IGERT Program: Training Future Engineers to Improve Indoor Environments
IGERT trainees and affiliates will help build the technical foundations necessary to improve the indoor environment.
Even though poor indoor environmental quality poses an enormous health risk, the education of graduate students in this area has been lacking in the United States. Research and education efforts focus almost entirely on the outdoor environment, yet Americans spend almost all of their time indoors.
The Indoor Environmental Science and Engineering program is a cross-campus interdisciplinary program that brings together Ph.D. students and faculty with specialties as diverse as civil, architectural and environmental engineering; mechanical engineering; toxicology; economics; advertising; and community and regional planning.
The goal of this program, funded through the National Science Foundation’s program called Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeships (IGERT), is to train future Ph.D. engineers and scientists who will work to improve the quality of indoor environments. The Indoor Environmental Science and Engineering program is led by several faculty members and is physically headquartered in the CAEE department.
The program aims to be an international front-runner in educating the next generation of leaders in the interdisciplinary field of indoor environmental science and engineering. The program involves a unique academic experience that includes a robust series of courses in indoor environmental quality, student design and participation in public outreach events, graduate student mentoring of undergraduate students, internships at world-class research laboratories, a range of professional development activities related to communication and ethics, and Ph.D.-level research. The program facilitates participation by groups under-represented in science and engineering and focuses on an improved understanding of the link between indoor environments and global sustainability, as well as developing enhanced skills related to interdisciplinary teamwork.
The Indoor Environmental Science and Engineering program at CAEE provides an integrated educational experience.
The objective of the IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) program is to provide an integrated educational experience that will allow for development of leaders who can not only build the technical foundation necessary to improve the indoor environment, but also address the broader human dimension of this emerging field.
Thirteen Ph.D. students are current IGERT trainees, and twelve additional graduate students are classified as program affiliates. Priority research areas include the following: sources of indoor pollution and pollutant transformations, biological contamination and control, innovative indoor environmental control strategies, and children’s exposure to contaminants in indoor environments. Overlap between research areas is also encouraged.
The IGERT trainees and affiliates have access to substantial laboratory space and state-of-the-art instrumentation. Four laboratories totaling in excess of 5,000 ft2 of laboratory space are devoted solely to indoor environmental research at the Center for Energy & Environmental Resources (CEER) at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) at the University of Texas at Austin. These collective laboratories are equipped with instrumentation needed for completing high quality research on indoor environments.
Trainee teams produce and engage in outreach events.
The program also utilizes a state-of-the-art test house developed largely through the efforts of CAEE faculty member and IGERT contributor Atila Novoselac. The UTest house is a 1300 ft2 manufactured home located at PRC as well. The house is a three bedroom/two bathroom home built with conventional materials and has two independent HVAC systems: one in the attic space, and one in the belly space beneath the home (see photo below). The home is fully instrumented and is used for a variety of research projects, as well as teaching and public outreach.
Additionally, the members of the IGERT faculty team have been selected not only for their research capabilities but also for their proven track record of training and mentoring doctoral students and actively participating in the educational mission of the University of Texas at Austin. Richard L. Corsi, ECH Bantel Professor of Professional Practice in the CAEE Department serves as Program Director and Principal Investigator (PI). He is assisted by Co-PIs Kerry Kinney (CAEE Associate Professor - Roberta Woods Ray Centennial Fellowship in Engineering), and Jeffrey Siegel (CAEE Associate Professor). Dr. Hillary Hart has also been very active in working with Drs. Kinney and Corsi on the development and implementation of two key program courses focused on risk communication, ethics, and other aspects of professional development. These courses require major public outreach efforts, exercises speaking with local media (who visit with students) and as expert witnesses to environmental lawyers (who also visit with students), the writing of op-ed pieces, and even the development of a complete NSF proposal.
Recently, Corsi was elected a fellow of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate (ISIAQ). The election recognizes Corsi’s work to understand sources of indoor air pollution, pollutant interactions with indoor materials, and innovative control strategies to reduce exposure to indoor air pollution.
The society also announced that three IGERT students received four of six new awards established by ISIAQ. Donghyun Rim won best student paper for his paper on movement of particles in buildings under different flow conditions, including effects on air flow around the human body. Chi Hoang received second for her paper on ozone reactions with green building materials and third for best overall academic performance. Michael Waring received third for his student paper on removal and generation of ultrafine particles by commercial air purifiers.
The UTest House is fully instrumented and used on research projects, teaching and public outreach.
Corsi says, "This program is unique in that it moves away from the conventional Ph.D. educational experiences of 'crank and grind' research. The program is focused entirely on the development of our students, who engage in truly interdisciplinary educational experiences focused not only on research, but also on the development of leadership skills. The average American now spends 18 hours indoors for every hour we spend outdoors, and by just about every metric our exposure to toxic chemicals is dominated by the air we breathe indoors. Despite these facts, indoor environmental quality has been a relatively neglected issue in the United States."
Corsi adds, "Our students will serve as future leaders who help to improve the quality of buildings in the United States and beyond through their expert knowledge, ability to work on interdisciplinary teams, and to understand not only the technical aspects of indoor environmental problems, but the vast human dimensions that come with the generation and solution of these problems. I am very proud of the remarkable accomplishments of our Ph.D. students to date, and look forward to many more as they graduate and make a difference in this important field."
For an overview of past and ongoing IGERT projects at the University of Texas please follow this link.