Sustainability related Education at TU/e
This Page provides an overview of the master courses offered by TU/e in the year 2020-2021, which directly or indirectly address global sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals. Students are encouraged to engage with technological, social and environmental issues arising from unequal power relations, inequality and exploitation of people and resources. Click ‘Learn More’ to be redirected to Osiris (TU/e students only) and find all the latest course information.
Innovation Sciences & Industrial Engineering
0em110 – Research Methodology for the Innovation Sciences
The course addresses 3 kinds of choices that Innovation Sciences researchers make, implicitly or explicitly, when creating new knowledge: (1) the type of knowledge they want to produce; (2) the research design needed to produce that knowledge; (3) concrete research tools for data collection, analysis, interpretation, and validation.
0EM170 – Global Connections
This course illustrates how seemingly local transformations and innovations have a global dimension that often remains hidden. To fully understand localised technological developments, it is essential to understand how they are intertwined with global developments and their social contexts. Global connections are key in this process and the course focus on 2 different kinds: material-based connections like information, communication & transportation; and the institutional & human relations in knowledge systems.
0LM150 – Entrepreneurial and corporate social responsibility
The course is divided into two parts: in the first part there is a clarification about the hazards to which business ethics is a response and the idea of conscience in relation to corporate culture. Students will examine the role of moral reflection (conscience) in the lives of everyone as individuals and the corresponding role it plays in the culture of an organisation; the second part focuses on the application of the conceptual foundations of the first part.
0EM140 – Energy, economy and society
A reliable, affordable and clean energy supply is of major importance for society, economy and the environment – and will prove to be crucial in the 21st century. You, as future engineer, will be shaping the renewable energy revolution. But before you can do that, you will first have to know and understand the role of energy in economy and society – and that is what this course is about.
0EM310 – From industrial ecology to sustainable assessment
Mass and energy flows are crucial for our daily lives, economies, and production, but come with serious concerns: depletion, global warming, and other environmental impacts. Industrial ecology provides a conceptual framework for studying this type of man-nature interactions and as such provides a basis for broader sustainability assessments.
1CM170 – Sustainable supply chains
We cover topics such as energy and climate, life cycle assessment, scarcity of resources, business implications of sustainability, closed-loop supply chains, carbon allocation and footprinting, carbon emissions and logistics, sustainable supply chain design, green sourcing, supply chain collaboration for sustainability, design for sustainability, and social responsibility in supply chains.
Applied Physics
3MP110 – Solar Cells
This course focus on properties of light, inorganic & polymer semiconductors, and p-n junctions. The principles of photovoltaic energy conversion are discussed based on the case study of crystalline silicon solar cell from which is derived a mathematical model of the current-voltage characteristics for a diode in dark and under illumination conditions. Students will be able to assess several solar cell generations in terms of cost reduction, efficiency increase and production technologies.
Mechanical Engineering
4AT020 – Clean engines and future fuels
The course focus on all relevant processes in an internal combustion engine with particular focus on physical and chemical fuel properties. Student will follow a ‘reverse engineering’ approach to ‘design’ a new fuel given certain demands. Also, new combustion concepts will be introduced based on their (dis)advantages and operational limits. An outlook regarding next generation after-treatment systems and possible combination with advanced combustion concepts will be given.
Built Environment
7LS3M0 – Sustainable buildings
This course addresses the integral sustainability of buildings. On the building material aspect, the raw materials, way of production, its properties, the building products and the entire construction chain are considered. Also, attention is paid to sustainable land use, water and energy systems. Student will be able to assess buildings regarding their sustainability and design sustainable buildings based on the functional requirements and the 4 themes: energy, materials, water and space.
Industrial Design
DCM130 – Design for social innovation
The course aims to get students acquainted with the transformation economy that focus on addressing larger societal challenges, boosts social innovation and transformative practices. Also, students will learn 1st, 2nd and 3rd person perspectives, embodied theories, micro-meso-macro lenses, aesthetics of transformation and situated practices. The communication of findings will be through a public exhibition, a video and infographics, to stimulate debate with people from various backgrounds.
Electrical Engineering
5LEB0 – Environment and power engineering
The course comprises the composition of an essay regarding environmental aspects of power engineering and solutions of emerging technologies such as alternative renewable energy; depletion of resources for technology; energy storage, E&PE challenges; among others. The essay should imply a grand, state of the art overview of the subject area obtained from scientific literature, data acquisition and data interaction, adding a personal signature.