Course syllabus for Integrative design for radical resource efficiency

Course syllabus adopted 2024-02-22 by Head of Programme (or corresponding).

Overview

  • Swedish nameIntegrativ design för radikal resurseffektivitet
  • CodeTRA430
  • Credits7.5 Credits
  • OwnerTRACKS
  • Education cycleSecond-cycle
  • DepartmentTRACKS
  • GradingTH - Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3), Fail

Course round 1

  • Teaching language English
  • Application code 97173
  • Minimum participants8
  • Open for exchange studentsYes

Credit distribution

0124 Project 7.5 c
Grading: TH		3.7 c3.8 c

In programmes

Examiner

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Eligibility

General entry requirements for bachelor's level (first cycle)

Specific entry requirements

Applicants needs to have 90 ECTS at the time for application.
English 6/B.

Course specific prerequisites

Letter of motivation.
Selection is based on an overall assessment of the applicants' merits and letter of motivation.

Aim

The course provides a platform to work and solve challenging cross-disciplinary authentic problems from different stakeholders in society such as the academy, industry or public institutions. Additionally, the aim is that students from different educational programs practice working efficiently in multidisciplinary development teams.
  • To engage students with integrative design¿the problem-solving design practice developed and long successfully implemented by RMI to deliver real-world examples of profitable resource efficiency.
  • To teach optimization of whole systems to capture multiple benefits and increase returns from single expenditures.
  • To provide direct professional development for students in a wide variety of fields and encourage an entrepreneurial spirit for problem-redefining and -solving.
  • To promote networking and collaboration among Chalmers students with shared interests across different disciplines and connect them with the instructors and their networks.

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

  • critically and creatively identify and/or formulate advanced architectural or engineering problems
  • lead and participate in the development of new products, processes and systems using a holistic approach by following a design process and/or a systematic development process.
  • show. insights about and deal with the impact of architecture and/or engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental and societal context.
  • orally and in writing explain and discuss information, problems, methods, design/development processes and solutions
  • reflect innovatively about and apply advanced energy efficiency,
  • integrate design approaches into projects across a variety of disciplines,
  • challenge and address opportunities at the nexus of engineering and economics,
  • apply integrative design in developing countries or underserved communities,
  • suggest solutions to problems not by shrinking their scope but by enlarging their boundaries,
  • describe the role of integrative design and whole system thinking in engineering and design classes taught in Chalmers,
  • develop critical thinking and apply newly learned concepts,
  • apply consistent methods and processes, cross-pollinated across many design disciplines while moving briskly through a wide range of design challenges.

Content

Focus 1: Buildings
  • Conventional vs. integrative design
  • Passive thermal comfort in cold, hot, and humid climates
  • Illumination
  • Water heating
  • Appliances and other loads
  • Design, construction, commissioning, improvement, and adaptation
  • Real-estate implications
Focus 2: Mobility
  • Radical light-duty vehicle efficiency
  • Vehicles and mobility demand
  • Electric and alternative-fueled vehicles
  • Shared mobility systems
  • Connected mobility systems
  • Autonomous vehicles
  • Business strategy
  • Heavy-vehicle efficiency and logistics
Focus 3: Industry
  • Industrial systems and principles
  • Purpose and design intent
  • Fluid-handling and drivesystems
  • Process heat
  • Heavy-industry examples
  • Technology-industry examples
  • Industrial systems
Focus 4: Electricity
  • Implications for demand and business model
  • Comprehensive disruptions
  • Grid and generation right-sizing
  • The supply-side revolution
  • Cost-effective, reliable, and resilient integration of variable renewables
  • Transition paths
Focus 5: Disruptive Energy Futures
  • Market adoption of energy efficiency, renewables, and integrative design
  • Pace of disruption
  • National-level strategies for rapid, cost-effective decarbonization and energy security
  • Turning barriers into business opportunities
  • Profitable climate protection through energy savings and natural-systems carbon removal
Focus 6: Implementation at Scale
  • Implications for resilience, security, global development, and financial capital allocation
  • Implementation through a wide range of techniques and stakeholders

Organisation

The course is run by a teaching team.
The main part of the course is a challenge driven project. The challenge may range from being broad societal to profound research driven. The project task is solved in a group. The course is supplemented by on-demand teaching and learning of the skills necessary for the project. The project team will have one university examiner, one or a pole of university supervisors and one or a pole of external co-supervisors if applicable.

Literature

With input from the teaching team, students will develop the ability to identify and acquire relevant literature throughout their projects. Below is a selected list of publications by Amory Lovins and others that are the most appropriate background readings for the course. Recommended readings will help complete the Puzzlers and other assignments. This is a reference reading list and will be trickled throughout the course depending on the weekly topic, and updates will be posted in Canvas.

Required: Lovins, A.B., 1976. "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" ForeignAffairs 55(1).

Required: Lovins, A.B., 2018. "How big is the energy efficiency resource?" Envtl Res Ltrs 13(9):1¿17, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aad965

Required: Lovins, A.B., 2021. "Creating The Next Energy Revolution: Integrative Design for Radical Energy Efficiency"

Required: Reinventing Fire, chapter 3, pages 76-98. Recommended: Randolph, J., and G. Masters Energy for Sustainability, 2nd edition, chapter 6.

Required: Reinventing Fire, chapter 2, pages 14-35 and 49-62.

Required: Lovins, A.B., 2020. "Reframing Automotive Fuel Efficiency," Soc. Autom. Engineers. Recommended: Lovins, A.B., 2010. "DOD's Energy Challenge as Strategic Opportunity," Joint Force Quarterly, 57:33-42.

Recommended: Ross, M., 1997. "Fuel Efficiency and the Physics of Automobiles," Con. Physics

Required: Lovins, A. B., Lovins, L. H., & Hawken, P., 1999. "A road map for natural capitalism." https://rmi.org/insight/roadmap-for-natural-capitalism/

Required: Lovins, A.B. "Profitably Decarbonizing Heavy Transport and Industrial Heat," RMI, 14 July 2021, https://www.rmi.org/profitable-decarb/.

Required: Lovins, A.B., "Decarbonizing Our Toughest Sectors¿Profitably," MIT Sloan Mgt Rev, 4 Aug 2021, free at https://sloanreview.mit.edu/offers-free-download-sustainable-business/

Required: Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, P. Hawken, A.B. and L.H. Lovins, Little Brown (NY) and Earthscan (London), 1999, 415 pp., posted free as tediously downloadable-chapter-by-chapter PDFs at www.natcap.org.

Required: Reinventing Fire, chapter 4, pages 122-144. Required: Teitelbaum, E., et al, 2020. "Membrane-assisted radiant cooling for expanding thermal comfort zones globally without air conditioning," PNAS, vol. 117, no,. 35.

Recommended: Senge and Carstedt, "Innovating Our Way to the Next Industrial Revolution" MIT Sloan Management Review, vol. 42, no. 2, 2001.

Required: Natural Capitalism, chapters 4 and 6. Required: Lovins, A.B., 2005. "End-Use Energy Efficiency," commissioned for Transitions to Sustainable Energy Use, InterAcademy Council. Required Video: Autodesk Sustainability Workshop. "Whole Systems Design: Introduction to Life CycleThinking." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mC9xaJC2dQ

Required: Reinventing Fire, chapter 5, pages 164-202.

Required: Lovins, A.B., & A. Faruqui, 2020. "The coming transformation of the electricity sector: A conversation with Amory Lovins," The Electricity Journal 33(7).

Recommended: Lovins A. and L.H. Lovins. 1983. "The fragility of domestic energy," Atlantic.

Recommended: Lovins A.B. and M.V. Ramana, 2021. "Three Myths About Renewable Energy and the Grid, Debunked," Yale E360, https://e360.yale.edu/features/three-myths-about-renewableenergy-and-the-grid-debunked

Recommended: Victoria, M. et al., 2021. "Solar photovoltaics is ready to power a sustainable future," Joule 5:1041¿1056, https://www.cell.com/joule/pdfExtended/S2542-4351(21)00100-8.

Recommended: Lazar, J., 2016. Electricity Regulation in the US: A Guide, Second Edition, Regulatory Assistance Project. Chapters 1, 15 and 17.

Recommended: Swisher, J., G. Jannuzzi and R. Redlinger, 1997. Tools and Methods for Integrated Resource Planning, UN Environment Programme, sections, 1C, 1D, 2C, 2E.

Required: Lovins, A.B., 2019. "Recalibrating climate prospects," Environ. Res. Ltrs 14(12).

Required: Lovins,A.B., 2012. "A farewell to fossil fuels: Answering the energy challenge." ForeignAffairs. http://www.rmi.org/Knowledge-Center/Library/2012-01_FarewellToFossilFuels

Required: Lovins A.B., 2019, "Does Nuclear Power Slow Or Speed Climate Change?" Forbes.

Required: R. Way et al., "Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition," https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/empirically-grounded-technology-forecasts-andthe-energy-transition/.

Recommended: Lovins,A.B., 2021. "Why Nuclear Power Is Bad for Your Wallet and the Climate," Bloomberg Law. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/whynuclear-power-is-bad-for-your-wallet-and-the-climate

Required: Lovins, A. B., 1993. "Energy-Efficient Buildings: Institutional Barriers and Opportunities," E source. Required: Meadows, D. H., 1997. "Places to intervene in a system." Whole Earth, 2(91). https:// www.bfi.org/sites/default/files/attachments/pages/PlacesInterveneSystem- Meadows.pdf

Required: Gold R., 2022. "The Texas Electric Grid Failure Was a Warm-up," Texas Monthly.

Required: Monroe, R., 2022. "Why Texas's Power Grid Still Hasn't Been Fixed," New Yorker.

Required: Cavanagh, R., 2021. "A Tale of Two Grids: Texas and California, NRDC Blog, https:// www.nrdc.org/experts/ralph-cavanagh/tale-two-grids-texas-and-california

Required: Lovins, A.B., 2019. "Applied Hope," Commencement remarks to Olin College

Examination including compulsory elements

Each week, students are expected to:
  • Complete required readings in advance of class
  • Watch pre-recorded lecture(s) in advance of class
  • Submit journal entry in preparation for class
  • Attend all class activities
  • Actively participate in discussions and activities
  • Complete in-class Puzzlers
A final grade for the class will be awarded to each student, based on :
Attendance/Participation 25%
Journal Entries 20%
Weekly Puzzlers 30%
Applied Integrative Design Report 25%

Please note that a substantial percentage of the final grade is attendance and participation. If you have difficulty speaking in class/group settings, please meet with the examiner as early in the course as possible to discuss your situation. Participation will be evaluated on an individual basis by the Teaching Staff who will value quality of contribution as much as (and in some cases more than) quantity.

The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability.