Educational Program

Introduction
The program of study for the proposed grant attempts to balance the sometimes solitary nature of scholarship at the doctoral level with the more team oriented approach reflecting decision-making in the private sector. At its core, the EvMM program envisions a team approach involving the assembly of research groups to study problems defined through direct interactions with industry. It involves faculty from all four of Clarkson's educational units ( engineering, science, business, liberal arts), and, while emphasis is placed on doctoral studies in science and engineering, master of science students from Clarkson's Management Systems program within the School of Business will in an integral way to the educational program.

The EvMM program at Clarkson aims to generate a diverse group of top quality graduate students. Women, African Americans, Native Americans, and students from a broad geographic area are especially targeted. The diversity is needed not only to provide underrepresented students with an opportunity for graduate education, but also to introduce all students to the skills necessary for working in a multicultural environment.

The number and specific composition of each research group will depend upon several factors: the type of research defined through interaction with our industrial partners including the potential for integrating the skills of the students and faculty involved; the probability of approaching the research through as many of the research areas as possible; the potential of the research to serve as a basis for scholarly advances in our understanding of the integration of environmental concerns into the manufacturing sector; the degree to which the research may impact industry practices; and the size and scope of the research effort. These determinations will be made during the initial year of study of each cohort. Each research group will, in turn, be advised by multiple faculty mentors plus at least one industrial participant.

EvMM Program Structure and Coursework
Graduate students are accepted into EvMM with the concurrence of the doctoral degree program in which they wish to matriculate. These can be any of the Ph.D. granting departments of the university (in engineering chemical, civil and environmental, electrical and computer, and mechanical and aeronautical; in science biology, chemistry, mathematics and computer science, and physics), or, if desired, one may choose the interdisciplinary degree program in engineering science. Course requirements for Ph.D. students vary somewhat from department to department at Clarkson but typically require a minimum fifteen semester hours beyond the masters degree. There is no maximum number of course credits, although the total credit requirement (i.e. inclusive of course and research credits) is sixty semester hours for the Ph.D. (i.e. past the masters degree). Entrance requirements generally require an appropriate undergraduate degree from an accredited program in which a significant level of achievement has been attained. Results of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) are required, and for students whose native language is not english, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) must be taken. Application can be made electronically or by requesting application materials.

EvMM also involves Master of Science students who are part of the School of Business’ Management Systems degree program. This normally requires two years of study plus a thesis as part of an EvMM research group topic. Entrance to the management systems program requires a suitable accredited undergraduate degree in engineering, science, or business, and satisfaction of prerequisite coursework. Results of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) are required to be submitted. Again, application can be made electronically or via regular mail.

In total, the coursework segment of the program will require one to one and one-half years. Specific core-course descriptions are given below.

Environmental Systems Analysis and Optimization. A system is a collection of interrelated components that function together. These components can be mechanical devices; chemical reaction processes; economic, ethical or social factors; and regulations or laws all of which are, usually, constrained to interact in defined ways. Environmental systems analysis is based on the concept that environmental resources are also components (which in turn may be made up of sub components) and should, therefore, be used in beneficial ways rather than as cost- free commons.

Systems analysis can be either descriptive or quantitative, but the latter more readily promotes communication among users of the information, and facilitates interpretation of results, thus it will be stressed in this course. The systems approach proceeds via a logical sequence of steps, as follows:

In addition to the presentation of the systems approach, the course will present numerous examples illustrative of the effects and consequences of including environmental factors within the manufacturing system definition.

Environmental Implications of Manufacturing. This class exposes students to the impacts associated with resource consumption and environmental pollution, as well as introduces the concepts necessary for modifying manufacturing processes to minimize deleterious impacts. The class is taught in three sections.

The first section presents an overview of present problems. The environmental and public health risks associated with solid waste production, the extraction of raw materials, and emissions to air, water and soil are discussed, and the historical national and global regulatory and manufacturing climate that has led to the present problems explored.

Quantitative tools for exploration of environmental impacts are introduced in the second section of the class. The concepts of mass and energy balances are used to determine environmental emissions and resource consumption. The coupling of these quantitative assessments with resulting environmental impacts in life-cycle analysis are then covered.

The third section of the course applies the quantitative tools of waste minimization and industrial ecology. Industrial ecology is an emerging multidisciplinary systems approach, combining management with science and engineering, with objectives of more consciously integrating environmental concerns into our economic activities and more elegantly integrating our economic activities into their biophysical environment. Its aim is to design and implement products and processes in the industrial economy with less destructive environmental impact and more valuable economic yields than currently exist.

This course provides both conceptual and quantitative understanding of these complex issues through readings, structured exercises, invited presentations by our EvMM industrial partners, and a class project involving analysis of a real problem and design of an ecological solution.

Environmental Economics. The field of environmental economics has become increasingly prominent in the last few years with the recognition that environmental policies have important economic dimensions. Pollution control measures now incorporate incentive-based economic instruments rather than merely using engineering or biological constraints. The value of environmental resources - even those that people will never knowingly see or use - is increasingly factored into environmental regulations. More than any other field of economic study, environmental economics has highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary work, particularly that of natural scientists, survey researchers, environmental engineers, and lawyers.

This course considers environmental problems from the perspective of economics. It assumes some familiarity with basic microeconomic analysis. The first part of the course considers the theoretical foundations of environmental economics (the theory of externalities), including private and social benefit-cost models. Theories of environmental regulation are then developed, with emphasis on work by environmental economists in moving from formal theory to actual regulations. We next examine current environmental policy issues, focusing on recent experience in the US and elsewhere with economic incentives for pollution control. Pollution problems that are considered include local, regional and global air pollution problems, water pollution issues, and solid and hazardous waste management problems. The course also considers issues in measuring the costs and benefits of environmental programs. The valuation of "non market" environmental services is considered, including the review of cases where benefit-cost analyses have actually been used in environmental standard setting. The final part of the course explores special topics, including risk and uncertainty in environmental regulation, environmental impact assessment, and issues in natural resource damage assessment.
Topics include:

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   • Externalities, common property, and the theory of environmental regulation.
   • Instruments of environmental policy: command and control policies to economic instruments.
   • Pollution problems: scientific basis and regulatory history; local, regional, and global pollutants.
   • Valuing environmental services and damages from pollution: economic methodology; ethical issues.
   • Measuring the costs of environmental regulations: economic methodology; empirical measurement; the benefit/cost analysis.
   • Special topics: risk and uncertainty, environmental impact assessment, ecological economics, and natural resource damage assessment.

Risk: Assessment, Management, and Communication. Risk assessment entails evaluating the hazardous properties of substances and the extent of human and/or ecosystem exposure to them, and characterizing any resulting risk. It systematically organizes and analyzes scientific knowledge regarding potentially hazardous activities or for substances that may pose a hazard under specified conditions. The process consists of four basic steps: hazard identification, dose-response assessment, exposure assessment, and risk characterization. In each of these steps, variability and uncertainty exist that must be analyzed to produce an overall level of confidence in the assessment. Students are introduced to the general approach to risk assessment, including default assumptions and uncertainty analysis.

Risk management is a decision-making process used to establish policies to deal with the hazards identified during risk assessments. It includes developing regulatory options or company policies, and evaluating public health consequences or employee health effects. Risk managers consider the risk assessment data along with the social, economic, statutory and political factors. Although risk assessments may have risk management considerations in them, the process of risk management should be considered a separate activity. Risk management should be considered as the control or mitigation step of risk assessment. The decision to control a pollutant involves cost considerations. Students will be introduced to key components of this process, including determining cost-benefit tradeoffs and social impacts of policies.

The National Research Council has defined risk communication as an "interactive process of exchange of information and opinions among individuals, groups, and institutions concerning a risk or potential risk to human health or the environment." To participate positively in such processes, technical experts should understand that all such discourse is contextual or "grounded" in particular settings and circumstances. Consequently, no single formula or set of pre-determined steps can create effective risk communication in every situation. Thus, technical experts must not only be competent to compose messages in whatever medium is needed (e.g., written, oral, electronic), but they must also understand the complex variables which surround most rhetorical/social contexts (e.g., audience perceptions, ethics, organizational and regulatory constraints, mental models). Students are introduced to relevant rhetorical theory and technical communication principles and models.

Seminar series
In addition to formal coursework, a seminar series exists on the topic of environmental manufacturing management. This seminar series brings noted experts in the field from industry, academia, and government to Clarkson. Each speaker, in addition to a seminar, is invited to meet with the student cohorts and program faculty and critique progress toward program goals and, to the extent warranted, progress on individual research topics. Thus the seminars serve three goals: keeping current on research underway at various locations, assessing the efficacy of Clarkson's EvMM program through exposure to outside experts, and transfer of the Clarkson approach to EvMM to other individuals and their institutions.

Industrial internships
Clarkson has historically maintained strong ties with the industrial sector, which sponsors about 25 percent of the university's extramural research and hires the overwhelming majority of our graduates. Through Clarkson's Center for Advanced Materials Processing, proactive relationships with several industries have been developed. In addition, Clarkson's School of Business provides graduate programs that are heavily subscribed to by industry employees. As a result of these programs and activities, many industry employees are well positioned in various companies to assist in the integration of EvMM's research groups into their respective manufacturing functions. Letters of commitment from several companies have indicated their willingness to actively participate in the program through sponsorship of internships at appropriate manufacturing facilities. It is expected that additional companies will be identified as the program proceeds.
Research groups, consisting of doctoral engineering and science students and masters students from business, take up residence at manufacturing facilities at the conclusion of program coursework in order to conduct industrial internships, which last about one-half year. The facilities are chosen based on the match of manufacturing process(es) to group skills, the nature of the environmental problems and impacts, the amenability of the process and problems to support scholarly research, and the size and scope of the problem(s). During the internships, researchers have access to all relevant functions and personnel related to the manufacturing processes. Research groups learn details of manufacturing procedures and processes, the nature of associated environmental impacts, the relevant regulations, and market forces. They are advised first hand by relevant decision makers (both within and outside of the company) what the perceived problems are, and how manufacturing and environmental needs have mutual impacts. By the end of the internships, the groups have fully defined their overarching research theme and individual thesis/dissertation topics, the project objectives, technological functions and other constraints (within the context of a systems approach), and the data needs. The remainder of their program of study is devoted to carrying out research and satisfying any remaining programmatic requirements.

Research program
Prior to or at the conclusion of the internships, each group is required to prepare a research prospectus which describes the overall research project. It contains the following items:

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   • Statement of the problem or area to be addressed,
   • Goals and objectives,
   • Current state-of-knowledge,
   • Expected impact or outcome, including potential for technology transfer,
   • The relationship of each individual team member's project (subproject) to the overall goals,
   • How the systems approach is to be employed,
   • The methodologies and experimental design to be used for each subproject,
   • The projected timing of each subproject and how each depends upon the others, and
   • Estimated resources required to complete the research.

It is difficult to predict with any precision the direction and scope of an individual thesis/dissertation in advance. Generally speaking business masters theses in management systems would one or two aspects of the environmental management problem, such as data integration or economic analysis, while Ph.Ds in engineering and science make use of the results of these theses, and of findings from their fellow doctoral candidates, to produce larger works that make fuller use of the systems modeling approach. In all cases research groups are advised by EvMM program faculty, in appropriately defined multidisciplinary subgroups.

It is understood that over the course of time the student membership of a group will necessarily diminish as students finish their work, and possibly change if the depth of the research allows for one or more new students to be added. Even so, the definition of the research project, its objectives, and its ongoing guidance by groups of faculty are all characteristics of the team-based approach of the Clarkson EvMM program. Thus while the final products will be in the form of individual theses and dissertations, and certainly each of these will have been the result of significant individual effort, the underlying multidisciplinary dynamic of the program will be reflected in the nature of the results.

Doctoral students will spend approximately two and one-half years, masters students one-half year, completing the research project.