Humanity is conducting an unprecedented experiment on Planet Earth, affecting its ecological and climate systems in ways that could make life much more difficult for future generations. The sustainability challenge can be met only if a large fraction of the population is educated. Teaching the triple bottom line (people, planet and profit) and the multiple dimensions of sustainability seems obvious. However, although awareness of these problems has increased significantly in recent years, major gaps remain in our willingness to implement the necessary changes.

In this talk we review some of the sustainability curricular initiatives proposed by a group of faculty from engineering and social sciences at the University of California in Santa Cruz. We describe the efforts to increase interactions between students from different backgrounds, the development of an international summer school, and the incorporation of a service learning component in large introductory classes. We also highlight some of the educational challenges and opportunities to address open research questions such as uncertainty about long term predictions versus short term economic gains or the delicate balance between free market innovations and policy regulations.

Ali Shakouri is the Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk Director of the Birck Nanotechnology Center and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He received his Engineering degree from Telecom Paris, France in 1990 and Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology in 1995. His current research is on nanoscale heat and current transport in semiconductor devices, high resolution thermal imaging and direct thermal to electricity energy conversion systems. He is also working on a new interdisciplinary sustainability curriculum in collaboration with colleagues in engineering and social sciences. He has initiated an international summer school on renewable energy sources in practice. He received the Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering in 1999, the NSF Career award in 2000, and the UC Santa Cruz School of Engineering FIRST Professor Award in 2004.