The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) is the foremost national convener of the engineering education community. Dedicated to supporting excellence in the teaching and practice of engineering, ASEE is also committed to establishing sustainability as a core tenet of engineering education.
With support from The Lemelson Foundation, ASEE administers the Engineering for One Planet Mini-Grants Program (EOP-MGP), developed with the Foundation’s Engineering for One Planet initiative. EOP-MGP empowers teams of educators from diverse higher education engineering programs to pursue new ways to integrate social and environmental sustainability into their curricula.
The program launched in 2022 with Cohort I of 13 faculty team awardees, and building on its initial success, Cohort II followed in 2023 with 14 awardees. The program expanded in 2024 with Cohort III to 18 awardees — for a total of 45 awardees thus far. Awardees have generated curricular changes impacting more than 3,500 students to date, and the success of the program has led to a continuation grant that will support Cohort IV and Cohort V in 2025 and 2026 respectively, welcoming an expanded set of 24 awardees each year.
A key goal of the EOP-MGP is to engage and elevate diverse faculty and institutions. Cohort awardees include Minority-Serving Institutions, are geographically dispersed, and represent a mix of institutional sizes and programs, including engineering and non-engineering disciplines.
Through this grants program, faculty teams are awarded $8,000 and provided with expert mentorship from EOP on how to use the EOP Framework, a faculty-vetted menu of sustainability-related student learning outcomes aligned with ABET, the accrediting organization for engineering education programs.
The EOP Framework was co-created and revised by hundreds of EOP community members, including students, educators, administrators, industry, and nonprofit and public sector stakeholders. By including topics such as systems thinking, social responsibility, and materials life-cycle assessment — and related professional and personal skills such as communications, teamwork, and critical thinking — the EOP Framework ensures that future engineers are prepared with the mindsets and skill sets needed to protect the planet and the life it sustains.
Learn more about the latest news and developments from ASEE’s EOP-MGP:
- ASEE Awards 18 Grants to Infuse Sustainability in Engineering Education (June 2024)
- Read more about the Cohort III EOP-MGP grantees
- ASEE Awards 14 Grants to Infuse Sustainability in Engineering Education (May 2023)
- Read more about the Cohort II EOP-MGP grantees
- ASEE Awards 13 Grants to Support Sustainability in Engineering Education (July 2022)
- Read more about the Cohort I EOP-MGP grantees