Development And Assessment Of New Biobased Materials Courses For Engineering Students And Practicing Engineers

The use of biobased materials for industrial and consumer products has received more and more attention because of the need for sustainability and to address the climate change. Biobased materials are renewable and derived from agriculture, silviculture, and terrestrial/aquatic microbial systems and have been used by humans for thousands of years in many aspects. To pursue technological edges and environmental benefits, the United States Government has been pushing for further development and applications of biobased materials. For further growth in this area, we have seen that there is a strong need for professionals from various backgrounds, including biology, chemistry, and engineering. However, to our knowledge, there are no exiting course series or degree programs on biobased materials in the US for engineering students and practicing engineers, as compared to the international counterparts. To address this issue, we developed and offered a new series of biobased materials courses to both college students and practicing engineers to provide them introductory information on biobased materials and potential opportunities. This series contains six courses including topics of biobased stock, bio-economy, bio-based materials and fuel, material properties and testing, as well as additive manufacturing and applications. These courses were taken in Fall 2015, Spring 2016, and Summer 2016 by more than 62 community college students (some of them have full time jobs) and 11 practicing engineers from General Motors. Four of the courses were integrated into a formal semester course delivered to Wayne State University students in Summer 2016. The participants in individual short courses obtained certificates of completion for potential career opportunities and advancements. In this paper, we present the contents and student feedback of this new series of biobased materials courses and discuss the future direction of this project.