Degrees Offered | Program Objectives | Current Students | Prospective Students

**Welcome to the Resiliency & Sustainability of Engineering Systems Minor**

Sustainable engineering systems in the context of multiple hazards, the environment, society, and economic constraints require mitigation to lessen the impacts from natural disasters and human activity and as well as resiliency to recover quickly from those hazards. The Resiliency and Sustainability of Engineering Systems minor will help educate students to become successful leaders who understand the complexity of the multi-hazard challenge in a changing World and can offer meaningful solutions. The graduates from this minor will be able to:

Recognize and assess the complex interactions and interdependencies within and between critical infrastructure, engineering networks, social systems, and our environment.
Recognize the technical, social, economic, and ethical aspects of a commitment to sustainable and resilient development.
Recognize and apply engineering principles, processes, and practices to engineered infrastructure and systems that result in sustainable and resilient development.
Develop a functional knowledge of the historical and economic frameworks that guide engineering regulations and public policy.
Develop skills to convey critical information about sustainability and resilience to the non-expert.

RSES Logo

The triple layered planes in the center of the logo represent the three historical critical infrastructure groups: water, energy, and transportation[1]. The overlapped configuration of the layers symbolizes the interdependencies amongst these critical infrastructure groups (see Figure 1). The dual symbolism of the layered planes is that they also look like the floors of a building, which reminds us that “vertical” infrastructure cannot be disregarded as part of any complete community assessment of resiliency or sustainability.

The stem of the shamrock is curving upward from left to right in order to represent the recovery portion of the temporal resilience curve (see Figure 2). Furthermore, the leafed portion of the shamrock at the end of this stem reminds us that truly resilient systems flourish after recovery. The shamrock itself also represents the natural, vegetative elements of a community that is designed in concert with nature instead of against it. Of course, the shamrock also represents the Catholic and Irish heritage of the University of Notre Dame.

The hexagonal frame represents the six components of community capital: built, economic, human/social, cultural, natural, and political. The hexagonal shape also represents the six major practice areas pertaining to civil infrastructure: structural, water resources, construction, transportation, geotechnical, and environmental. The colors represent the elements of nature with which we seek to build in concert. Blue represents the water and the sky, and green represents the vegetative elements of the earth. Of course, blue and green are also colors associated formally with the University of Notre Dame.

[1] Telecommunications infrastructure was historically grouped with transportation, although it is usually considered as its own infrastructure group in modern times.