Introducing the Quanser Global Sustainability Award, a prestigious recognition honoring outstanding individuals and organizations driving impactful solutions for a more sustainable future. Join us for a webinar celebrating the 2022 Award Recipient, Dr. Nathalie Lavoine, where we will delve into her remarkable contributions and discuss her inspiring journey towards advancing sustainability on a global scale. This webinar will discuss how incorporating an entrepreneurial mindset into an engineering course can help students innovate in sustainability to solve real-world problems.

The undergraduate-level class PSE 370 “Pulp and Paper Products and Markets” is a new engineering course of the Paper Science and Engineering (PSE) program of the Department of Forest Biomaterials, at North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC). Since 2019, I offer this class every spring semester to the senior and junior level students of our program (40+ students yearly), who will enter the workforce as the next generation of engineers in the pulp, paper, and packaging industry in the U.S.A.

Our students are highly sensitized to the current and future global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts that surround their field of expertise; they are trained to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in these different contexts. As instructors, our relationship with industry is therefore crucial to improve our pedagogy to meet industrial and societal needs and demands and prepare our students for tomorrow’s sustainability challenges in the pulp & paper sector.

In the context of providing additional value to society, I have expanded our PSE curriculum by developing PSE 370, a course that principally focuses on packaging design and engineering and includes an entrepreneurial competency to its strong engineering core. This entrepreneurial vision is vitally needed in our program because our students are not only exposed to theoretical knowledge and lab practice in Paper Science & Engineering but are also challenged by the industry to apply their knowledge to innovate in the pulp and paper sector. They will be the next leaders to propose paper-based products innovations for positive social impact and environmental sustainability.

During this webinar, I will discuss the tools developed and implemented to ensure our students are well equipped to propose, develop, and pursue scalable, sustainable solutions and engineering methods to real-world needs.