Lindsay McLellan (BME ’10) gives a presentation on ecoMOD in Professor Cohen’s unique course

Despite being unsubstantiated, the image of an engineering student as a caricatured super student –– complete with pocket protector –– is one that is familiar to all of us.

Benjamin Cohen, assistant professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at U.Va.’s School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), however, has forever modified this stereotype.

In Fall 2007, Cohen taught a “Technology, Nature, and Sustainable Communities” 200-level engineering course. “In planning, my first thought was: Wouldn’t it be great if the class wrote a book on this topic?” says Cohen.

And so it began. The book was to be an analysis and exploration of the ecoMOD project — a collaboration between the U.Va. engineering and architecture communities to design and build eco-friendly, modular (ecoMOD) homes for low-income families locally and in regions devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

“The ecoMOD project represents our current ideas of nature,” says Cohen. “Environmental philosophies influence design principles and vice versa, and I wanted the students to understand this.”

The class initially focused on selected readings and discussion about the relationships between technology and nature before then thinking and writing about these themes as they relate to ecoMOD.

“When Professor Cohen first introduced the idea of writing a book, I felt overwhelmed,” says Nick Lumsden, a third-year electrical engineering major. “I thought, ‘I’m an engineer — not an author.’ But I quickly became interested.”

According to Cohen, the book explores ecoMOD’s historical background, its current reality and the necessary societal shifts required to make it widespread.

The practice of teaching engineers to be thoughtful writers will continue. Cohen plans to incorporate this teaching method into future courses and envisions the book being hosted on a Web page so that it may be read by sustainability advocates in the Charlottesville community and throughout the University. (For more on ecoMOD, please see page 10.)