Information and Communication Technology for Sustainability (ENGR 390)

I am teaching ENGR 390 at CSULB in Fall 2017.
This course aims to equip students with the foundational knowledge on sustainability and its relation to information and communication technology (ICT). It gives insights into the most important concepts for understanding, analyzing, and assessing the sustainability of a given context. We will go through a list of application domains that are highly relevant for sustainability, including but not limited to climate change, sustainable food production, smart systems, and gamification. Furthermore, we will learn about and experiment with systems thinking approaches and learn how to develop feasible future scenarios.

Lecture: 1 hour twice per week. TuTh 9:30AM - 11:50AM
Activities: 2 hours twice per week.
Grading: Individual and team assignments, writing-intensive GE capstone course. Letter grade only (A-F).

In detail, the course covers the following topics (1 per week):

1. Introduction to sustainability (definitions, history, aspects)
2. Information and communication technology in relation to sustainability
3. The five dimensions of sustainability
4. The three orders of effect and rebound effects
5. Peak oil and climate change
6. Sustainable food production and permaculture
7. Smart X - green product and service development
8. Behavior change: Gamification of sustainability
9. Sustainable development concepts
10. Sustainable development process
11. Introduction to systems thinking
12. System dynamics
13. Leverage points
14. Sustainability assessment (metrics and procedures)
15. Possible future scenarios for ICT supporting sustainability

Reference documents

• Course Outline
• Syllabus

Slides

• Will appear here...