Energy and Sustainability Engineering (EaSE)

The College of Engineering initiative in Energy and Sustainability Engineering (EaSE) has four goals:

Energy engineering refers to the development of technologies for energy harvesting, conversion, transmission and use that are highly efficient and sustainable in future generations.
Sustainability engineering refers to the development of technologies that provide the necessities for civil society and the infrastructure for commerce in efficient and renewable ways that minimize adverse impact on the earth system.

The topics of energy and sustainability are highly interrelated; a leading example is bioenergy, which has major implications concerning land, water, atmosphere, and sustainability.

Education: To fulfill the demands of the global workforce, there exists a growing need for education and training in the areas of Energy and Sustainability Engineering (EaSE). An effective preparation for the student is to acquire a rigorous background in a core engineering discipline, combined with an interdisciplinary understanding of the energy and sustainability challenges and a deeper understanding of a chosen sub-topic. The purposeful mixture of core, breadth, and depth will allow the graduate to tackle problems that are faced in research, planning, development, and implementation of advanced technologies, as well as the interface between technology and society.

The Graduate Option Program in EaSE is designed to provide the components of breadth and depth for students who are enrolled in a departmental masters or Ph.D. program, where they build a core competence in a discipline. The requirements of the EaSE option are met by selecting courses according to the following requirements. Participation in EaSE will not delay a student’s progress towards the degree or add to the total course load. The option is based on courses that are currently offered by the college of engineering and by other schools at Illinois.

To gain interdisciplinary understanding, all students will enroll in a team-taught core course consisting of ENG 498, Seminar Energy & Sustain Engr (syllabus pdf), and ENG 598, Theory Energy & Sustain Engrg (syllabus pdf). The core course consists of a series of modules. The instructors are experts in each of the EaSE areas of specialization; there will also be guest lecturers from industry and other universities.

To gain depth, each student will take two graduate level courses from one of the seven areas of specialization in EaSE.

To gain breadth, each student will select one course that is outside of his/her area of specialization and home department.

The EaSE graduate option has been designed to facilitate participation of graduate students outside of the College of Engineering who have sufficient background in mathematics and science. To help students meet the expectations of the core course ENG 598, Theory Energy & Sustain Engrg, supplementary reading materials and notes (advanced primers) will be provided as needed.