Engineering college adding bachelor's degree in environmental engineering
Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019
Trisha Moore, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering and director of the environmental engineering program at Kansas State University, right, instructs a student in the Bio-Environmental Systems Teaching Lab. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN — The Carl R. Ice College of Engineering at Kansas State University, with recent approval from the Kansas Board of Regents, will add environmental engineering as its 12th Bachelor of Science degree program.
A combined effort of the biological and agricultural engineering, civil engineering and chemical engineering departments, the curriculum of 126 credit hours will be officially available in the spring 2020 semester.
Environmental engineering applies engineering and other scientific principles to solve complex environmental problems, which may include recycling efforts, public health initiatives, water quality management, pollution control and waste management.
"This is a welcome addition to our programs and an area we have been working toward offering for some time," said Gary Clark, interim dean of engineering. "As environmental challenges continue to develop, environmental engineers will increasingly be called upon for innovative solutions to sustain our planet."
A number of current faculty have extensive backgrounds in environmental engineering. The program will be directed by Trisha Moore, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering. Other core environmental engineering faculty from that department include Stacy Hutchinson, professor and associate dean for research and graduate programs; Lisa Wilken and Aleksey Sheshukov, associate professors; Edwin Brokesh, Zifei Liu, Vahid Rahmani and Vaishali Sharda, all assistant professors; and Kari Bigham, instructor.
Faculty from civil engineering include Alexander Matthews, professor; and Jeongdae Im, Landon Marston and Prathap Parameswaran, all assistant professors. Chemical engineering faculty include Sigifriedo Castro Diaz, teaching assistant professor.
The College of Engineering will seek accreditation by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET for the environmental engineering program after the first graduates of the program have completed their degrees, which is the standard ABET process for accreditation of new programs.
