Program of Study

Energy Track Requirements

An introductory gateway course provides exposure to a broad set of issues at the intersection of technology and society. In addition to this course, students study both the technological and societal aspects of the provision and use of energy and natural resources.

The following requirements must be satisfied to earn the program certificate: one core course, two technology courses, two societal courses, one breadth course, one-semester independent research project, and the presentation of a project/thesis to faculty and program students at an annual symposium.  If a student is enrolled in more than one certificate program, no more than two courses may be used to satisfy the requirements of both programs. 

Core Course

EGR/HIS/SOC 277 Technology and Society. This course provides students with the intellectual tools needed to approach the rest of the program–a “set of lenses” that will help them view the issues being addressed in their work. Ideally, this course is taken before the other required courses. Offered Spring 2022

Technology Courses – Two Courses Required

These courses include those specifically designed for a wider campus audience (i.e., no or limited prerequisites). An advanced, one-time-only course may be used to replace one or both of these courses with the permission of the program adviser.

• CBE 430/MAE 430/MSE 430 Squishy engineering: Using Soft Materials to Solve Hard Problems 
• CEE 207/ENV 207 Introduction to Environmental Engineering 
• CEE 305/GEO 375/ENE 305 Environmental Fluid Mechanics 
• CEE 311/CHM 311/GEO 311/ENE 311 Global Air Pollution 
• CEE 334/SPI 452/ENV 334/ENE 334 Global Environmental Issues
• CEE 477/ENE 477 Engineering Design for Sustainable Development 
• EGR 194 An Introduction to Engineering
• EGR 251, 351, 451 Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) 
• ENE 202/ ARC 208/ EGR 208/ ENV 206 Designing Sustainable Systems 
• ENE 267/MSE 287/CEE 267 Materials for Energy Technologies and Efficiency 
• ENE 273/ECE 273 Renewable Energy and Smart Grids 
• ENE 372/EGR 372/ENV 372 Rapid Switch: The Energy Transition Challenge to a Low-carbon Future 
• ENE 431/ECE 431/ENV 431/EGR 431 Solar Energy Conversion 
• ENV 302/CEE 302/EEB 302 Practical Models for Environmental Systems 
• FRS (Freshman Seminar) 159: Science, Technology & Public Policy 
• GEO 363/CHM 331/ENV 331 Environmental Chemistry: Chemistry of the Natural Systems 
• MAE 228/EGR 228/CBE 228/ENE 228 Energy Technologies for the 21st Century 
• MAE 328/EGR 328/ENV 328/ENE 328 Energy for a Greenhouse-Constrained World 
• ORF 455 Energy and Commodities Markets 

Societal Courses – Two Courses Required

An advanced, one-time-only course may be used to replace one or both of these courses with the permission of the program adviser.

• ANT 314/ENE 314/AFS 314 The Anthropology of Development 
• ANT 387/ENV 387 Anthropologies of Climate and Change
• AMS 364/ENV 365 Environmental and Social Crisis
• COS 448/EGR 448 Innovating Across Technology, Business, and Marketplaces 
• ENE 259 Energy Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• ENE 475 Human Factors 2.0-Psychology for Engineering, Energy, and Environmental Decisions 
• ENV 305 Topics in Environmental Studies 
• ENV 306 Topics in Environmental Studies
• ENV 375/ENG 275/JRN 375 Crossing the Climate Change Divide
• ENV 380/ENG 480/COM 386 Cities, Sea Level Rise and the Environmental Humanities
• HIS 295 Making America: Technology and History in the United States 
• HIS 394/ENV 394  History of Ecology and Environmentalism
• HIS 507 Environmental History
• SOC 357 Sociology of Technology
• STC 349/ENV 349/JRN 349 Writing about Science 
• URB 201/SPI 201/SOC 203/ARC 207 Introduction to Urban Studies 
• SPI 306/ECO 329/ENV 319 Environmental Economics 
• SPI 350 The Environment: Science and Policy 
• SPI 353/MAE 353 Science & Global Security 
• SPI 480 Special Topics in Security and Sustainability: Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development in Africa 

Breadth Course – One Course Required

In addition to the technology and societal courses, each student is required to take one course that combines technology and society in an area outside their chosen track. Engineering/science students should take a course based in the societal disciplines, and humanities and social science students should take a course based in the science/technology disciplines.

Technology Breadth Courses

• APC 199/MAT 199 Math Alive 
• ARC 203 Introduction to Architectural Thinking 
• CBE 260/EGR 260 Ethics and Technology: Engineering in the Real World 
• CEE 102A/B/EGR 102A/B/MAE 102A/B Engineering in the Modern World 
• CEE 262B/ARC 262B/EGR 262B/URB 262B Structures and the Urban Environment 
• COS 109/EGR 109 Computers in Our World 
• COS 126/EGR 126 General Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach
• EEB 211/MOL 211 Life on Earth: Mechanisms of Change in Nature 
  
• ENV 367 Modeling the Earth System: Assessing Strategies for Mitigating climate Change 
• PHY 115A/STC 115A or PHY 115B/STC 115B Physics for Future Leaders 

Societal Breadth Courses

• EGR 200 Creativity, Innovation, and Design 
• EGR 201 Creating Value: Introduction to Entrepreneurship 
• EGR 491/ECE 491 High-Tech Entrepreneurship 
• EGR 494 Leadership Development for Business 
• EGR 495 Special Topics in Entrepreneurship
• ENG 386/ENV 386 Literature and Environment
• ENV 200A-F The Environmental Nexus
• ENV 343/CEE 343/SAS 343 Inequality and Sustainability in India and USA: An Interdisciplinary Global Perspective 
• FRE 338/COM 332/ENV 338 The Literature of Environmental Disaster 
• HIS 432 Environment and War 
• NES 201/HIS 223 Introduction to the Middle East 
• NES 362 Blood, Sex, and Oil: The Caucasus
• POL 351/SPI 311 The Politics of Development 
• SPI 333/SOC 326 Law, Institutions, and Public Policy
• SPI 334/JRN 334 Media and Public Policy 
• SPI 340/PSY 321 The Psychology of Decision Making and Judgment 

Independent Work

All students are required to undertake a one-semester independent research project in Energy. For A.B. students, this includes a junior paper. This may be substituted by a significant component in their senior thesis (at least a chapter). The project/thesis component requires preapproval of the student’s program advisor.

Annual Symposium

Students are required to present their projects/theses to faculty and program students at an annual symposium held in the spring. This provides a mechanism for shared learning as well as for developing the common themes across the program.