Open for the Climate

Den här kursen ger en inblick i batteriernas värld. Vi använder alla batterier varje dag, men vet du verkligen hur ett batteri fungerar, vad som finns i det, vad det är användbart för och hur forskare försöker förbättra dem för framtiden? I den här introduktionskursen kommer vi att berätta allt från batterigrunderna, till utvecklingen av litiumjonbatteriet, deras tillämpningar och krav, vilka typer av material som används för att bygga batterier, till vad som händer med ett batteri när det är slut. och hur batterier utvecklas för framtiden. Som deltagare i denna kurs har du helst någon form av teknisk bakgrund, troligen läst naturvetenskap på högskola eller till och med på högre utbildning, eller har erfarenhet av ett tekniskt yrke. Förhoppningen är att du efter kursen ska bli mycket mer medveten om batterivärlden, kraven, applikationerna och komponenterna i ett batteri, samt ett bredare perspektiv på hur denna viktiga teknik kommer att utvecklas under det kommande decenniet. Observera att videoinspelningarna i denna kurs är på engelska men är textade på svenska.

This course provides a glimpse into the world of batteries. We all use batteries every day, but do you really know how a battery works, what’s inside it, what it’s useful for, and how scientists are trying to improve them for the future? In this introductory course, we will tell you everything from battery basics, through the development of the lithium-ion battery, their applications and requirements, what kinds of materials are used to build batteries, to what happens to a battery when it’s finished its life and how batteries are being developed for the future. As a participant in this course, you ideally have some form of technical background, probably studied sciences at college or even in higher education, or have experience in a technical profession. It is hoped that after the course you will be much more aware of the battery world, the requirements, applications and components of a battery, as well as having a wider perspective of how this important technology will develop over the coming decade. It is expected that this course should take about 10-15 hours in total to complete.   The course is available from 30th of December 2022.

This course emphasizes that systems-based changes are needed to achieve a sustainable world. In the past, dominant theories of change have neglected these complex conditions. In part, it includes the belief that change can be managed, planned, and controlled. This course suggests more contemporary theories where you are more inclusive, being many stakeholders and use fluid ways of creating change. Similar compositions of ideas have been tested in the honours track Change Maker Future Track at LU School of Economics and Management. At the end of the course, the participants will have a better chance of: a.       Understanding of the systemic nature of sustainability b.       Understanding of systems theory, and the concepts of complexity and wicked problems c.       Understanding of systems innovation and change d.       Having an overview of some tools for describing and analysing complex problems and contexts e.       Having an overview of contemporary theories of change f.        Having an in-depth understanding of the concept of Catalytic Leadership and Change    

This course looks at where important materials in products we use every day come from and how these materials can be used more efficiently, longer, and in closed loops. This is the aim of the Circular Economy, but it doesn’t happen on its own. It is the result of choices and strategies by suppliers, designers, businesses, policymakers and all of us as consumers. In addition to providing many cases of managing materials for sustainability, the course also teaches skills and tools for analyzing circular business models and promotes development of your own ideas to become more involved in the transition to a Circular Economy. You will learn from expert researchers and practitioners from around Europe as they explain core elements and challenges in the transition to a circular economy over the course of 5 modules: Module 1: Materials. This module explores where materials come from, and builds a rationale for why society needs more circularity. Module 2: Circular Business Models. In this module circular business models are explored in-depth and a range of ways for business to create economic and social value are discussed. Module 3: Circular Design, Innovation and Assessment. This module presents topics like functional materials and eco-design as well as methods to assess environmental impacts. Module 4: Policies and Networks. This module explores the role of governments and networks and how policies and sharing best practices can enable the circular economy. Module 5: Circular Societies. This module examines new norms, forms of engagement, social systems, and institutions, needed by the circular economy and how we, as individuals, can help society become more circular.

How can we govern consumption and the sharing economy in our cities? This course explores cities, consumption and the sharing economy in Europe and around the world. We connect together the key themes of the sharing economy, cities, governance, consumption and urban sustainability. We explore how the sharing economy can contribute to increasing social, environmental and economic sustainability. And we argue that it is imperative that the sharing economy is shaped and designed to advance urban sustainability. This course was launched in May 2020, and it was updated in September 2021 with new podcasts, films and publications. This course is produced by Lund University in cooperation with partners from Sharing Cities Sweden – a national program for the sharing economy in cities with a focus on governance and sustainability. It features researchers, practitioners and entrepreneurs from a range organisations.

This course explores how we can design, create and achieve climate neutral cities. We embrace the “mission to the moon” approach for tackling greenhouse emissions from cities putting an emphasis on pathways and opportunities. We utilise insights and inspiration from Sweden, Europe and around the world.  We target how to support individuals and organisations in developing transformative skills and capacities for action on climate neutral cities. We focus on mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions but also connect to adaptation, resilience, social justice and sustainable development in the context of cities, climate and change. The course is designed around 5 interconnected modules. We therefore created a format that provides a diversity of ways to learn and creatively engage with the content. Module 1: Visions and Plans. In this week we begin with looking at visions for climate action and the plans or strategies on how to achieve ambitious goals.Module 2: Data and Tools. In this week we explore tools for climate action and creating both immediate and long-lasting impacts.Module 3: Finance and Partnerships. In this week we tackle the key challenge of financing climate action and the vital role of partnerships.Module 4: Engagement and Action. In this week we delve into community and citizen engagement and how it underpins climate action.Module 5: Research and Innovation. In this week we connect climate action to research, evaluation and innovation.  This course will be launched on Oct 25, 2023.

Are you interested in learning more about climate change in the Baltic Sea Region? Then this is the course for you.  In this course, you will learn, discuss and gain new experiences about climate change on both a global and regional level. The course consists of a wide range of modules that aim to give you as a student a holistic understanding of climate change in the Baltic Sea Region. The materials are developed by an international team of climate change experts and university teachers from different universities in the Baltic Sea Region. Each of them will contribute with their knowledge and expertise, while also teaching parts of the materials. You will learn about basic climatology, how the planet is warming, how human societies are driving the warming, how we can be sure that climate change is happening, why climate change should be seen as something urgent that we need to address and finally how we can adapt and mitigate to climate change.

Learn more about climate change’s impact on society and how you can lead a wide range of transition processes and practically work with climate transitions within different areas.   Ongoing and future climate impacts on different parts of society, the attempts to try to build sustainability within planetary boundaries and interconnected international crises’ have created a unique situation concerning the issues’ urgency, complexity and uncertainty. Within this shifting landscape knowledgeable, creative and brave leaders and citizens are necessary to being able to fundamentally change how businesses, regions, municipalities and different organizations work and achieve results. This online course introduces climate science, climate change’s impact on society, different perspectives on the causes and possible solutions to the climate dilemma, climate justice and international agreements, carbon budgets and different climate scenarios, leadership within different contexts on different levels, key areas for successful transitions and different good examples of climate transitions, the individual’s and the collective’s possibilities and responsibilities, and concrete first steps towards transitions work within your work and local context.

The main goal of this course is to teach you basic knowledge and skills in argumentation.You will be engaged in co-constructing evidence-based justifications as well as in analyzing existing justifications in search of argumentation fallacies. Individual work as well as group-based work will allow you to practice. You will analyze climate-related articles (published in scientific literature but also in the news) and will extract the implicit underlying arguments and provide their analysis.Ultimately, this course will help you to develop basic argumentative skills needed to critically join the debate in society on climate goals. Who is the course for?CLIMATE GOALS, ARGUMENTATION, EVIDENCE is aimed at anyone who is interested in moving the first steps into the argumentation domain with the purpose of joining the debate on climate goals.An engineer (but also a politician) is expected to have founded arguments before taking any (climate-related) action. A citizen is expected to have founded arguments before engaging and sustaining any climate-related political agenda. How is the course structured?The course is a 4-week course. Each week mainly focuses on a single Intended Learning Outcome.

If you are interested in learning more about the critical application of sustainability, then this course will be of definite interest. This course considers sustainability from a number of perspectives, particularly how it is approached, interpreted, worked alongside and implemented. The course will be of interest to all who are keen to learn more about sustainability, especially from a critical perspective. The issues focused on include democracy, personal interpretation and cooperation.  This is an introductory course within the field of sustainability science with contributions from experts in the field of sustainability. These experts come from across the Baltic Sea Region, including from Poland, Sweden and Lithuania.  The course is structured into three parts, beginning with an introduction to the Anthropocene which helps to provide some important context for the course. The second and third chapters focus on the critical issues at play when it comes to sustainability including working for sustainability and being together for sustainability.  Upon completion of the course, students can request a digital certificate by contacting pontus.ambros@balticuniv.uu.se

Numerical models are used in every engineering task, from conceptual design to optimization, control, and diagnostics. As the process becomes more complex, data driven models are a powerful tool that allows to quantify relationships between available data and observations, which forms the basis for machine learning. Image recognition, spam filtering, and predictive analytics are some examples of how we can use data driven models. This course provides a simple introduction to fundamental techniques for dimensionality reduction, classification, and regression, which can be applied to all types of engineering problems.

UMA TALKS CLIMATE CHANGE 2022 Climate Adaptation of the Built Environment DESIGNING CYCLES AT 64°   Interior Urban Landscapes and the Water-Energy Food Nexus Climate change demands a recalibration of our built environment to become more resilient. Designing Cycles at 64° takes a multi-scalar approach addressing individual building typologies and, exemplarily for climate adaptation of northern climate zones, the city of Umeå with its diverse urban fabric as a whole. The active involvement of all stakeholders in the planning and future use of buildings and open spaces becomes key. How to create spaces that contribute to community building and social interaction while integrating a maximum of ecosystemic services is therefore a central question that demands for implementable methods, tools, processes and design solutions. At 64° latitude, interior landscapes and the water-energy-food nexus offer interesting possibilities to extend growing seasons and diversify crops, to reduce energy consumption while providing hybrid living spaces between inside and outside. By exploring greenhouse extensions and building envelopes as local passive architectural solutions, DC64° sets out to build productive interfaces between the private and public sector, academia involving the disciplines of architecture and urban planning, urban water management, plant physiology and vertical gardening, as well as the general public in a living lab format. Retrofitting the existing building stock, repurposing vacancies and expanding our building performance may accumulatively have a systemic impact both in terms of reducing water and energy consumption, as well as food miles, while buffering existing infrastructure networks and enabling local food production on site. Expanding on Bengt Warne’s Naturhus (1974) and following examples, we anticipate new multifunctional architectural models applicable in various contexts and scales. FORMAT / The program includes an introductory lecture that addresses climate urgencies and potential capacity for change in the context of the built environment the week before the one-day symposium (hybrid format). The symposium brings together practitioners, researchers and educators and consists of five thematic sessions that can be attended as a full day or individually as they are interrelated, yet also function independently (See program link below). INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES / Understanding of multi-scalar climate-adapation design approaches within the built environment with a focus on the Nordic context / Reflect on aspects of social sustainability when it comes to transforming buildings and inhabitants from being consumers to becoming producers /   Umeå University School of Architecture   Presentations   Program Nov. 30.     For any questions content-related questions please email us cornelia.redeker@umu.se sara.thor@umu.se constanze.hirt@umu.se