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MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development

global challenges, engineering solutions
 

Jennifer Bitting (2005-2006) introduces seven fellow graduates of the course.

Uven Chong (2008-2009)

Road transport is a significant component of energy consumption in cities. Uven’s research aims to quantify and spatially source the air quality and climate impacts of urban transport in order to better inform policy and technology adoption choices. This is done through simulating road transport movements and evaluating emissions based upon current and future technological scenarios. Specifically, London bus technologies have been evaluated and the results will be presented. 

Nitin Tanwar (2006-2007) 

Entrepreneurship in Climate Change: Learnings of an ESDer 
A 2006-2007 ESDer started a new company, Climate Connect Limited, in 2010. The company focuses on news, analytics and knowledge process support to carbon and renewable markets. Nitin will discuss the motives of the company, challenges to start something new in climate change, and learnings of ESD that are proving to be helpful. 

Emily Kunen (2008-2009) 

Bioenergy and Sustainability 
Emily works at Winrock International, an international development organization, on bioenergy projects that address both bioenergy production and use, and bioenergy sustainability. The work in the area of bioenergy sustainability addresses the questions of (1) what does sustainable bioenergy mean? (2) how can sustainable bioenergy principles be implemented? 

Priti Parikh (2004-2005)

Replication of Rural Decentralised off-grid Electricity Generation through Technology and Business Innovation is a multi-institutional research programme funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The aim of the project is to establish and implement easy-to-replicate, sustainable decentralized off-grid electricity generation which promotes development and improves wellbeing in rural communities in East Africa. Dr. Parikh will present the project in relation to sustainable development for rural communities in East Africa. 

Catherine Mulligan (2005-2006) 

Bridging the Urban Rural Divide with Mobile Technologies 
Bridging the Urban and Rural Divide is an initiative from Research Councils UK. Researchers from Horizon Digital Economy Research at Nottingham and the Centre for Technology and Development in New Delhi lead an international team investigating the use of mobile technologies to revolutionise rural enterprise. The sustainability of small communities is a huge issue in rural areas. Rural enterprises in both the UK and India struggle without the communication and distribution infrastructures found in urban-industrial areas. Dr Catherine Mulligan will present on the use of mobile technologies in the creation of sustainable rural communities. 

Dominic Clyde-Smith (2006-2007) 

Current and future ecological services and engineering in the development of urban green infrastructure to mitigate the global water issue 
Dominic is part of the Engineering Doctorate center in Urban Sustainability and Resilience at UCL University. He is looking at the role of Ecological Services (ES) and their role in urban sustainability and resilience. Cities in their very nature exceed the carrying capacity of which they can support. The transition of humanity from the countryside to cities has displaced Ecological Services (ES) that once sustained it. Dominic will look at the problem of urbanisation and displacement of ES and whether the importation of these services back into the urban landscape would be beneficial. 

Hero Bennett (2008-2009) 

Max Fordham Sustainability Matrix 
Hero works for Max Fordham, predominantly Environmental and building services engineers. Hero will give an overview of their in-house Sustainability tool which she prepared for publication. It is a communication tool used at the early stages of design and can be used subsequently to track the sustainability of a building project throughout the construction process. 

 

Course Overview

Context

The need to engage in better problem definition through careful dialogue with all stakeholder groups and a proper recognition of context.

Perspectives

An ability to work with specialists from other disciplines and professional groups acknowledging that technical innovation and business skills also must be understood, nurtured and combined as precursors to the successful implementation of sustainable solutions.

Change

An understanding of mechanisms for managing change in organisations so future engineers are equipped to play a leadership role.

Tools

An awareness of a range of assessment frameworks, sustainability metrics and methodologies such as Life Cycle Analysis, Systems Dynamics, Multi-Criteria Decision making and Impact Assessment.