Engineers transforming the environment for betterment of life

Knowledge in Basic Sciences, Basic Sciences of Engineering and Specifics of Engineering are fundamental for the education of an engineer. However the insertion in labor market demands sometimes some practice or experience that should also be provided by the engineering schools. Taking this into account, the Engineering Education Research Team of COPEC - Science and Education Research Council has designed a program for an engineering school which main goal is to prepare engineers for the future work market, the engineer for the future. It is an interdisciplinary environmental engineering program that intends to offer students an exciting opportunity to focus their technical capabilities on evolving science that affects human quality of life in an international scale and can simultaneously help preserve and restore areas in which they work. Emerging issues challenge environmental engineers in public health, conservation and restoration of natural systems, water and wastewater treatment, pollution prevention, and more.This work was partly funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Competitiveness Program (COMPETE) and by FCT with the projects PEst-C/CTM/UI0264/2011 and FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022674