Second Annual Michael Horman Workshop

University of Pittsburgh's Sustainability and Green

Design group hosted the 2nd annual Michael Horman Workshop on April 13, 2011. The workshop brought together students from University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Tech, and Clemson University to discuss their ongoing research in the field of sustainability.

Students shared research ideas, objectives, challenges, and successes and, hopefully, also developed lasting bonds that will encourage continued collaborative relationships throughout the rest of their academic and professional careers. Students also toured Pitt SGD's lab spaces and engineering facility.

Last year's workshop was hosted by Virginia Tech.

Six Week Intro to Sustainability - Taught by SGD Students

Graduate students in Pitt's Sustainability and Green Design (SGD) group, along with members of the student organization Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), organized and taught a 6-week introductory course on sustainability. The course, offered through the Junior Urban Leadership Institute (JuLI) at the Kingsley Association in Larimer, PA, offers high-school aged students an after-school, 2 hour-a-week exposure to sustainable practices and ideas.

JuLI students track the energy

efficiencies of various electricity-

generating sources.

Throughout the course, students were exposed to the triple bottom line approach to sustainability, and asked to incorporate economics, environment, and social equity thinking into problem solving for their communities.

JuLI students build spaghetti

towers as they learn about engineering design principles.

Students learned about healthy eating, material and energy flows, water and waste treatment, and engineering design principles.