EPP :: Issue No. 19 Page 1

Issue No. 19 Spring 2001

_____________________________________________________________________ A newsletter reporting the activities of the faculty, students and graduates of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy in the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon. _____________________________________________________________________

Peha Reflects on a Year on Capitol Hill Addressing Information Technology Policy

It has now been a year since Jon Peha (ECE/EPP) returned to campus after completing an IEEE Congressional Fellowship addressing issues related to telecommunication and electronic commerce. We asked him to give us some reflections on the experience.

The first half of my Congressional Fellowship was spent as one of two telecommunications specialists handling legislation and oversight on the Minority Staff of the House Commerce Committee, which includes the Telecommunications Subcommittee. Most major telecommunications issues before Congress pass through this committee. I spent the balance of the year as the telecom specialist for Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), who is an active member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and is well known as a leader on issues of electronic commerce.

While Congressional historians may view 1999 as a year with considerably more activity than accomplishment, some important issues came before Congress during my tour.

Broadband Internet: Telecommunications policy debates in Congress have long focused on telephone services; the voluminous and supposedly comprehensive Telecommunications Act of 1996 only mentioned the Internet twice. However,

Peha - continued on pg. 4

EPA Establishes Particulate Supersite

Under support from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DoE), a major research center for the study of airborne particulates has been established by faculty affiliated with EPP. The research center is being directed by Spyros Pandis (ChemE/EPP), Cliff Davidson (CEE/EPP), and Allen Robinson (MechE/EPP). The research program involves collaborations with more than a dozen other institutions.

The EPA award, for $3.4-million over four years, is to support the creation of one of several (5-7) "Supersites" which have been established across the US. It has three major objectives. First, airborne particles will be characterized in detail, focusing on properties such as size, shape, density, chemical composition, and light scattering characteristics. These studies will include bulk sampling of total atmospheric particulate matter as well as examination of individual particles. The data will be obtained at high time resolution.

Second, new instrumentation on airborne particles will be developed and tested at the site. Some of this instrumentation will be developed at Carnegie Mellon, although researchers at many other institutions will come to Pittsburgh and bring their own instruments for calibration, testing, and intercomparisons. Both routine monitoring systems

Supersite - continued on pg. 7

Rubin Book Introduces Engineering and the Environment

Environmental concerns today influence nearly all aspects of modern engineering design and practice. While many engineering schools offer specialized elective courses and degree programs in environmental studies, most colleges and universities have been slow to integrate environmental considerations into the basic fabric of engineering curricula. Until this year, part of the problem has been a lack of textbooks suitable for a broad spectrum of undergraduate students.

Professor Ed Rubin (EPP/MechE) is the author of, Introduction to Engineering and the Environment, newly published by McGraw-Hill. Carnegie Mellon professor Cliff Davidson (CEE/EPP) is a key contributor along with Dave Dzombak (CEE) and Spyros Pandis (ChemE/EPP). The book seeks to offer a fresh, forward-looking approach to undergraduate environmental education, focused on the critical role engineers play in solving environmental problems. The principles of green design, industrial ecology, pollution prevention, and sustainable development are highlighted as key goals of good engineering practice.

The text provides broad coverage of environmental issues using a series of case studies that span the design of modern technologies (e.g., automobiles, refrigerators, power plants), plus the environmental transport and chemistry underlying such problems as urban air pollution, toxic water pollutants, and global warming. It also introduces many of the interdisciplinary tools of environmental policy analysis, including life-cycle assessments, engineering economics, cost-benefit analysis, risk analysis, decision analysis, and environmental forecasting.

Initial reaction to the book has been extremely positive. Though it has been available only a few months, the text already has been adopted at a number of US universities for courses in the Spring 2001 semester. Additional details can be found at the McGraw-Hill web site: http://www.mhhe.com/catalogs/0072354674.mhtml.

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