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2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Teaching Students How to Address Resiliency and Equity in Infrastructure Design through the Envision Rating System

Presented at ENVISION in the Civil Engineering Classroom and Curriculum

The Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure’s Envision Rating System does more than measure resiliency, social equity, and environmental justice of civil infrastructure projects; it also provides a framework for guiding design decisions throughout the entire design process. We are utilizing Envision as a framework to teach civil engineering undergraduate students how to consider quality of life, allocation of resources, and resiliency in their designs. By applying Envision as a tool to provide concrete guidance during the design process, students begin to regard these considerations to be inherent in making technical design decisions.

To equip our students with the knowledge base to proactively utilize this framework as a design tool, we use a micro-insertion technique to incorporate varying aspects and levels of depth into the Envision framework throughout Years 2, 3, and 4 in our civil engineering undergraduate curriculum. First, we provide a broad overview of Envision and apply the system to a real civil engineering project, wherein students discuss relevant credits that are applicable to the project. Then, students delve into one credit category as it relates to a large-scale water infrastructure project in a fluid mechanics course. Students deepen their understanding within each Envision category through subsequent design courses in Year 3 that each cover a different credit category through geotechnical engineering and structural design in concrete and steel. The focus at this point is understanding the intent and metric of the relevant credits that are exemplified in each course. In this way, students understand the purpose of a credit and how they can achieve a measurable increase in meeting the purpose of the credit through their design. Finally, students review the entire framework to identify and justify credits that apply to their senior capstone design projects in Year 4. First, they review the framework and note relevant credits that serve as project goals. Upon understanding the intent and metric of the credit, or project goal, students can utilize the levels of performance achievement to document and justify how well they have met each identified project goal or credit.

Examples of student work show that Envision can be used as a tool to gain knowledge of how designs can be informed by the rating system beyond using it as a tool to retroactively evaluate a project. Through our approach, we are utilizing the credits and metrics of the framework to instill a mindset of design thinking that encourages students to consider all relevant Envision credit considerations in their designs.

Authors

Dr. Jennifer Mueller PE Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Dr. Jennifer Mueller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She graduated with her BS in Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University and with her MS and PhD in Civil Engineering with an emphasis on Environmental River Mechanics from Colorado State University. Her graduate work focused on exchange of surface water and groundwater, as well as nitrate uptake, in streams with varying degrees of rehabilitation. Dr. Mueller’s areas of interest include water quality, sustainable design, watershed hydrology, and river hydraulics. Current projects involve pedagogical studies for incorporating sustainability and ethical decision making in undergraduate engineering education, with an emphasis on touchpoints throughout the four-year curriculum.
Dr. John Aidoo Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Dr. Aidoo is currently a Professor of Civil Engineering Department at Rose-Hulman Institute Technology. Prior to this appointment, he worked as the Bridge Design Engineer at South Carolina Department of Transportation.
Dr. Matthew D. Lovell P.E. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Matthew Lovell is an Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and he currently serves as the Interim Senior Director of Institutional Research, Planning, and Assessment office. He is also serving as t
Dr. Kyle Kershaw P.E. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Dr. Kyle Kershaw is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Kyle's primary teaching duties include courses in geotechnical engineering and construction materials. His research interests inclu
Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology [biography]

Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne is an Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, her M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, and her B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla (same school, different name). At Rose-Hulman, Michelle is co-leading a project to infuse an entrepreneurial-mindset in undergraduate students’ learning, and a project to improve teaming by teaching psychological safety in engineering education curricula. Michelle also mentors undergraduate researchers to investigate the removal of stormwater pollutants in engineered wetlands. Michelle was a 2018 ExCEEd Fellow, and was recognized as the 2019 ASCE Daniel V. Terrell Awardee.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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