NSF Awards $840K Grant for Studying Mental Models in Sustainable Engineering Design

The IDEEAS Lab, in collaboration with Dr. Tripp Shealy (Civil and Environmental Engineering) and Dr. Marie Paretti (Engineering Education) at Virginia Tech, has been awarded an $840,373 grant from the National Science Foundation. This project, titled "Design for Sustainability: How Mental Models of Social-Ecological Systems Shape Engineering Design Decisions," will investigate how engineering students and practitioners conceptualize and incorporate social-ecological systems thinking into their design decisions. The project will follow civil and chemical engineering students as they move from capstone design projects to professional practice to understand how their mental models of social-ecological systems influence various aspects of design decisions.