Get Your Degree In Engineering And Get Involved In Green Technology

If developing solar-assisted electric vehicle charging stations or helping with capturing rain water for irrigation rather than causing sewage overflows sounds like interesting, environmentally-friendly work, it is. It's what professionals in Tennessee and New York are doing. In Delaware, their peers have opportunities to tour an Air Force Base to determine how they might clean spilled chemicals that can impact groundwater.

These professionals are all engineers, and a June Newsweek magazine report suggested that green engineers particularly can expect to enjoy one of the most secure occupations of the next 10 years. Why? Because businesses want to save money on electric bills and can receive tax credits, and President Barack Obama earlier this year announced a plan to create environmentally-friendly jobs, according to the report. Employment in renewable energy also is accelerating as traditional power company employees retire, an article on a Power Engineering magazine web site reported.

Students considering working toward an engineering degree online or on campus have a variety of areas in which they can specialize. In civil engineering studies, they might learn about urban planning and developing solutions for pollution and water conservation. As part of an environmental engineering degree program, they might learn about solar and wind energy products. Engineers also specialize in everything from chemicals to computers, aeronautics to acoustics, petroleum, mechanics, electronics and biomedical science. Depending upon the area that students study through campus and online college, university and technical school programs, they might also become ocean engineers – perhaps designing robots and vehicles for deep sea explorations, according to the Junior Engineering Technical Society web site. Professionals in any engineering discipline can be green, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University web site notes.

Focus Product Design sales and marketing vice president John Myung in July told an online publication known as Electronics Design, Strategy, News that his company already is seeing a lot of growth in green engineering. He cited desires in transportation and energy particularly. Customers want new and improved automobiles and solar panels, Myung noted.

A variety of colleges, universities and technical schools with campus-based and online degree programs might offer green engineering programs. At Virginia Tech, students minoring in green engineering can learn about issues related to water, soil and air. They can find out how the engineering profession can affect the environment, the institution's web site shows. They can also learn how to create products, processes and systems that could solve or minimize environmental problems, according to the web site.

Ivy League schools also offer green components to engineering. At Yale University, a Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering is designed in part to support and advance green engineering research. Even the Environmental Protection Agency offers a Green Engineering Program, this one intended to help incorporate a green element with a pollution prevention focus to chemical engineering programs at different institutions, the agency's web site suggests. An EPA green engineering textbook is available for senior through graduate level chemical engineering students, according to the web site.

The EPA site also provides a list of principles of green engineering that it reports engineers and scientists developed as early as 2003. Among them: Conserving and enhancing natural ecosystems while protecting the health and well being of humans and minimizing natural resource depletion. Green engineering principles also include making strides to prevent waste and improving and developing technologies that can create sustainability solutions, the EPA web site shows. Many engineering jobs require a bachelor's degree at minimum, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The payoff is considered one of the best, with engineering degree graduates in at least four disciplines ranked among the top five in terms of 2010 salaries and earning as much as nearly $75,000 a year, a National Association of Colleges and Employers Salary Survey suggests.

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