Technology and the Environment Minor

An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Minor at the University of Virginia.

General Description

The increasing prevalence of technology has affected the environment in complex and often unforeseen ways. Society is now demanding that all disciplines of engineering be environmentally aware. Furthermore, those that use and distribute technology need to appreciate its far-ranging impacts. For a more sophisticated understanding of the relationships between technology and the environment, engineers and managers require inter-disciplinary expertise.

The Technology and the Environment (TE) minor addresses these concerns with an interdisciplinary course of studies. A corner stone of the TE minor is basic knowledge of technologies that directly impact environmental systems. This technological foundation will allow students to build a more sophisticated understanding of how technology and the environment are inter-related. According to the interests of a student, courses from the areas of environmental planning and policy, history of the environment and technology, and management may be selected to complete the TE minor. Thus, students from across the university may participate in the Technology and the Environment minor. Students interested in completing the minor should contact the minor coordinator Teresa Culver (TBC4E@VIRGINIA.EDU, 924-6375).

Minor Curriculum

The minor will be composed of six courses. No more than two of these courses may be from a student’s own department. Thus, a student will be required to add breadth to their program through the completion of at least 4-courses outside of their major department.

All students are required to complete at least two courses in the environmental technology area, including one lower-level course (1000- or 2000-level) and at least one higher-level course (3000-level or higher). Each student must then choose an emphasis, by completing three courses, in one of three areas: Environmental Planning and Policy, Technology, the Environment, and Society or Management and Economics. The sixth course may be selected from any of the four areas listed below. A student may petition the minor supervisory committee to include courses not specifically listed below.

Courses

Lower-Level Courses (choose one course)

ARCH 2114 Sustainability and Systems in the Built Environment

CE 2001 Sustainability Science

CE 2100 Introduction to Environmental Engineering

EVSC 1010 Introduction to Environmental Sciences

EVSC 1080 Resources and the Environment

EVSC 1300 Earth's Weather and Climate

EVSC 1450 Climate Change, You, and CO2

EVSC 1600 Water on Earth

EVSC 1762 Water: Understanding our Essential Natural Resource

EVSC 2010/MSE 2010 Materials that Shape Civilizations

EVSC 2200 Plants, People and Culture

STS 2050/GSVS 2050 Introduction to Sustainable Energy Systems

Higher-Level Courses (choose at least one course)

ARCH 3260 Building Matters

CE 3000 Civil Engineering Systems Analysis

CE 3050 Energy Systems and the Environment 

CE 3100 Water for the World

CE 3220 Water Resources Engineering

CE 4100 Water Chemistry for Environmental Engineers

CE 4160 Environmental Microbiology for Engineers

CE 5020 Intro to Geographic Info Systems

CE 5240 Ground-Water Hydrology and Contaminant Transport

CHE 4450 Energy Science and Technology

ECE 3250 Electromechanical Energy Conversion

EVSC 3020 GIS Methods

EVSC 4015 Introduction to Remote Sensing

EVSC 4035 Drones in Scientific Research

EVSC 4070 Advanced GIS

EVSC 4080 Quantitative Methods in Environmental Sciences

EVSC 4090 Instrumental Methods for Analysis of Environmental Samples

EVSC 4490 Air Pollution

EVSC 4660 Hydrological Field Methods and Data Analysis

GSVS 3020 Sustainable Design Thinking II

GSVS 4020 Ecosystem Service: How Nature Benefits People

MSE 3080 Corrosion, Batteries, and Fuel Cells

MSE 4055 Nanoscale Science and Technology

PLAC 5820 Environmental Planning and Design

PLAC 5860 Green Infrastructure: Sites

PLAN 5710 Transportation and Environment

Emphasis Areas (choose at least three courses from one of the following areas)

ARCH 2150/GSVS 2150/COMM 3880 Global Sustainability

ETP 4010 Environmental Decisions

GDS 3114 Science, Technology, and Development

GSVS 3110 Sustainable Communities

GSVS 3310 Sustainability Policy at Home & Abroad

LPPP 2200 Introduction to Public Policy

PLAC 5720 Transportation and Land Use

PLAC 5800 Green Infrastructure: Cities

PLAC 5863 Climate Adaptation Planning

PLAN 3060 Land, Law, and the Environment

PLAN 3810 Climate Justice in Cities

PLAN 3840 Ethics of Cities and Environment

PLAN 3860 Cities and Nature

PLAN 5600 Land Use and Growth Management

PLAN 5740 Transportation Planning and Policy

PLAP 3160/GSVS 3160 Politics of Food

PLAP 4800/ETP 4800 Politics of the Environment

STS 2620 Science and Technology Public Policy

STS 2760 Technology and Policy: Where Intent Meets Process

SYS 2620 Engineered Systems Public Policy

ANTH 2260 Water Worlds

ANTH 2285 Anthropology of Development and Humanitarianism

ANTH 3240 Anthropology of Food

ANTH 3340 Ecology and Society

GSGS 2010 Global Commerce in Culture

GSGS 3118 Space, Place and Global Development

GSVS 2210 Religion, Ethics & Global Environments

GSVS 4100 Evidence for (Sustainability) Policy

HIEU 3321 Scientific Revolution

HIUS 2061 American Economic History

HIUS 2071 American Power and Energies

HIUS 3131 Emergence of Modern America

HIUS 3161 Viewing America

HIUS 3411 American Business

PHS 3620 Built Environment & Health Impact

PLAN 3840 Ethics of Cities and Environment

PLAN 3815 Global Environmental Issues

SOC 3460 Future Cities

SOC 3470 Sociology of Development

SOC 3490 Cities and Culture

STS 2500 Science and Technology in Social and Global Context

STS 2760 Technology and Policy

SYS 3023 Human Machine Interface

 

CE 4110 Environmental Systems Management

CE 5035 Construction Estimating and Bidding

COMM 4251 Inventing the Future

COMM 4821 Managing Sustainable Development

COMM 4822 Invest in Sustainable Future

COMM 5161 Environment, Social, and Governance Accounting

EBUS 2830 Innovation and New Ventures

EBUS 4810 New Product Development

ECON 2010 Microeconomics

ECON 3010 Intermediate Microeconomics

ECON 3110 Mathematical Microeconomics

ECON 3430 Economics of Sustainability and Environment

ECON 4430 Environmental Economics

ENGR 4880 Business and Technical Leadership in Engineering

EVSC 2070 Earth Systems Technology and Management

GSGS 3330 Ecological Economics

STS 2740 Earth Systems Technology and Management

SYS 2001 System Engineering Concepts

SYS 3034 System Evaluation

SYS 3060 Stochastic Decision Models

SYS 4044 Economics of Engineering Systems

SYS 4050/CE 4050 Risk Analysis

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only.  The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found here.

Questions?

Teresa B. Culver

Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Chair for Academic Programs

My lifelong love for the outdoors translated directly into the study of environmental and water resource engineering. At UVa, I have the honor of working with a new generation of engineers who will work to create a sustainable future.