The built environment enables access to economic and social mobility, however access to such systems is not uniform across communities. This creates infrastructure inequity. Climate change threatens to exacerbate existing inequities in interdependent infrastructure systems such as energy, transportation, air, and water/wastewater to name a few. The engineer of tomorrow must understand the inequities in the system and the policies that produced them in order to develop robust and innovative approaches to design and manage future systems. This course will introduce students to the prominent theories of equity and environmental justice with a focus on implementation for infrastructure. Students will learn the limitations of decontextualized technical engineering solutions and their impacts on society. Upon completion of the course, students will understand how to abstract and develop models that incorporate elements of equity and justice in civil engineering systems. This course is designed to prepare next generation engineers for careers in which they will participate in projects that directly affect historically marginalized communities.Who can take the course: It is going to be a graduate course, so students should have completed an engineering degree OR are in their final year of their degreePrerequisites: There are no pre-requisites, however familiarity with engineered systems is expected
3 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
The built environment enables access to economic and social mobility, however access to such systems is not uniform across communities. This creates infrastructure inequity. Climate change threatens to exacerbate existing inequities in interdependent infrastructure systems such as energy, transportation, air, and water/wastewater to name a few. The engineer of tomorrow must understand the inequities in the system and the policies that produced them in order to develop robust and innovative approaches to design and manage future systems. This course will introduce students to the prominent theories of equity and environmental justice with a focus on implementation for infrastructure. Students will learn the limitations of decontextualized technical engineering solutions and their impacts on society. Upon completion of the course, students will understand how to abstract and develop models that incorporate elements of equity and justice in civil engineering systems. This course is designed to prepare next generation engineers for careers in which they will participate in projects that directly affect historically marginalized communities.Who can take the course: It is going to be a graduate course, so students should have completed an engineering degree OR are in their final year of their degreePrerequisites: There are no pre-requisites, however familiarity with engineered systems is expected
Offered in Winter 2026 at Stanford University.