In the past academic year, students in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering were able to collaborate with the Center for Serve-Learn- Sustain on a number of technically challenging projects that spanned a wide variety of engineering fields and engaged a number of community partners.

First-Years in Dr. Raghu Pucha’s ‘Introduction to Engineering Graphics’ course were given the opportunity to design a solution for a real life problem close to campus: the furious rate of mold and mildew growth in homes surrounding the Proctor Creek watershed. Community leaders suggested that installing low-cost dehumidifiers in these homes might reduce the wide range of public health risks.  Students in this course teamed up to tackle this challenge, and developed numerous in-home dehumidifier designs that were low-cost, safe, and environmentally sustainable.  

Juniors and seniors in Ms…


As implied by the name, the symposium looked at measuring the progress towards MLK’s dream of equality for all people from the core of the Civil Rights Era to current day, 2017. Presenters discussed the theme from diverse perspectives including Education, Health, Criminal Justice and Civic Engagement. With the members of our tables, we were asked to cite policy, organization strategies and progress made in relation to racial equality for every frame presented. We were asked to understand what “the dream” truly implied and if we, as a nation, allowed for the dream to flourish. We considered the idea of racism. What it is to be racist, or moreover, what exactly is racism? Per Dr. Camara Jones, racism is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (race), that unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, and unfairly advantages others, but caps the strength of a society as a whole. Looking deeper, Dr. Jones…


Read  a reflection by Djuan Coleon, Executive Director of PURE (Project Urban Renewable Energy) on the recent SLS/INSS Conference: Smart, Connected Cities, as he writes about Smart Cities, Big Data, and the Matrix.  Djuan serves as CEO and Board Chair of PURE where he oversees the day to day operations of the organization. He launched PURE in 2014 with the mission to build partnerships, coalitions and strategies that will educate communities on energy efficiency, urban renewal, green technology and environmental justice issues to assist in the facilitation of building collaborative sustainable communities across America.


Over spring break, I took the opportunity to try something different—I decided to spend my break volunteering. Like many Tech students do, I participated in an “Alternative Service Break” project with the Office of International Education (co-sponsored by Serve-Learn-Sustain); our destination was a small city in Florida called DeFuniak Springs, where we would take up residence for several days. Disembarking from the school on Sunday, March 19, our trip began like any other—no one really spoke to each other, or in certain cases came already with a friend. Everyone mostly kept to themselves, until our second stop on the way down. Stopping at a state park, our group was allowed some time to walk around and explore before having a group activity. As an “intellectual” warm-up, the group discussed our ideas on this project: how it might affect the environment, whether we have done service trips before, etc. There was still nervousness throughout the group, but it became clear that…


Aglanta 2017, the first ever Urban Agriculture Conference held in Atlanta, was truly exceptional. As members of Engineers for a Sustainable World’s Hydroponics research team, we thought attending this conference would be a great way to network with the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) community, as well as with sustainability professionals in Atlanta. Thanks to a subsidized tickets from Serve-Learn-Sustain and student discounts from Blue Planet Consulting, who put on this event on with the City of Atlanta’s Office of Sustainability, 10 members from our organization were able to attend. The conference hosted a vast array of attendees from all different walks of life and skill sets, and there was something to be learned from every person. Through the networking events, we were able to meet and talk with current entrepreneurs promoting various products related to the…


This Spring 2017, the Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Design course, Sustainable Systems Design, performed streamlined social and environmental assessments of everyday objects. They are streamlined, in that they provide back-of-the-envelope style assessments and did not include data directly from the producers. These are rough estimates and do not claim to be definitive. The three blog posts explore the potential social and environmental impacts of a water bottle, a stapler, and a stick of deodorant.

Post 1: Suave Deodorant Lifecycle & Social Hotspot Analysis, by Abigail Cohen and Fiona Wong

Post 2: Social and Environmental Impacts of a Stapler, by David Cyron and Veronica Spencer

Post 3: Life…


We teach students factual knowledge and expect them to assimilate critical thinking and synthesis, but this has always seemed odd to me; even presenting knowledge in a certain order, discussing assumptions, and pointing out flaws does not replicate the process of discovery and analysis that goes on when one is problem solving. I want my students to be, first and foremost,  good problem solvers. Most of them will not be ecologists, but all of them will need to solve problems. Accordingly, I’ve flipped the emphasis in all my classes to stress problem understanding and analysis, and allow content to be assimilated as part of this process.  This takes the students some time to adjust, and in my Honors Ecology course,  a critical juncture occurs in roughly the middle of class, when the students are asked to consider the “problem” of Lake Victoria.  This lake, which is bordered by several African nations, is a canonical example of a human caused ecological disaster. In an evil cycle, the…


“The College of Sciences is all about knowledge creation…” When my fellow liaison Marc Weissburg said this during a discussion of the role of the College of Sciences in promoting service learning and sustainability, I was immediately struck by its truth. He seemed to have captured in a single sentence what is at once exciting and frustrating about the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech—a place where cutting-edge research and teaching happen every day, but where our "created knowledge" so often ends up stuck within the confines of campus, in closed scientific journals, or in patent applications. As a liaison from the College of Sciences to Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS), my job is to help direct (and help others direct!) that knowledge and effort to non-traditional channels, where it can benefit local communities and create a more sustainable world.


Dr. Hirsch joined Atlanta's steering committee for the global challenge, "100 Resilient Cities."  Learn more about the challenge and Jenny's role by clicking HERE.


During the Zika Outbreak, lessons our nation’s leaders learned about proactive response and preventive public health measures after Ebola made little difference in countering the disease, as Congress delayed funding for its efficient control. Experience from carrying out HIV screenings in Haiti to training health workers through mobile apps has taught me the importance of multisectoral cooperation and active innovation in healthcare. A noninterventionist attitude and reluctance to embrace change is unsustainable to meet the global disease threats of today. Furthermore, without the next generation having a holistic understanding of the challenges that plague public health, we will continue losing precious lives that fall through cracks due to ineffective policies and programs. 

Because Georgia Tech is an engineering school with limited engagement in global health, I noticed the robust need to provide opportunities for my peers to adequately prepare for and…