Small Planet Engineering: Climate, Energy, and Sustainability

3-1-8 units · Undergraduate

Introduces students to the interdisciplinary nature of 21st-century engineering projects with three threads of learning: a technical toolkit, a social science toolkit, and a methodology for problem-based learning. Students encounter the social, political, economic, and technological challenges of engineering practice via case studies and engineering projects focused on climate, energy, and sustainability. Includes a six-stage term project in which student teams develop solutions through exercises in project planning, analysis, design, optimization, demonstration, reporting, and team building. 3.004 includes an additional solar cell design and fabrication project.