EES Specialization Graduate Courses
Required/Core Courses for EES Specialization
Energy and Environmental Systems (EESS) 601 – Introduction to Energy and Environmental Systems
This course provides a structured overview to the interactions of energy systems and the environment. The lectures are taught collaboratively by ISEEE faculty and fellows. The course aims to foster a unified, scientific understanding of: energy flows and transformations in industrial society and the natural world; a scientific overview of some of the most important links between energy and environmental systems; and an introduction to the business, legal and regulatory systems that shape the interactions between energy and environment. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the EES Specialization or instructor permission.
Energy and Environmental Systems (EESS) 607 – Tools for Systems Analysis
This course provides an introduction to analytical methods and software tools that are most frequently used for research in energy and environmental systems. Analytical methods include: risk, uncertainty and decision analysis; an introduction to engineering economics; and an introduction to tools for environmental modeling. Software tools include Excel, and extensions such as Crystalball, general purpose systems such as Matlab and Mathematica, and GIS tools for non-specialists. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the EES Specialization or instructor permission.
Other EES/Special Topics Courses
Energy and Environmental Systems (EESS 603) – Project Course
Projects are applied interdisciplinary problem-solving courses in which students work as leaders or as members of project teams. Most course time is devoted to project management and presentations from students. The project course gives students experience working on loosely structured, real-world problems that require teamwork and contributions from diverse disciplines. These problems are co-managed by students and faculty advisors and solutions should be responsive to an external ‘client’ or expert panel. Problem areas are abstracted from local, provincial and national situations and involve the interaction of energy systems, the environment and public policy. Oral and written presentations concerning the results of project studies are required.Prerequisite: Graduate standing in the EES Specialization or instructor permission.
EESS 619.01 – Special Topics: Technical and Economic Factors in Selecting Future Energy Systems
This course will discuss energy markets and energy technologies ranging from traditional hydrocarbon-based fuels through renewable resources and nuclear technologies. We will explore how the various forms of electricity generation and energy supply for industrial and transportation uses can complement or compete with each other in both developing and developed nations. A continuing theme will be how these factors affect the potential use of nuclear energy in Alberta.
EESS 619.02 (ENEE 503) – Special Topics: Life Cycle Assessment
This course deals with the concept of life cycle assessment as it applies to the fields of engineering, design and business. Students in this course are introduced to the structure of life cycle assessment including goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation. Several tools and frameworks (e.g. process, input-output, hybrid life cycle assessment), are reviewed and evaluated. Finally, the relative merits of various methods for interpreting and valuing impacts are considered. These concepts are demonstrated and applied through a class project where individuals apply methods and tools learned in the class to a research project within the area of study of each student. The course will prepare students to apply and critically evaluate life cycle assessment concepts and methods to the analysis and design of products and processes. Students are expected to be confident with the fundamentals of mathematics at the introductory undergraduate level.
EESS 619.03 – Special Topics: Economics for Energy and Environmental Policy Analysis
Economics provides a framework for evaluating and managing society’s competing resource claims. This course considers energy systems and their related environmental and natural resource management issues as elements of economic policy. Students are expected to develop a set of tools based on theory and quantitative techniques from economics and use them to address environmental and energy systems policy questions. Topics include core concepts from microeconomics, benefit-cost analysis, measuring demand for environmental quality, analyzing the efficiency and distributional consequences of pollution regulations, energy market structures and regulation, managing risk and uncertainty, and the economics of climate change policy. No previous training in economics is required to enroll in this course.