Converging Sustainability, Resilience, Systems Engineering, and Artificial Intelligence: Core Competencies for Addressing Grand Engineering Challenges

Background

Empowering engineers with the knowledge and skills to address complex challenges related to sustainability, resilience, and social responsibility requires transdisciplinary frameworks in STEM education. Such educational environments integrate perspectives from engineering, socio-environmental systems, and artificial intelligence, enabling students to: (a) engage directly with and incorporate knowledge from socio-environmental systems and diverse engineering disciplines; (b) consider stakeholder perspectives in the design and development of engineering systems; (c) understand and critically analyze the social dimensions and implications of engineering; and (d) apply systems modeling, analysis, and decision-making methods to address complex, “wicked” problems.

Objectives

Through the redesign of systems engineering and data analytics courses, the enhancement of an Environmental Science and Policy course, and the co-development of a new course integrating systems engineering with environmental science and policy, these competencies will be developed among undergraduate and graduate students in the College of Engineering (COE) and College of Science (COS) at George Mason University. The revised and scaffolded curricula will also advance the university’s curricular goals for equity by incorporating social vulnerability analytics and fairness modules and fostering community engagement across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Publication

1. Mohebbi, S., Momeni, B., Prasad, R.C., (2026). “A Simulation Game for Water Security and Resilience Education” [Under Review] Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=7238401
2. Newar, N., Murali, P.S., Aslani, B., Mohebbi, S., (2026). “A Gamification Approach to Resource Allocation for Resilient Interdependent Infrastructures” [Under Review]. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=7238518 
3. Wood, T., Adkins, D., Mohebbi, S., Campbell, J., (2024). “Awakening indigenuity at George Mason University”, Science Education and Civic Engagement, 16(2), 58-61.

Funding Source

Innovative Simulation Games for Transforming Sustainability and Engineering Education (2025-2026), ASEE Engineering for One Planet Mini-Grant Program, PI, $8,000. [Read more]

Curriculum Impact Grant, Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, George Mason University, PI, $49,000.

Collaborators

Dr. Jennifer Sklarew (Department of Environmental Science and Policy), Dr. Judit Ungvári (Institute for a Sustainable Earth)

Research Assistants

Behnam Momeni (PhD Student), Reeva Prasad (MSc Student)