Courses
This course provides a broad overview of environmental engineering - what environmental engineering is and what environmental engineers do. Whenever possible, the topic areas listed herein will be presented in the context of real-world environmental problems. Specific topics include: Environmental engineering ethics and justice, professional engineering licensure, membership in professional societies and associations, environmental engineering design process and components, mass and energy balances, environmental chemistry, mathematics of growth and decay; risk assessment and management; water resources (quantity and quality), surface water pollutants, eutrophication; groundwater flow, contaminant transport, groundwater remediation; water quality control, municipal water and wastewater systems, drinking water standards; air pollution, national ambient air quality standards, toxic air pollutants, mobile and stationary source control technologies, indoor air quality; global atmospheric change, the greenhouse effect, global energy balance, carbon emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion, and issues pertaining to hazardous, solid, and medical waste management. Overviews of pertinent environmental laws and regulations will be presented where applicable. The course encompasses conceptual design projects for environmental systems and infrastructures.
Area: Engineering
For engineering students who want to work on problems of poverty, and social and environmental dislocation, this course introduces major debates about development and explores cases of engineering interventions in developing countries to identify factors that shape success in achieving project goals and avoiding undesirable outcomes.
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
This course will cover basic topics in environmental biology and ecology for environmental engineering majors. The course will begin by describing the basic building blocks of life, cells and cellular components, which are common to all living things. We will then investigate factors that promote multicellularity, plant and animal physiology, and ecological principles that determine the distribution and function of organisms in the ecosystem.
Area: Natural Sciences
Humans make their living in the environment. How we do that changes nature and changes us. This class explores human impacts on the environment, how we have thought about our relationship to nature over the millennia, and contemporary environmental discourses.
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Students will utilize their chemistry knowledge to understand contemporary environmental issues in various media. Lectures will discuss the chemical phenomena leading to and resulting from air and water pollution issues. Climate change impacts to air and water chemistry will also be covered.
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Fundamentals and applications of physical, chemical, and biological processes in the natural environment and engineered systems. The first part of this class will cover material balances, chemical equilibrium, chemical kinetics, vapor pressure, dissolution, sorption, acid-base reactions, transport phenomena, reactor design, and water quality. The second part of this class focuses on the principles and design of water and wastewater treatment processes, such as coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, biological treatment processes, and disinfection.
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Introduction to laboratory measurements relevant to water supply and wastewater discharge, including pH and alkalinity, inorganic and organic contaminants in water, reactor analysis, bench testing for water treatment, and measurement and control of disinfection by-products. Recommended Course Background: EN.570.210 or Instructor Permission. Prerequisite: EN.570.303.
Prerequisite(s): Students must have completed Lab Safety training prior to registering for this class. To access the tutorial, login to myLearning and enter 458083 in the Search box to locate the appropriate module.;EN.570.303
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Techniques from systems analysis applied to environmental engineering design and management problems: reservoir management, power plant siting, nuclear waste management, air pollution control, and transportation planning. Design projects are required.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
In this interdisciplinary seminar class, we will discuss past, present, and future climate change. We will do so through several case studies on California; Eastern California is a hub of research on past climate change, and arguably few states are being more heavily impacted by current climate change than California. Throughout the first half of the course, we will learn how climate has changed in the past, the magnitude of those changes, the possible causes, and the physical and ecological impacts of past climate change. In the second half of the course, we will contrast past climate change with the impacts and severity of contemporary climate change. We will explore how climate change is stressing water resources, air quality, and ecological resilience across California, and we will critically evaluate how the state’s recent policy initiatives are ameliorating (or exacerbating) these stresses. The course will include a week-long spring break field trip to Eastern California where we will explore how climate change is stressing water resources, air quality, and ecological resilience across the state. Do not hesitate to email the instructor (smill191@jhu.edu) for more information about the field trip.
This is the 2 credit co-requisite course for EN.570.320 Case Studies in Climate Change offered in fall. In this course we will travel to Eastern California for a week-long field trip to explore how climate change is stressing water resources, air quality, and ecological resilience across California. We will critically evaluate how the state's recent policy initiatives are ameliorating (or exacerbating) these stresses. Please email the instructor if you are interested in this course (smill191@jhu.edu) for more details on the co-requisite.
Prerequisite(s): EN.570.320
The course introduces the principles of microeconomics and engineering economics, and applications of those principles to environmental engineering and public policy analysis. The financial and economic implications of engineering designs and control policies are critical to their success. We introduce principles of engineering economics and microeconomics (demand and production theory) and their uses in engineering decision making.
Area: Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Sustainably managing aquatic environments for ecosystem and public health in a changing climate requires us to understand the combined effect of multiple physical, chemical, and biological processes. This class will equip students to apply their understanding of environmental engineering principles to real-world water quality issues using computer simulation models. Emphasis will be placed on gaining insight by understanding fundamental assumptions and equations, and application to classical problems of oxygen demand and eutrophication. Advanced topics including pathogen and toxin dynamics will also be introduced.
Prerequisite(s): EN.570.303
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
This course explores the concepts, assessment, and control of exposure to biological, physical and chemical hazards in the environment, the risk of adverse health outcomes resulting from such exposures, and the relationship between the exposures and health outcomes. These are placed in the context of the multi-disciplinary scientific field of environmental health as an essential component of the wider field of public health. The course is comprised of lectures, examples, group discussions, and group presentations. The proposed course will fill a gap in content and skill development in the issues and techniques relating to human health risk assessment. This course is targeted toward undergraduates who may not have had any exposure to environmental health science, and provides an introduction to environmental health using the framework of health risk assessment. The course first introduces the concepts of exposure to environmental hazards and biological dose, routes of exposure, statistical characterization of exposure variability in populations, and monitoring networks. The next set of concepts relate to hazard characterization, i.e., adverse health outcomes resulting from such exposures using a variety of types of data including in vitro and in vivo studies, and human epidemiological studies and their strengths and weaknesses. The next segment will deal with the quantitative characterization of the relationship between exposure/dose and the adverse health outcomes, i.e., the dose-response relationships, the metrics used for this, and quantitatively characterizing the health risks of a population. The course will introduce students to several tools including mathematical modeling of exposures and risk, and uncertainty analysis.
Prerequisite(s): (AS.171.101 ) AND (AS.030.101 AND AS.030.102) AND (AS.110.108 AND AS.110.109)
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Introduction to the use of the principles of continuity, momentum, and energy to fluid motion. Topics include hydrostatics, ideal-fluid flow, laminar flow, turbulent flow. Recommended Course Background: Statics, Dynamics, and AS.110.302
Prerequisite(s): Students must have completed Lab Safety training prior to registering for this class. To access the tutorial, login to myLearning and enter 458083 in the Search box to locate the appropriate module.
Area: Engineering
The occurrence, distribution, movement, and properties of the waters of the Earth. Topics include precipitation, infiltration, evaporation, transpiration, groundwater, and streamflow. Analyzes include the frequency of floods and droughts, time-series analyzes, flood routing, and hydrologic synthesis and simulation. Recommended Course Background: AS.110.302, EN.570.351
Area: Engineering
The challenge of sustainability is simultaneously promoting human well-being while protecting the environment. Advancing a transition toward sustainability hinges on applying what we know to what we should do, including undergirding public policies with knowledge—especially knowledge gleaned from science, technology, and engineering. This course examines sustainability science, communications, and public policy through the lens of climate—what is known about climate change and impacts, what motivates public understanding, and what actions through mitigation and adaptation make progress toward sustainability.
Environmental history explores the interactions between social change and environmental transformation, or the ways in which societies modify landscapes and are themselves affected by geological, climatological and changing ecological conditions. Topics include the relationship between climate change and human evolution, the environmental impacts of market-based commodity production and regional economic specialization; the relationship between urbanization and environmental change; how warfare affects and is affected by environmental conditions.
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
The purpose of this class is to understand the landscape-scale controls on the fluxes of water and waterborne materials through watersheds. This class differs from the Hydrology and Hydrologic Modeling classes in its focus on data analysis, and its embrace of the complexity of real landscapes. There will be significant quantitative components to the material taught, but emphasis will be on developing a greater sense of the way that landscapes “function”, and how this function is related to real-world issues of water resources and pollution. Students will gain an understanding of how climate, geologic and ecologic setting, and human impacts control the partitioning of water between different fates, the flowpaths through the landscape and the storage and residence time of water. They will also learn conceptual and practical tools for analyzing hydrologic and other landscape data, and integrating this data in a holistic approach to watershed analysis. The class will be of interest for students intending to go into watershed or landscape management, and anyone wishing to pursue research in hydrology, geomorphology or ecology at landscape and watershed scales. The class will include at least one field trip to an instrumented watershed. GIS skills will be an advantage but are not required.
This course will highlight recent discoveries and advances in environmental microbiology such as the identification of novel microbes, changing paradigms in nitrogen cycling, single-cell activity methods and novel methods in microbial community analysis. We will explore these topics by reading and discussing the current literature, supported by short lectures and in class activities related to the topics. Background in microbiology or microbial ecology is recommended. This course will meet with EN.570.615.
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Data analytics is a field of study involving computational statistics, data mining and machine learning, to explore data sets, explain phenomena and build predictive models. The course begins with an overview of some traditional analysis approaches including ordinary least squares regression and related topics, notably diagnostic testing, detection of outliers and methods to impute missing data. More recent developments are presented, including ridge regression. Generalized linear models follow, emphasizing logistic regression and including models for polytomous data. Variable subsetting is addressed through stepwise procedures and the LASSO. Supervised machine learning topics include the basic concepts of boosting and bagging and several techniques: Decision Trees, Classification and Regression Trees, Random Forests, Conditional Random Forests, Adaptive Boosting, Support Vector Machines and Neural Networks. Unsupervised machine learning approaches are addressed through applications using k-means Clustering, Partitioning Around Medoids and Association Rule Mining. Methods for assessing model predictive performance are introduced including Confusion Matrices, k-fold Cross-Validation and Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves. Public health and environmental applications are emphasized, with modeling techniques and analysis tools implemented in R.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
Through general lectures and case study examples, this course will expose students to some of the non-technical professional issues that they will face as professional engineers and in their second-semester senior design project.
Area: Engineering
The course consists of an introduction to the fundamental concepts of air pollution. Major topics of concern are aspects of atmospheric motion near the earth’s surface; basic thermodynamics of the atmosphere; atomospheric stability and turbulence; equations of mean motion in turbulent flow, mean flow in the surface boundary layer; mean flow, turbulence in the friction layer; diffusion in the atmosphere; statistical theory of turbulence; plume rise. Emphasis is place upon the role and utility of such topics in a systems analysis context, e.g., development of large and mesoscale air pollution abatement strategies. Comparisons of the fundamental concepts common to both air and water pollution are discussed. This course meets with EN.570.657, Air Pollution.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
Engineering design process from problem definition to final design. Team projects include written/oral presentations. Students will form small teams that work with local companies or government agencies in executing the project. Recommended Course Background: EN.570.303, EN.570.352, and EN.570.419
Prerequisite(s): EN.570.419
Area: Engineering
The ability of ecosystems to recover from natural events and human actions is increasingly being threatened by climate change. This course is a study of ecosystems using mathematical models, with a particular focus on quantifying their resilience. We will model a number of ecosystems, including rainforests, lakes, temperate forests, savannas, and grasslands. We will analyze ecological phenomena that impact public health and commerce. These include lake eutrophication and anoxia, forest fires, and insect outbreaks. We will study whole-earth mathematical models, biodiversity, and models to study the spread and control of pandemics. New this semester will be game theory applications, urban ecosystems and environmental justice. In all cases, potential pro-active and reactive management and control approaches will be evaluated. Mathematical techniques will be introduced and developed in a context-sensitive manner. Undergraduate and graduate students are welcome to enroll. Recommended course background (i.e. potentially useful but not required): EN.553.291 or AS.110.302, or equivalent.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This course will begin with a brief review of the climate system and climate change projections for the 21st Century. We will then focus on quantifying the impacts of climate change as predicted under different representative concentration pathways and learn the workflow of retrieving climate change projections from reliable databases and sources. Particular focus will be on impacts of rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns on heat severity and droughts, agriculture, and air quality. We will study other impacts such as rising sea levels and growing intensities of storm surges and flooding. We will consider vulnerable cities and vulnerable populations, and discuss impacts of climate change on health, in terms of heat related illnesses, air quality related illnesses, and spread of vector-borne diseases. We will consider the impact of heat severity on the energy needs of the future. We will use GIS tools for spatial analysis of available impact projections, and study physics-based simple systems dynamics models to understand the processes underlying climate-change impacts. The course will also cover preparedness and potential solutions that aim to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the near term and in the long term. Students will employ the tools and skills learned in the course to conduct a project (possibly in groups) focused on first-order quantification of climate change impacts on a specific environmental or health issue at a specific location.Background recommended but not required: AS110.109 or equivalent; some background in Climate Studies desirable but not essential.
Fundamentals of groundwater flow and transport emphasizing groundwater as a major water resource, role of groundwater in the hydrologic cycle and as an agent of geologic processes, groundwater management, and groundwater contamination and its protection. Specific topics include the Darcy equation, storage of water in a porous medium, mass conservation and the groundwater flow equation, solutions to the groundwater flow equation, well hydraulics, unsaturated flow and vadose zone processes, contaminant transport, dispersion and adsorption. Assignments will include quantitative exercises requiring simple computer codes.
Prerequisite(s): EN.570.351 or Equivalent
This course focuses on a monetary approach to national income determination and the balance of payments. Money and banking, as well as commodity and financial markets, are dealt with under both central banking, as well as alternative monetary regimes. Particular emphasis is placed on currency board systems. Students learn how to properly conduct substantive economic research, utilizing primary data sources, statistical techniques and lessons from economic history. Findings are presented in the form of either memoranda or working papers of publishable quality. Exceptional work may be suitable for publication through the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. Advanced excel programming skills are required and students are expected to be pre-screened for research at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.. Bloomberg certification is a pre-requisite.
Prerequisite(s): EN.660.203 AND AS.180.101 AND AS.180.102
Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
This course will provide a practical knowledge of molecular methods used to identify microorganisms present with a sample and gain insight into their function and dynamics. It will provide theoretical background into how to identify microorganisms and infer functional capabilities from genetic material, practical knowledge of common molecular methods and computational skills needed to analyze the resulting sequence data. No background in molecular biology, computation or microbiology is necessary. Course objectives include (1) understanding key aspects of microbial community composition from literature reports; (2) recognizing major microbial taxonomic groups and understanding phylogenetic relationships; (3) developing molecular biology lab skills required to create gene amplicon libraries from an aquatic samples; (4) working knowledge of statistical methods used to associate taxonomic and functional gene information with specific environmental conditions. Recommended Course Background: Microeconomics, Introductory Statistics, Optimization.Open to undergraduates. Co-listed with EN.570.619
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
Advanced undergraduate/graduate course that explores the chemical transformations of elements of the periodic table. Thermodynamic, kinetic, and mechanistic tools needed to address the multiple chemical species and interfaces that are present in natural waters and water-based technological processes are emphasized. Ligand exchange, metal ion exchange, adsorption/desorption, precipitation/dissolution, electron and group transfer reactions, and other concepts from coordination chemistry will be covered. Applications include elemental sources and sinks in ocean waters, reactive transport in porous media, weathering and soil genesis, nutrient and toxic element uptake by organisms, water treatment chemistry, and rational design of synthetic chemicals.Co-listed with EN.570.641
Area: Natural Sciences
This course examines the major physical and chemical attributes and processes affecting the behavior of organic compounds in the environment. Emphasis is on anthropogenic hydrophobic organic compounds (e.g. halogenated organic compounds) and less hydrophobic emerging contaminants of concern (e.g. pharmaceuticals, explosives, etc). The course will also address (bio)analytical and computational approaches that are used to to detect organic compounds in the environment and assess their potential environmental and human health risks.
Prerequisite(s): EN.570.239 AND EN.570.303
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Equilibrium speciation of natural waters, biofluids, and engineered systems. Topics include acids, bases, pH, and buffering; the precipitation and dissolution of solids; complexation and chelation; oxidation and reduction reactions; regulation and design. Intended for students from a variety of backgrounds. Recommended Course Background: One year of both Chemistry and Calculus. Meets with EN.570.643 (Aquatic and Biofluid Chemistry).
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
The application of basic physical and chemical concepts to the analysis of environmental engineering problems. Principles of chemical equilibrium and reaction, reaction engineering, interphase mass transfer, and adsorption are presented in the context of process design for unit operations in common use for water and wastewater treatment. Topics addressed include mass balances, hydraulic characteristics of reactors, reaction kinetics and reactor design, gas transfer processes (including both fundamentals of mass transfer and design analysis), and adsorption processes (including both fundamentals of adsorption and design analysis).
Prerequisite(s): EN.570.303 or permission of instructor.
Area: Engineering
Fundamentals and applications of physical and chemical processes used in water and wastewater treatment. This class will cover particle interactions, coagulation, flocculation, granular media filtration, membrane processes, and emerging water treatment processes. Recommended Course Background: EN.570.445 or Permission Required.
Area: Engineering
Engineers work in a social context. This course addresses a number of questions about that social context. How should we understand how societies come about, how they evolve,and why the rules of the game are what they are? What is the relationship between the individual and society, what does it mean to be 'modern,' are there different forms of rationality? How might all this impinge on what it means to be an engineer?
Area: Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
The course will provide an overview of the basic foundations of transport and dispersion phenomena in the environment (surface water, groundwater, ocean and atmosphere). The emphasis will be on mathematical formulation of transport equations, analytical solutions, physical insights, methods of analysis of concentration data. The course will cover classical advection-diffusion concepts, shear dispersion phenomena, and transport in random velocity fields with applications to turbulent diffusion and macrodispersion in groundwater. Although numerical modeling is not the primary objective of the course, we will build a simple computational toolbox using random-walk particle tracking to visualize and quantify transport processes. Computation of analytical solutions will require MATLAB or python (or equivalent programming, although EXCEL may also suffice with macros). If time permits, we will touch upon reactive transport and non-Fickian transport formulations. Recommended course background in EN.553.291 Linear Algebra and Differential Equations and EN.570.351 Fluid Mechanics.
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
An advanced laboratory covering principles of modern analytical techniques and their applications to problems in environmental sciences. Topics include electrochemistry, spectrometry, gas and liquid chromatography. The course is directed to graduate students and advanced undergraduates in engineering and natural sciences.Co-listed with EN.570.652
Prerequisite(s): Students must have completed Lab Safety training prior to registering for this class. To access the tutorial, login to myLearning and enter 458083 in the Search box to locate the appropriate module.;EN.570.443
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Writing Intensive
Spatial and geographic datasets are becoming increasingly common with improvements in data collection technologies. For example, satellites are able to collect more and more types of earth/environmental data, and web technologies (e.g., social media and e-commerce) provide vast new datasets on social, economic, and public health phenomena. However, many common statistical tools are ill-suited to spatial datasets; these datasets often exhibit complex spatial (and temporal) dependencies that require a special set of tools. In this course, students will learn how to quantitatively analyze, model, and predict spatial and spatiotemporal phenomena. Topics will include quantifying the spatial and temporal properties of data, interpolation and prediction, multivariate models, modeling uncertainty, measurement design, and strategies for very large datasets. We will draw examples from a wide variety of academic disciplines, including environmental engineering, earth science, public health, and political science. Pre-requisites: An introductory course in statistics is recommended. Knowledge of a scientific programming language (e.g., Matlab, R, or Python) will also be helpful.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This course focuses on company valuations, using a Probabilistic Discounted Cash Flow Model. Students use the model and primary data from financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to calculate the value of publically-traded companies. Using Monte Carlo simulations, students also generate forecast scenarios, project likely share-price ranges and assess potential gains/losses. Stress is placed on using these simulations to diagnose the subjective market expectations contained in current objective market prices, and the robustness of these expectations. During the weekly seminar, students company valuations are reviewed and critiqued. A heavy emphasis is placed on research and writing. Exceptional work may be suitable for publication through the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. Advanced excel programming skills are required and students are expected to be pre-screened for research at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.. Bloomberg certification is a pre-requisite.
Prerequisite(s): EN.660.203 AND (EN.570.428 OR AS.360.528)
Area: Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Writing Intensive
This course covers advanced engineering and scientific concepts and principles applied to the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) to protect human health and the environment and the conservation of limited resources through resource recovery and recycling of waste material.
Area: Engineering
This course addresses traditional and innovative technologies, concepts, and principles applied to the management of hazardous waste and site remediation to protect human health and the environment. Co-listed with EN.570.691
Area: Engineering
Undergraduates only with permission of instructor.
This class introduces the decision analysis approach to making decisions under risk and uncertainty. Topics covered include decision trees, Bayes law, value of information analysis, elicitation of subjective probabilities, multiattribute utility, and their applications to environmental and energy problems. Textbook: R.T. Clemen, Making Hard Decisions, 2014. Recommended Course Background: introductory statistics and probability.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This seminar examines the pursuit of sustainability policy. Students will explore whether the complex systems approach to sustainability and sustainable development leads to different priorities, strategies, and methods compared to conventional approaches and analytical tools that are used in environmental policy. The seminar will draw from case studies related to energy and climate change, water sustainability, and land use change, as well as theoretical materials. Invited speakers will include technical experts and practitioners.
This seminar examines the pursuit of sustainability policy. Students will explore whether the complex systems approach to sustainability and sustainable development leads to different priorities, strategies, and methods compared to conventional approaches and analytical tools that are used in environmental policy. The seminar will draw from case studies related to energy and climate change, water sustainability, and land use change, as well as theoretical materials. Invited speakers will include technical experts and practitioners. This course is a continuation of EN.570.498, which is recommended but not required.
This course is open to EHE undergraduate majors only who are conducting an investigation of an environmental engineering problem under the supervision of the faculty instructor.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
This course is open to EHE undergraduate majors only who are conducting an investigation of an environmental engineering problem under the supervision of the faculty instructor.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
This course investigates the workings of financial, foreign exchange, and commodity futures markets. Research is focused on price behavior, speculation, and hedging in these markets. Extensive research and writing of publishable quality are required. Exceptional work may be suitable for publication through the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. An approved research proposal is a pre-requisite.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
This course is open to EHE undergraduate majors only who are conducting an investigation of an environmental engineering problem and preparing a project deliverable under the supervision of the faculty instructor.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
This section has a weekly research group meeting that students are expected to attend.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
This course is open only to EHE undergraduate majors who have prior approval to conduct an internship for credit.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
Investigation of an environmental engineering problem under faculty instructor supervision during summer session.
Prerequisite(s): You must request Independent Academic Work using the Independent Academic Work form found in Student Self-Service: Registration, Online Forms.
Methods for optimizing operation and design of energy systems and for analyzing market impacts of energy and environmental policies are reviewed, emphasizing both theory and solution of actual models. Review of linear and nonlinear programming and complementarity methods for market simulation. Recommended Course Background: EN.570.493 and EN.570.495 or equivalent.
This course will highlight recent discoveries and advances in environmental microbiology such as the identification of novel microbes, changing paradigms in nitrogen cycling, single-cell activity methods and novel methods in microbial community analysis. We will explore these topics by reading and discussing the current literature, supported by short lectures and in class activities related to the topics. Background in microbiology or microbial ecology is recommended. This course will meet with EN.570.415
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Data analytics is a field of study involving computational statistics, data mining and machinelearning, to explore data sets, explain phenomena and build predictive models. The coursebegins with an overview of some traditional analysis approaches including ordinary leastsquares regression and related topics, notably diagnostic testing, detection of outliers andmethods to impute missing data. More recent developments are presented, including ridgeregression. Generalized linear models follow, emphasizing logistic regression and includingmodels for polytomous data. Variable subsetting is addressed through stepwise procedures andthe LASSO. Supervised machine learning topics include the basic concepts of boosting andbagging and several techniques: Decision Trees, Classification and Regression Trees, RandomForests, Conditional Random Forests, Adaptive Boosting, Support Vector Machines and NeuralNetworks. Unsupervised machine learning approaches are addressed through applications usingk-means Clustering, Partitioning Around Medoids and Association Rule Mining. Methods forassessing model predictive performance are introduced including Confusion Matrices, k-foldCross-Validation and Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves. Public health andenvironmental applications are emphasized, with modeling techniques and analysis toolsimplemented in R. EN.570 616 meets with EN.570.416. Undergraduate (usually Senior) students should sign up for 416 with permission of instructor only.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This graduate level course will provide a practical knowledge of molecular methods used to identify microorganisms present with a sample and gain insight into their function and dynamics. It will provide theoretical background into how to identify microorganisms and infer functional capabilities from genetic material, practical knowledge of common molecular methods and computational skills needed to analyze the resulting sequence data. No background in molecular biology, computation or microbiology is necessary. Course objectives include (1) understanding key aspects of microbial community composition from literature reports; (2) recognizing major microbial taxonomic groups and understanding phylogenetic relationships; (3) developing molecular biology lab skills required to create gene amplicon libraries from an aquatic samples; (4) working knowledge of statistical methods used to associate taxonomic and functional gene information with specific environmental conditions. Recommended Course Background: Microeconomics, Introductory Statistics, Optimization.Co-listed with EN.570.429
This course will begin with a brief review of the climate system and climate change projections for the 21st Century. We will then focus on quantifying the impacts of climate change as predicted under different representative concentration pathways and learn the workflow of retrieving climate change projections from reliable databases and sources. Particular focus will be on impacts of rising temperatures and changing precipitation patterns on heat severity and droughts, agriculture, and air quality. We will study other impacts such as rising sea levels and growing intensities of storm surges and flooding. We will consider vulnerable cities and vulnerable populations, and discuss impacts of climate change on health, in terms of heat related illnesses, air quality related illnesses, and spread of vector-borne diseases. We will consider the impact of heat severity on the energy needs of the future. We will use GIS tools for spatial analysis of available impact projections, and study physics-based simple systems dynamics models to understand the processes underlying climate-change impacts. The course will also cover preparedness and potential solutions that aim to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the near term and in the long term. Students will employ the tools and skills learned in the course to conduct a project (possibly in groups) focused on first-order quantification of climate change impacts on a specific environmental or health issue at a specific location.
Fundamentals of groundwater flow and transport emphasizing groundwater as a major water resource, role of groundwater in the hydrologic cycle and as an agent of geologic processes, groundwater management, and groundwater contamination and its protection. Specific topics include the Darcy equation, storage of water in a porous medium, mass conservation and the groundwater flow equation, solutions to the groundwater flow equation, well hydraulics, unsaturated flow and vadose zone processes, contaminant transport, dispersion and adsorption. Assignments will include quantitative exercises requiring simple computer codes. Recommended Course Background: A course in Differential Equations or Consent of Instructor.
Advanced undergraduate/graduate course that explores the chemical transformations of elements of the periodic table. Thermodynamic, kinetic, and mechanistic tools needed to address the multiple chemical species and interfaces that are present in natural waters and water-based technological processes are emphasized. Ligand exchange, metal ion exchange, adsorption/desorption, precipitation/dissolution, electron and group transfer reactions, and other concepts from coordination chemistry will be covered. Applications include elemental sources and sinks in ocean waters, reactive transport in porous media, weathering and soil genesis, nutrient and toxic element uptake by organisms, water treatment chemistry, and rational design of synthetic chemicals. Co-listed with EN.570.441
Area: Natural Sciences
This course examines the major physical and chemical attributes and processes affecting the behavior of organic compounds in the environment. Emphasis is on anthropogenic hydrophobic organic compounds (e.g. halogenated organic compounds) and less hydrophobic emerging contaminants of concern (e.g. pharmaceuticals, explosives, etc). The course will also address (bio)analytical and computational approaches that are used to to detect organic compounds in the environment and assess their potential environmental and human health risks.
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Equilibrium speciation of natural waters, biofluids, and engineered systems. Topics include acids, bases, pH, and buffering; the precipitation and dissolution of solids; complexation and chelation; oxidation and reduction reactions; regulation and design. Intended for students from a variety of backgrounds. Recommended Course Background: One year of both Chemistry and Calculus. Meets with EN.570.443 (Aquatic and Biofluid Chemistry)
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
The application of basic physical and chemical concepts to the analysis of environmental engineering problems. Principles of chemical equilibrium and reaction, reaction engineering, interphase mass transfer, and adsorption are presented in the context of process design for unit operations in common use for water and wastewater treatment. Topics addressed include mass balances, hydraulic characteristics of reactors, reaction kinetics and reactor design, gas transfer processes (including both fundamentals of mass transfer and design analysis), and adsorption processes (including both fundamentals of adsorption and design analysis).
Area: Engineering
Fundamentals and applications of physical and chemical processes used in water and wastewater treatment. This class will cover particle interactions, coagulation, flocculation, granular media filtration, membrane processes, and emerging water treatment processes. Recommended Course Background: EN.570.445 or Permission Required.
Area: Engineering
Sustainably managing aquatic environments for ecosystem and public health in a changing climate requires us to understand the combined effect of multiple physical, chemical, and biological processes. This class will equip students to apply their understanding of environmental engineering principles to real-world water quality issues using computer simulation models. Emphasis will be placed on gaining insight by understanding fundamental assumptions and equations, and application to classical problems of oxygen demand and eutrophication. Advanced topics including pathogen and toxin dynamics will also be introduced. Students should have taken EN.570.303 (or equivalent).
The course will provide an overview of the basic foundations of transport and dispersion phenomena in the environment (surface water, groundwater, ocean and atmosphere). The emphasis will be on mathematical formulation of transport equations, analytical solutions, physical insights, methods of analysis of concentration data. The course will cover classical advection-diffusion concepts, shear dispersion phenomena, and transport in random velocity fields with applications to turbulent diffusion and macrodispersion in groundwater. Although numerical modeling is not the primary objective of the course, we will build a simple computational toolbox using random-walk particle tracking to visualize and quantify transport processes. Computation of analytical solutions will require MATLAB or python (or equivalent programming, although EXCEL may also suffice with macros). If time permits, we will touch upon reactive transport and non-Fickian transport formulations. Recommended course background in EN.553.291 Linear Algebra and Differential Equations and EN.570.351 Fluid Mechanics.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
An advanced laboratory covering principles of modern analytical techniques and their applications to problems in environmental sciences. Topics include electrochemistry, spectrometry, gas and liquid chromatography. The course is directed to graduate students and advanced undergraduates in engineering and natural sciences. Co-listed with EN.570.452
Prerequisite(s): Students must have completed Lab Safety training prior to registering for this class. To access the tutorial, login to myLearning and enter 458083 in the Search box to locate the appropriate module.;EN.570.443 OR EN.570.643 OR permission of instructor.
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Writing Intensive
The occurrence, distribution, movement, and properties of the waters of the Earth. Topics include precipitation, infiltration, evaporation, transpiration, groundwater, and streamflow. Analyzes include the frequency of floods and droughts, time-series analyzes, flood routing, and hydrologic synthesis and simulation. Recommended Course Background: AS.110.302, EN.570.351
Area: Engineering
Spatial and geographic datasets are becoming increasingly common with improvements in data collection technologies. For example, satellites are able to collect more and more types of earth/environmental data, and web technologies (e.g., social media and e-commerce) provide vast new datasets on social, economic, and public health phenomena. However, many common statistical tools are ill-suited to spatial datasets; these datasets often exhibit complex spatial (and temporal) dependencies that require a special set of tools. In this course, students will learn how to quantitatively analyze, model, and predict spatial and spatiotemporal phenomena. Topics will include quantifying the spatial and temporal properties of data, interpolation and prediction, multivariate models, modeling uncertainty, measurement design, and strategies for very large datasets. We will draw examples from a wide variety of academic disciplines, including environmental engineering, earth science, public health, and political science. Pre-requisites: An introductory course in statistics is recommended. Knowledge of a scientific programming language (e.g., Matlab, R, or Python) will also be helpful.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
The course consists of an introduction to the fundamental concepts of air pollution. Major topics of concern are aspects of atmospheric motion near the earth’s surface; basic thermodynamics of the atmosphere; atomospheric stability and turbulence; equations of mean motion in turbulent flow, mean flow in the surface boundary layer; mean flow, turbulence in the friction layer; diffusion in the atmosphere; statistical theory of turbulence; plume rise. Emphasis is place upon the role and utility of such topics in a systems analysis context, e.g., development of large and mesoscale air pollution abatement strategies. Comparisons of the fundamental concepts common to both air and water pollution are discussed.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This course covers advanced engineering and scientific concepts and principles applied to the management of municipal solid waste (MSW) to protect human health and the environment and the conservation of limited resources through resource recovery and recycling of waste material.
Area: Engineering
This course addresses traditional and innovative technologies, concepts, and principles applied to the management of hazardous waste and site remediation to protect human health and the environment.
Area: Engineering
A collection of systems analytic techniques which are frequently used in the study of public decision making is presented. Emphasis is on mathematical programming techniques. Primarily linear programming, integer and mixed-integer programming, and multiobjective programming. Recommended Course Background: AS.110.106-AS.110.107/AS.110.109
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This class introduces the decision analysis approach to making decisions under risk and uncertainty. Topics covered include decision trees, Bayes law, value of information analysis, elicitation of subjective probabilities, multiattribute utility, and their applications to environmental and energy problems. Textbook: R.T. Clemen, Making Hard Decisions, 2014. Recommended Course Background: introductory statistics and probability.
Area: Engineering, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences
This seminar examines the pursuit of sustainability policy. Students will explore whether the complex systems approach to sustainability and sustainable development leads to different priorities, strategies, and methods compared to conventional approaches and analytical tools that are used in environmental policy. The seminar will draw from case studies related to energy and climate change, water sustainability, and land use change, as well as theoretical materials. Invited speakers will include technical experts and practitioners.
This seminar examines the pursuit of sustainability policy. Students will explore whether the complex systems approach to sustainability and sustainable development leads to different priorities, strategies, and methods compared to conventional approaches and analytical tools that are used in environmental policy. The seminar will draw from case studies related to energy and climate change, water sustainability, and land use change, as well as theoretical materials. Invited speakers will include technical experts and practitioners. This course is a continuation of EN.570.698, which is recommended but not required.
Investigation of an environmental engineering problem and preparation of project deliverable under supervision of faculty instructor.
This course is intended for Ph.D. students continuing their doctoral research and thesis. Students should register for the section taught by their faculty advisor.
Area: Engineering, Natural Sciences
Adding missing course description: "Investigation of an environmental engineering problem and preparation of project report." Please add to every section.
Area: Engineering
Restricted internship; reserved for students who have received the Jensen Fellowship.