planning; Environmental Humanities; Information Systems; Journalism; Marine Sciences; Mathematics; Sustainability Studies; Technological Systems Management; Social Work; Sociology; Philosophy; Political Science; Geology; Economics; Ecology & Evolution; Population Health & Clinical Outcomes Research; Public Health; Science Education; Teaching: Biology; Teaching: Chemistry; Teaching: Earth Science; Teaching: Physics; Technology and Society; Computer Science; Creative Writing and Literature

Interests / Preparation by Major:All interests welcome -- any background in engineering, chemistry, art and design, sustainability, environmental science, computer modeling, urban plannings, human health, economics, business would be helpful.

Faculty:
    Gary Halada (Materials Science & Chem Eng)

Team Section:05

Team Established:Spring 2019

Fall Team Meeting: .

Spring Team Meeting:Online at Online Asynchronous

Contact:Gary Halada <Gary.Halada@stonybrook.edu>

Links:.

Applications:Closed