Admission requirements
This course is obligatory for students of the master’s programme Industrial Ecology.
Students can only participate in the Interdisciplinary Project Groups if they have finished at least 48 EC of the Core Modules of the first year.
This course is only open for students that are enrolled in the Master’s Programme Industrial Ecology.
Description
In this course, the students do a group project on a real-industrial ecology problem. By problem-oriented education, the students are trained to cooperate with various disciplines and come up with industrial/practical solutions. Groups are formed out of the IE students during the 1st year, based on their preferences for one of the available project topics. Topics are prepared in deliberation with staff members of the involved universities and commissioners from external parties.
Course objectives
The course starts with a problem assignment provided by an external party (company, government, NGO) together with one of the examiners of the Master's Programme on Industrial Ecology. The first task of the students is to translate this problem assignment in a project's proposal that shows the integrations of various kinds of knowledge into solutions to the given problem. The project group also integrates a detailed time plan in this proposal. After greenlight for the project work, the team carries out their work as planned including several progress meetings and stage reports.
Finally the work should contain:
the analysis of the solution regarding environmental impacts,
the implications of the solution regarding sustainable design and innovation,
the implementation of the solution in a societal or organisational context.
The report and presentation of the work can have different formats as discussed with the supervisor and commissioner. It is possible to write an academic paper at the end, or to present a conceptual design, or an extensive research report.
Class schedule
This course is given twice a year, in September and in February.
Location of other meetings by appointment with the supervisor and students of the project group.
Mode of instruction
Problem-oriented teamwork in groups of 4-6 students.
Assessment method
The group delivers a product and gives a final presentation of their work to the commissioner of the external party and the supervisor. The product and presentation of the work can have different formats as discussed with the supervisor and commissioner. It is possible to write an academic paper at the end, or to present a conceptual design, or an extensive research report.
Brightspace
This course uses Brightspace. Course documents, the course manual, announcements etc. can be found via Brightspace. To get access to the Brightspace page of this course, you first need to register via uSis.
Reading list
Literature to be provided by the supervisor and commissioner, or to be found by the students relevant for the topic.
Registration
All students have to enroll for course and exam at the start of the course via uSis, Leiden University.
This course is only open for students that are enrolled in the Master’s Programme Industrial Ecology.
Contact information
Dr. Valerio Barbarossa (v.barbarossa@cml.leidenuniv.nl)
Remarks
MSc Industrial Ecology students can register for the course and exam via uSis. Other students need to contact the study advisors of the programme via studyadvisor-ie@cml.leidenuniv.nl