Achievement

We introduced a new interdisciplinary course (CHEN 6970 Sustainable Production of Fuels and Chemicals by Biorefining). In this first offering, we limited it to graduate students (20 students took the class), but in the next offering (Spring 2014), we plan to offer it to senior undergraduates as well. The course provides an overview of the entire Forest-to-Fuels supply chain and serves as the foundational course for all IGERT trainees and associates. 15 AU faculty from 6 different departments gave lectures in this course along with external lecturers (via video conferencing) from NSF, the Extension Service at University of Georgia, the Center for Renewable Carbon at University of Tennessee, Rentech and North Carolina State University. The IGERT Leadership team led discussion/assessment sessions after each major topic area was covered. The formal course evaluation report from AU was not available at the time of this report, but the feedback from the students has been very positive.