BAE: Environmental Engineering

Learn to monitor groundwater quality, measure sediment levels and treat waste. Develop ways to use microbes to break down hazardous waste such as fuel or TNT.

Learn from a faculty member currently researching many topics in environmental engineering, such as:

• Computer models that predict the effects of climate change on water availability in Idaho.
• The use of microbes to treat polluted soil and aquifers.
• Bioreactors that make natural gas from animal waste.
• Tracing lead poisoning through the digestive tracts of native snow geese.

Courses in math, chemistry and microbiology prepare you for more advanced topics, including bioremediation, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. Much of your education takes place in labs, where you will:

• Experiment with how microbes break down hazardous waste in the bioremediation lab.
• Explore water quality and use in the water resources lab.
• Use state-of-the-art groundwater flow programs in the computing lab.
• Design a remotely powered water sampler in the instrumentation lab.

In your senior year, you will draw on everything you’ve learned to solve a real-world problem for an industry sponsor. You and your classmates might use microbes to break down contaminants from hazardous waste sites, or construct a rain chamber to test utility meters for Itron. Present your findings at the University of Idaho Engineering Expo where future employers judge senior projects.

Students are encouraged to complete an internship the summer between their junior and senior year. Many conduct research with professors in biological and agricultural engineering.

Prepare for Success

This major is a good fit if you can see yourself:

• Studying math, biology and physics.
• Communicating and working on teams that include environmental scientists, land managers and industry experts.
• Using your creativity and scientific knowledge to plan and build new technologies and ways of doing things.

To prepare, you may want to:

• Stay current with environmental topics in the news.
• Take biology and participate in river or stream bank restoration activities in your area.
• Practice your leadership skills in student office.

Your First Year

Your first year, you will hone your communication skills with course work in writing. You will also cover engineering problem solving and engineering for living systems.

More advanced courses will cover topics such as environmental water quality, bioremediation and bioreactor design.

See the four-year plan.

What You Can Do

With this degree, you may become one of the following:

• Research engineer: Test and refine new products. Conduct hazardous waste management studies and design sustainable irrigation, waste handling and energy systems. Explore solutions to problems such as acid rain.
• Bioremediation engineer: Advise on environmental restoration. Visit sites to observe problems, consult with contractors and monitor cleanup activities.
• Regulatory engineer: Enforce environmental regulations. Advise on pollution treatment and containment.
• Project engineer: Estimate the time and cost to complete projects. Monitor or direct operations such as gasoline spill cleanups.

Opportunities

Our graduates are highly sought by government agencies, environmental consulting firms and nonprofit organizations. Starting salaries are as high as $60,000.

You may also want to continue your education. Earn an advanced degree in environmental engineering or public policy.

Current Research

Make hands-on discoveries and earn money working with faculty on grant-funded research. You may work on a project like these:

• Center for Hazardous Waste Remediation Research: Analyze how microbes break apart hazardous compounds in soil and water.
• Biodiesel Education Grant: Take part in one of many alternative-fuels research projects.
• Waters of the West Program: Consult with lawyers and biologists to give them an engineer’s perspective on real-world problems from pollution to drought.

Activities

American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers: Join the student branch, plan parties and meet business leaders and potential employers.
Tau Beta Pi: Receive career assistance and leadership opportunities through the national honor society of engineers.
Society of Women Engineers: Network and develop professionally.
Engineers Without Borders: Work on international projects that influence the well-being of peoples of other nations.

Hands-On Experience

Intern. Get practical experiences like these:

• U.S. Bureau of Reclamation: Model scenarios for the effects of climate change on groundwater availability in Idaho.
• Cornell University: Use earthworms to detect heavy metals in hazardous waste.
• Bermuda Biological Station for Research: Study the ocean’s role in regulating Earth’s climate.

Study abroad. Deepen your understanding of your major—and the world—in countries like these:

• Sweden: Help design a sustainable student housing project.
• Mexico: Evaluate the function of absorbents in cleaning biodiesel.
• Taiwan: Reach speeds of 190 miles per hour on a bullet train.