By Rebecca Lynn Li

Environmental protection is one of the major issues confronting the world today. After using up much of earth's natural resources and wreaking much damage on the environment, humans are seeing the impacts of our actions and are doing something about it. Taipei Tech's Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management (IEEM) is training engineers and environmental management specialists to help solve the ever increasing number of environmental problems, meet the needs of our industries, while increasing our living standards and Taiwan's international competitiveness. Originally a part of the Department of Civil Engineering, the IEEM branched out and was established as an independent institute in 2000. To assist our government in carrying out its environmental policies, the institute was formally named as the Institute of Environmental Engineering and Management in 2006 and established its PhD program in 2012.

In the IEEM, research is conducted in the areas of resource recycling, heavy metal mercury, carbon footprint, and indoor air quality. Guided by the idea that when used in the right place, even garbage can be turned into gold, the IEEM is well versed in the research of turning waste such as broken glass, mercury lamp, fly ash, lithium battery, and discarded solar cell panel into usable resources. The IEEM has also conducted many research projects related to heavy metal mercury and its inorganic compounds. Developing technologies to better detect and analyze mercury present in the environment, the IEEM can then control and reduce the amount of mercury found in the atmosphere, soil, and ash. Assessing the risk exposure and conducting life cycle analysis, the IEEM evaluates the impact of exposure to mercury on the public's health.

As the whole planet is changing from the effects of global warming, the IEEM undertakes research on the factors that are taken into account for global enterprises to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases. Through the calculation of carbon footprint, comparisons can be made on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by organizations or products and evaluate their impact on the environment. As for research on indoor air quality, the IEMM uses wireless sensing equipment to build systems for monitoring indoor air quality, and environmental test chambers to develop active carbon and photocatalytic air purifier that cleanses indoor air or air contaminants.