Promoting engineering education and research in line with sustainable development - strategies

Education at all levels plays a very important role in achieving sustainable development. The main goals of education are to raise the level of knowledge, analysis and ethics in individuals and increase their sense of responsibility towards society. Chapter 36 of Workbook 21, entitled "Education Development and Raising Awareness," addresses the importance and role of education in sustainable development. Engineer training in the 21st century should be in line with the goals of sustainable development so that it can play a role in correcting the attitude of young engineers and applying these principles in their lives and specialized activities. One of the important tasks of universities is to provide a suitable platform for such education. In this regard, Amirkabir University of Technology, as one of the most important industrial universities in the country, is developing various strategies in this field. Establishment and strengthening of postgraduate courses in environmental engineering, presentation of new courses related to various fields of environment and sustainable development for all engineering students, change and modification of course topics and establishment of environmental research institute are among the most important of these strategies. As an example, a course called "Green Design" is envisaged in the curriculum in which students become familiar with the basics and principles of green attitude in design. Changing the attitude of engineering students from traditional design to green design (where the principles of sustainable development are considered by the designer) is one of the main goals of this course. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role and tasks of 21st century engineers and to explain the basic strategies of Amirkabir University of Technology in line with the goals of the Green University and sustainable development.