2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Today’s students, the future leaders of tomorrow, will face many challenges during their careers that will be defined by the worldwide response to global issues. The accelerating global climate crisis, defined by the urgent need to achieve the Paris Agreement's net-zero carbon goals, requires worldwide collaboration. In the United States in 2022, electric power and transportation accounted for 25% and 28% of the greenhouse gas emissions, respectively, or 53% collectively. Shifting transportation towards net zero emissions can be achieved through the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), but that will in turn create additional demand for electricity. Addressing this complex, interconnected transformation requires a fundamental shift in graduate engineering education. Future engineers must transition from traditional, siloed thinking to a systems-level literacy capable of managing massive infrastructure transformations. This abstract describes the development and integration of a high-impact "World Crisis Module" in a graduate engineering course, explicitly designed to capture students' interest and prepare future leaders to manage the complex systemic conflicts inherent in simultaneous deep decarbonization and widespread electrification through active learning.

The World Crisis Module utilizes a simplified, quantitative project based on discovery learning, challenging students to find a viable solution to the interconnected future of transportation and power generation within the framework of policy-driven net-zero targets. Students must first model the required full adoption trajectory of Electric Vehicles (EVs) necessary to zero out transportation emissions, thereby quantifying the resulting massive surge in electricity demand. They must then contrast this critical load profile with the necessary technical expansion and operational constraints of simultaneously increasing generation capacity entirely via intermittent renewable energy sources—the required zero-emission supply technology.

Key learning objectives include: quantifying the projected electricity demand increase from full EV adoption across various scenarios, and modeling the required scale and operational complexity of renewable energy generation needed to meet this new zero-carbon demand while maintaining grid reliability. Assessment emphasizes the students' ability to synthesize quantitative analysis across demand-side electrification and supply-side decarbonization to propose engineering strategies that are explicitly aligned with the net-zero pathway. This module provides a transferable model for teaching graduate engineers the systems-level literacy and policy awareness required to manage the rapid infrastructure transformation mandated by global climate agreements.