Engineering Student Embraces Earth Day by Creating Sustainability Seminar

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By Katelyn Vitek

Katherine Fisher hopes to accomplish in an academic quarter for 20 students what organizers hope to do for the country with today’s Earth Day observance.

When the second-year integrated systems engineering major became more aware about the degradation of the Earth and ongoing harmful practices, she felt compelled to do something about it.

Thanks to her efforts, the College of Engineering this quarter is offering a Seminar on Sustainability (Engineering 694), a one-credit course she designed to make sustainability another important skill in the engineer’s repertoire. The course not only reaches engineering students; the lectures are open to any students who want to get involved or just listen.

Her efforts began one day when she was talking with her mother and the conversation drifted to the topic of waste. Her mother told her about a mound of garbage — twice the size of Texas — floating in the Pacific Ocean. Fisher thought her mother was crazy, but when she looked up the facts she realized that, once again, her mother was right.

Fisher was so shocked and appalled with this revelation that she started thinking about how she could find solutions.

“I wanted to integrate sustainability into my degree curriculum. So I looked around, and talked to people about classes or a minor or something, and it turns out OSU doesn’t have much in the way of academic resources for students interested in sustainability,” says Fisher.

Ohio State had only a scant smattering of courses with sustainability elements here and there — and she had to talk to 15 people before she could get even that concise list. However, she was in search of something more comprehensive.

“I talked to more people about a potential minor, and some ideas and committees were forming but only for after the university’s change to semesters. So finally I decided that something needs to be done for the students here now. We are outputting over 800 engineering students every year with no concept (or a very limited concept) of how to make environmentally conscious decisions and how those decisions can work with correct social and economic decisions,” says Fisher.

With help from Phil Schlosser, a professor and three-time engineering alumnus of Ohio State who she knew from a previous seminar, Fisher has created a new seminar unlike any other.

The class syllabus further explains her motivation: “In order for our future to truly be successful, everyone should have some idea about how the environment works and how it can be directly affected by the work we will all be doing someday — just as we all need basic writing skills and math skills even if English and math aren’t our majors.”

"Kate is an amazing student," Schlosser says. "She's taken it upon herself to pull together the top experts on sustainability at OSU, asking them to share their specialized knowledge with students. The seminar speaks clearly and directly to students who want to learn about this timely and important subject."

With this course, Fisher hopes to dispel the old mentality that emphasizes producing products and services that are meant to take care of mankind but that in actuality end up hurting both mankind and the Earth in the long run. But by learning sustainable solutions to everyday problems, engineers, scientists and everyday people can better care for themselves and the world they live in.

The seminar meets once a week, from 4:30 to 5:48 p.m. Fridays in Hitchcock Hall Room 324, and each week brings a new industry representative or professor speaking about green engineering, sustainability and other similar topics. The course welcomes all students and everyone who desires to learn about greener solutions and see a greener Earth.

Fisher hopes the seminar eventually becomes a permanent course.

Katelyn Vitek is the student communications assistant at the College of Engineering.