Current Classes
EGGN/ESGN 454 Water Supply Engineering
3 credit hours (offered in the spring):
This course presents contemporary issues relating to the supply of safe drinking water to the public and focuses on the theory and design of conventional potable water treatment unit processes and systems. We will cover conventional process units such as raw water intake, aeration, water conveyance and pumping, coagulation and flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, disinfection, water stability, and residuals processing and disposal. During class, we will address plant siting and layout, discuss design considerations and process control, and apply tools and concepts to design unit processes. The course will also cover the theory and design of conventional potable water distribution systems.
ESGN 530 Environmental Engineering Pilot Plant Laboratory
4 credit hours (offered in the spring)
The course is intended for graduate students in the Environmental Science & Engineering program interested of applying their skills and understanding of treatment of water and waste to a real-world problem. In this course students will be presented with a “real life” environmental problem related to water treatment optimization. The emphasis of this course is to evaluate unit operations associated with water and wastewater treatment at the bench-, pilot-, and full-scale. In this hands-on class, various filtration technologies will be assessed for a given problem at the bench- and pilot-scales in order to determine the most technically feasible solution. Students will develop and implement the most appropriate testing strategies, analytical methods, and sampling plans for the project. To further meet students’ professional needs, field trips will be conducted and supplemental course material will be provided by guest lecturers from industry, consulting, and regulatory agencies with relevant practical experience. These meetings also serve as forum for the students to discuss their treatment strategies with water professionals.
ESGN 603 Advanced Water Treatment Engineering and Reuse
3 credit hours (offered in the fall):
This course presents issues relating to theory, design, and operation of advanced water and wastewater treatment unit operations and water reuse systems. The course examines state-of-the-art unit processes such as granular activated carbon (GAC), advanced oxidation processes (O3/H2O2), UV disinfection, pressure-driven and current-driven membranes (MF, UF, NF, RO and electrodialysis), and natural systems such as riverbank filtration (RBF) and soil-aquifer treatment (SAT) with the goal of enabling students to design advanced water treatment trains and water reuse systems.
Teaching Philosophy
My mission of teaching is not to only provide knowledge and "give" the student an education; rather, it is to assist the student in acquiring the critical thinking and methodological skills necessary for a life-time of learning. In this context, I view teaching as "identifying ways to help students to learn" as opposed to "covering the content." I continually seek ways to release myself from the responsibility of providing all the instruction in my classes. I believe that students should be expected to tackle the act of learning themselves; the instructor guides the process but does not give "the answer." In essence, I believe that teaching is an act of mutual learning rather than a one-person show.
In my classes, I view student-teacher and student-student collaboration as an essential part of successful learning. Therefore, I will seek every opportunity to encourage collaborative experiences and learning. This does not imply that there will be no traditional lecture formats. Some lecturing is necessary either to clarify complex ideas or to present material not readily available. Thus students will experience a variety of instructional methods and they will be actively involved in the learning experience. I promote student involvement during class as much as possible. At the same time, I try to keep the classroom atmosphere light: learning should also be fun.
I believe that a successful university education in engineering should give students the tools and background they need to be productive and successful in the path they choose for themselves. In order to do this, students need to learn how to think critically and must be able to manipulate facts or theories and be able to apply them in contexts other than the one in which they were introduced. This ability is essential to future engineers to find solutions for the complex problems we are faced with today. Teaching methods that require students to put these tools to work are the most successful in helping students achieve these goals. Integrating facts and theory from lecture, and applying them to problems in the laboratory and in the field, forces students to think for themselves, to use their imagination, and to solve novel problems.