Ecological Engineering
A different view of ecological engineering is the study of existing ecosystems to learn how material and energy flow through them. This understanding inspires the design of better technological systems. An example of such ecologically-inspired design is the construction of a building that is naturally ventilated, based on the principles of convective airflow observed in termite mounds.
Objectives
Our research group uses physical experiments and computer models to study ecosystems so that we can engineer better systems.
In ecological engineering, the objectives can be small-scale, immediate, and focused, as with the design of a composter to process organic waste, or large-scale, long-term, and broad, as with the management of the global ecological changes driven by human population growth and resource consumption.
Publications
A list of all published material can be found here. Areas of expertise include composting and soil, covering topics such as waste management, computaional modeling and green house gas emissions.