Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Toward Sustainable Resource Management
on campus: BAEN 689-601 or  CVEN 689-601     Distance Education: CVEN 689-701

A Water-Energy-Food Nexus graduate course has been developed and is now offered for the second time at Texas A&M University.

The course allows students to study the principles of the Water-Energy-Food interlinkages and their implications on the security and sustainability of Water-Energy-Food systems at the state, national and international levels. It provides foundations for quantifying and modeling the interactions between resource systems in order to assess sustainable tradeoffs of future resource allocation scenarios. Students learn in an experiential based environment, work on case studies and practical projects. Students are asked to develop customized holistic science-based assessment tools which help decision makers address specific challenges.

Upon completion, students will be able to describe global risks and nexus hotspots, to quantify the inter-linkages of the Water-Energy-Food systems, and to identify how engineering and analytics interface with economics, policy and supply chain at local and global scales.

The course is also available online, and includes a rich reading list.  Lectures are in classroom, and through Camtasia and MediaMatrix. There are several renowned, international lectures who will offer lectures and participate in discussions via interactive web-based discussions.

Global Design Teams (GDTs) – Senior Design Capstone
BAEN 479 and 480

Students receive engineering design experience through team solution of design problem. They prepare a design solution under supervision of biological and agricultural engineering staff and clients. They  learn to critically evaluate the results of their design solution. Each group of students will receive a project and a sponsor. Some of this year’s projects include:

• Waste Water Treatment Facility Analysis in Cuenca, Ecuador
• Review of MUSA process from the World Wildlife Fund
• Collaborate with Just4Water for  design of Water Storage and Distribution System
• Solar Powered Hydrophobic Surface Separation Technique for Desalination