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.

Environmental Technology Courses

Lower Level Courses (choose one course)
CE 2100 Introduction to Environmental Engineering
ENGR 2050 Introduction to Sustaintable Energy Systems
EVSC 1010 Introduction to Environmental Sciences
EVSC 1080 Resources and the Environment
EVSC 1600 Water on Earth
EVSC 1762 Water: Understanding our Essential Natural Resource
EVSC 2010/MSE 2010 Materials that Shape Civilizations

Higher Level Courses (choose at least one course)
CE 3050 Introduction to Green Engineering
CE 3100 Water for the World
CE 3200 Water Resources Engineering
CE 4100 Water Chemistry for Environmental Engineers
CE 4120 Experimental Analysis in Environmental Engineering
CE 4160 Environmental Microbiology for Engineers
CE 4270 Hydraulics of Rivers, Streams, and Channels
CE 5020 Intro to Geographic Info Systems
CE 5240 Ground-Water Hydrology and Contaminant Transport
CHE 4450 Energy Science and Technology 
MAE 4630 Energy Systems Design I
MAE 4640 Energy Systems Design II
ECE 3250 Electromechanical Energy Conversion
MSE 3080 Corrosion, Batteries, and Fuel Cells
MSE 4055 Nanoscale Science And Technology
ARCH 3230 Systems, Sites, and Building
ARCH 3260 Building Matters
ARCH 5300 Evaluating Eco-MOD
ARCH 5301 Eco-MOD Seminar
ARCH 5310 Learning Barge
EVSC 3020 GIS Methods
EVSC 3810 Earth Processes as Natural Hazards
EVSC 3880 Watersheds of Lewis and Clark
EVSC 4010 Introduction to Remote Sensing
EVSC 4040 Climate Change: Science, Markets, and Policy
EVSC 4070 Advanced GIS
EVSC 4090 Instrumental Methods for Analysis of Environmental Samples
EVSC 4240 Restoration Ecology
EVSC 4440 Climate Change
EVSC 4490 Air Pollution
EVSC 4660 Hydrological Field Methods and Data Analysis
EVSC 4830 Geological Field Methods in Envi Sci
EVSC 4840 Engineering Geology
PLAC 5860 Green Cities/Green Sites

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

Environmental Planning and Policy
ARCH 2150 Global Sustainability
EVSC 2030/ETP 2030 Introduction to Environmental Policy
EVSC 4030 Environmental Policymaking in the U.S.
ETP 4010 Environmental Decisions
GDS 3114 Science, Technology and Development
GSVS 3110 Sustainable Communities
GSVS 3310 Sustainability Policy at Home and Abroad
PLAP 4800/ETP 4800 Politics of the Environment
PLAP 4810/ETP 4810 Class Race and the Environment
PLAN 3060 Land, Law, and the Environment
PLAN 3810 Toward the Resilient City
PLAN 3840 Ethics of Cities and Environment
PLAN 3860 Cities and Nature
PLAN 5600 Land Use and Growth Management
PLAN 5650 Brownfields Redevelopment
PLAN 5810 Sustainable Communities
PLAN 5830 Environmental Policy and Planning
PLAN 5840 Environmental Ethics and Sustainability
PLAN 5890 Global Environmental International Development
PLAC 5720 Transportation and Land Use
PLAC 5740 Transportation Planning and Policy
PLAC 5800 Green Lands
PLAC 5863 Climate Adaptation Planning
STS 2620 Science and Technology Public Policy
COMM 3880 Global Sustainability
COMM 4824 Sustainable Development Practicum

Technology, the Environment, and Society
ANTH 2291 Global Culture and Public Health
ANTH 2375 Disaster
ANTH 3340 Ecology and Society
ANTH3710  Cities in History
STS 2010 Thomas Jefferson’s Interest in Science and Technology
STS 2020 History of Technology and Innovation
STS 2060 American Environmental History
STS 2071 American Powers and Energies
STS 2100 Techn. and Social Change in the 19th Century America
STS 2201 Technology in World History
STS 2760 Technology and Policy
HIST 2062 Global Environmental History
HIST 2201 Technology in World History
HIST 3111 Technology and Cross Cultural Exchanges in Global History
HIEU 2051 Economic History of Europe
HIEU 3321 Scientific Revolution
HIEU 3322 Science in the Modern Age
HIEU 3772 Science in the Modern World
HIUS 2061 American Economic History
HIUS 2070 American Power and Energies
HIUS 2081 Technology in American Society 1890-1990
HIUS 2711 American Environmental History
HIUS 3131 Emergence of Modern America
HIUS 3161 Viewing America
HIUS 3401 Development of American Science
HIUS 3411 American Business
HIUS 3451 American City 1700-1900
HIUS 3452 American City after 1900
SOC 3470 Sociology of Development
SOC 3490 Cities and Culture
SOC 4640 Urban Sociology
PLAP 4810/ETP 4810 Class, Race and the Environment

Management and Economics
CE 2030 Management of Engineering and Construction Projects
CE 4110 Environmental Systems Management
CE 5000 Management Large-Scale Construction Projects
COMM 4822 Invest in Sustainable Future
ENGR 4880 Business and Technical Leadership in Engineering
EVSC 2070 Earth Systems Technology and Management
SYS 2001 System Engineering Concepts
SYS 3001 Art and Science of Systems Modeling
SYS 3034 System Evaluation
SYS 3060 Stochastic Decision Models
SYS 4000 Financial Aspects of Engineering
ECON 2010 Microeconomics
ECON 3010 Intermediate Microeconomics
ECON 3110 Mathematical Microeconomics
ECON 3430 Economics of Sustainability and Environment
ECON 4430 Environmental Economics
STS 4510 Business of New Product Development
STS 2740 Earth Systems Technology and Management
ETP 3860/COMM 3860 The Business of Saving Nature
COMM 4821 Managing Sustainable Development
PLAN 5870 Environment and Economy

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