CE 477- Introduction to Environmental Engineering

Course Description and Goals: This is intended as an entry-level graduate course for students interested in the role of microorganisms in environmental processes. The emphasis in both lecture and laboratory is to obtain a fundamental knowledge of microbiology that is grounded in practical applications. Upon completion, students should appreciate the public health significance and engineering utility of microorganisms, and they should understand how microbial physiology, growth, and metabolism relate to these topics. The course also takes an experimental approach with students developing skills to collect and evaluate laboratory data (both their own and data presented in literature). Course Objectives: To appreciate the public health significance and engineering utility of microorganisms. To learn the terminology of microbiology such that you can communicate about biological systems using basic principles. To learn basic literature review and laboratory skills such that microbiological data can be interpreted with skill. To list the nutritional needs of microorganisms and describe how organisms process carbon and generate energy. To apply basic principles of microbiology to solve environmental problems or to optimize a biotechnical application of microorganisms.