Fall 2007 to present
Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering
Research Topic: Environmentally Conscious Product Definition -
Guidelines for material and energy efficiency
Life-cycle analysis (LCA) is the industry-standard tool for
quantitatively analyzing the environmental impact of a product,
but it requires detailed information that is only available in
the final, detailed stages of design. Our primary hypothesis is that
LCA-informed, empirical studies of past designs can be used to
establish and validate a set of fundamental principles for
early-stage green design. By reverse engineering collections of
existing products, we expect to derive a set of actionable green
design guidelines and example concepts, useful for steering designers
towards greener concepts.
This project is in conjunction with the Product, Process,
and Materials Design Lab.