This talk will share initiatives on teaching sustainability assessment for early-stage evaluation of greener chemicals and design environmentally friendly processes via the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Systems Thinking tools that have been implemented at Rowan University (RU) via the Engineering Clinic courses at the Junior and Senior class levels and have also led to development of insightful K-12 STEM Outreach activities. The Engineering Clinic courses are the hallmark of our Rowan Engineering program, and they involve working on team-based projects that are usually supported by industries, grants from federal agencies as well as resources at RU for some emerging directions. In few of these projects led by our Sustainable Design and Systems Medicine Lab, we have incorporated AI tools, especially Machine Learning (ML) to predict environmental impact metrics of chemicals, technologies, processes, and have also developed outreach activities to engage broader communities for educational initiatives on Sustainability. I will share insights on project aims and organization, team management, student and faculty expectations as well as final evaluation. A key focus is to leverage ML and data analysis tools to perform early-stage environmental impact assessment during chemical process design, a multi-step task that is often time-consuming and sometimes infeasible via conventional methods. By incorporating new AI tools, undergraduate students learn to assess the environmental impacts of chemicals more effectively, while developing technical skills in data collection, computational programming, sustainability metrics evaluation, technical writing, and oral presentation. Graduate students on these projects get an opportunity to engage in stakeholder interactions and mentoring while developing their research proficiencies. In addition to technical training, students engage in outreach activities that teach pollution prevention and life cycle analysis (LCA) to middle and high school students through hands-on demonstrations like popcorn-making, oil spill cleanup, and plastics recyclability. Students also present their work at regional and national conferences, strengthening communication skills and contributing to broader sustainability efforts.
