ACE095 lp1 HT22 (7.5 hp)

Master Programme Infrastructure and Environmental Engineering 2022

Water Environment Technology, Architecture and Civil Engineering

Chalmers University of Technology

Contact details

• Leonardo Rosado - Associate Professor, Course leader & Examiner rosado@chalmers.se

• Sébastien Rauch - Professor, Co-examiner sebastien.rauch@chalmers.se

• Divia Jiménez Encarnación - PhD candidate, Course Administrator, Supervisor diviaj@chalmers.se

Course student representatives

Course description

Link to course description document: ACE095 Course description

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen: Study plan

Schedule

 

Link to course schedule document: ACE095 Course schedule

Link to course schedule in TimeEdit: TimeEdit

Course aim

The course will provide advanced knowledge on the role of engineers on planning, design and construction, operation and maintenance and decommissioning of infrastructure with a systems perspective and with focus on urban systems. The students will learn about the challenges and needs of complex interdisciplinary infrastructure planning and management, where different stakeholders will have different objectives and needs. 

Students will also learn stakeholders’ relationships in terms of flows of communication, type of information needed and what impact they have on the technical work being developed by infrastructure and environmental engineering students. Additionally, students will learn about trends in infrastructure development, e.g., to be resilient, sustainable and efficient and how they affect complementary infrastructures and urban systems.  

Special focus will be given to the main tracks of the MPIEE programme (infrastructure related to water and environment and transportation engineering).

Course content and organisation

The course is designed around: lectures on key aspects of Infrastructure and Urban Systems, mainly Transportation and Water; a group project; and an individual assignment. This combination of activities is planned to provide the students with information and to help them develop an understanding of critical issues in the areas of infrastructure planning and management processes.

The course is planned around 5 modules:

Module 1 includes a set of lectures where students will learn about background information on infrastructure

Module 2 reflects on the challenges faced today in cities and how they affect infrastructure planning and management.

Module 3 covers the engineering infrastructure sectors, focusing on concrete aspects of planning and management within the waste, transportation and water sectors. This part includes exercises done in class and a lecture to clarify doubts.

Module 4 aims at providing concepts, tools and methods to understand how to describe and analyse infrastructure decision making processes throughout the phases of planning and management. This part includes exercises done in class and a lecture to clarify doubts.

Module 5 is the assignments module and puts into practice the concepts learned through a case study performed in groups and individually. This part includes a group project and an individual assignment.

Assignments

Group Project (3,5 credits)

The aim of the project is to understand the complexity of implementing infrastructural solutions related to an urban challenge.  You will work in groups, and study a real example case study.

Individual assignment (4 credits)

The aim of the individual assignment is to analyze the decision-making process through planning and management stages. Each student will be studying an existing solution of their choice, from those presented in the group work.

In-lecture exercises (Pass/Fail)

Exercises in class for the lectures on Entity relationship modelling, Social network analysis, Waste planning and management, Transportation planning and management, Urban Water Management, Strategic literature searching and Qualitative research  have to be handed in. 

Assessment and grading

Continuous assessment is the central examination form in this course. Grading is based on the individual assignments and the group work, as described below. All assignments are graded on a scale of 0.0-5.0. The final grade is F (fail), 3, 4, 5 with 5 being the highest grade.