Carnegie Mellon University
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

Carnegie Mellon's Academic Priorities include lifelong learning, diversity and inclusion, and working collaboratively to address the human condition.

Education has been called “a great equalizer of the conditions of men — the balance wheel of the social machinery." The university’s primary educational goal is to provide students deep disciplinary knowledge and to cultivate skills for lifelong learning.

Learning occurs not only in the classroom, but also through experiential opportunities, participation in research and engagement in campus life and the communities in which we work and live. We are dedicated to providing an environment that encourages our students to imagine broadly, think critically and work collaboratively to advance knowledge and improve the human condition.

Diversity and inclusion must remain a top priority for the university. We recognize that cultivating diverse perspectives and promoting inclusion will breed the intellectual vitality essential for the health and progress of our campus community.

We recognize the importance of supporting the comprehensive nature of research universities, spanning the full spectrum of academic and professional disciplines from the physical, life and social sciences, to computing and engineering, and to the arts and humanities. While we sustain and enhance excellence in scholarship and research in deep disciplinary areas, we will continue to cultivate and nurture CMU’s long tradition of faculty-led interdisciplinary and collaborative pursuits.

https://www.cmu.edu/leadership/the-provost/academic-priorities/index.html

BArch with Minor in Building Science: Building science applies physics and other sciences to building design, operation and performance for the purpose of understanding the interrelationship between buildings and the environment and buildings and their occupants. BArch students who pursue the Minor in Building Science will deepen their knowledge of environmentally responsive building design and may pursue advanced placement (AMP) in the M.S. programs offered by the School in the areas of Building Performance & Diagnostics and Sustainable Design.
BA, BS, PhD and Minor in Chemistry: among the learning outcomes for all courses within the Department of Chemistry are those addressing Society and Ethics: Understand the opportunities and consequences of chemistry for the environment and society for both the short term and for long-term sustainability and understand and apply ethics and values to all professional activities.
BS Civil & Environmental Engineering: This program develops graduates who are able to provide solutions to a wide range of conventional, cutting-edge, and emerging professional challenges related to one or more of the areas of the built, natural and information environments, considering sustainability principles. For all undergraduates at CMU’s College of Engineering, the programs are designed to provide undergraduates with an extra dimension to their education in the areas where technology, society, and policy intersect. The objective is not to produce graduates who will pursue significantly different careers than others in their traditional programs, but rather, to produce graduates who will carry with them a set of insights and skills on the broader, systems-wide issues in technology, society, and policy, and who can better exercise their ethical and social obligations as practicing professionals.
BS in Civil & Environmental Engineering with Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies The required “gateway” course for all students taking the Minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies is “Introduction to Environmental Ideas.” The course is designed to be accessible for students from all levels (frosh through senior) and from all majors in all six undergraduate colleges of Carnegie Mellon University. Students who successfully complete the course can apply social and scientific perspectives to environmental problems; distinguish among scientific methods for evaluating environmental problems; identify environmental justice issues within the context of proposed policy solutions; and distinguish among impacts on different communities and different groups of stakeholders when considering environmental problems and proposed solutions. For all undergraduates at CMU’s College of Engineering, programs are designed to provide undergraduates with an extra dimension to their education in the areas where technology, society, and policy intersect. The objective is not to produce graduates who will pursue significantly different careers than others in their traditional programs, but rather, to produce graduates who will carry with them a set of insights and skills on the broader, systems-wide issues in technology, society, and policy, and who can better exercise their ethical and social obligations as practicing professionals.
BA Behavioral Economics, Policy and Organization (BEPO): The Bachelor of Arts degree in behavioral economics, policy and organizations (BEPO) will train students to apply psychological insights to human behavior to explain and predict economic decision-making to tackle some of the most complicated and costly problems, ranging from rising health care costs and workplace discrimination to climate change and "fake news."
MS Sustainable Design: The MSSD is a post-professional research-based graduate program focused on enabling deep expertise, critical thinking, and investigation of innovative sustainable strategies for the design of the built environment. Students explore technical and multicultural aspects of ecological thinking, while gaining actionable expertise in sustainable design methodologies. The program prepares students to excel in research methods, and to become experts in integrative design thinking for the future of the built environment.
Master of Urban Design: The Master of Urban Design (MUD) degree is a post-professional, two-¬year program. Students who successfully complete the program are prepared to critically address environmental, economic, social, political, and cultural issues affecting contemporary urbanization. The studio-¬based curriculum allows students to explore design strategies in a variety of scales and settings, from the post-¬industrial city to the dense metropolis, from sprawling suburbia to informal settlements
BS, MS and PhD Physics: among the learning outcomes for Physics majors and those who pursue advanced degrees: the ability to articulate how one's own developing skills in science and technology can be increasingly used in constructive community service or engagement that recognizes the potential impact on local and global issues, including environmental impact and sustainability.
MS and PhD Building Performance & Diagnostics: The MSBPD and PhD BPD degree programs are intended for practitioners, researchers, and educators in architecture and the building industry who wish to be leaders in advanced building technologies and building performance. Students in these programs learn to plan, design and evaluate outcomes critical for environmental sustainability and human health and productivity and possess the technical depth for sustainability-focused professional practice, academia, environmental research and consulting, or the building industry.
MS and PhD Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE): The focus areas of graduate programs in CEE include Advanced Infrastructure Systems (AIS), Environmental Engineering, Sustainability and Science (EESS), and Mechanics Materials and Computing (MMC). The EESS concentration aims to create context for engineering decisions in the 21st century and to educate future decision makers in the industry about how the global and local drivers of sustainability are likely to affect their choices. Students examine the challenges of modern design with regard to sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure, energy and environment, life cycle assessment, and carbon footprinting. Graduates are able to make decisions specifically geared toward sustainable engineering practices, and to define sustainability with respect to local as well as global effects.

Students who complete either the BArch or MArch Professional Degree Programs take the following 2-course sequence:
48-315/48-635 Climate & Energy: This course introduces architectural design responses for energy conservation, human comfort, and the site-specific dynamics of climate. Students who successfully complete the course will be able to compile a professional energy consultant's report, designing the most viable energy conservation residential retrofit measures for their client from siting, massing, organization, enclosure detailing, opening control, to passive system integration and management.
48-432/48-655: Design Integration of Active Building Systems: Students who successfully complete this course will have a fundamental knowledge of how to integrate passive and active building systems to improve building performance with design approaches and technologies well‐suited to a net zero energy and net zero carbon future.