This seminar will explore a collection of ideas influencing energy policy development in the U.S. and around the world. Our platform for this exploration will be seven recent books to be discussed during the semester. These books each contribute important insights to seven ideas that influence energy policy: Narrative, Transition, Measurement, Systems, Subsidiarity, Disruption, Attachment. Books for 2018 will be chosen over the summer; the 2017 books are listed here as examples: Policy Paradox (2011) by Stone, Climate Shock (2015) by Wagner and Weitzman, Power Density (2015) by Smil, Connectography (2016) by Khanna, Climate of Hope (2017) by Bloomberg and Pope, Utility of the Future (2016) by MIT Energy Initiative, Retreat from a Rising Sea (2016) by Pilkey, Pilkey-Jarvis, Pilkey.

In-depth exploration of topical issues in environmental studies. Topics and instructors will vary with course offerings.

With the world’s population exploding – 2050 will see the addition of some 2 billion inhabitants, primarily in cities in low and middle income countries – decision-makers are pressed to meet basic infrastructural needs (transportation, water and sanitation, public space, electricity, social service facilities and others) while responding to such large global issues as climate change. Further, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed additional weaknesses in national and subnational infrastructure. No global estimate of urban infrastructure needs exists. However, the G-20’s infrastructure hub illustrates the gaps by country and region. Examples of the current and needed investment by 2040 reveal significant gaps: Brazil $1.2 trillion, $India 526 billion, Nigeria $221 billion. This course will review the history, theory, and current practice of financing with special attention to urban places. It will examine the challenges of the planning and financing projects, explore innovation and best practices in the field and suggest needed regulatory and governance reforms, as well as new and disruptive financial tools for cities. Student research undertaken in the course will contribute to the “Cities Climate-Resilient Infrastructure Financing Initiative (C2IFI)” under the direction of Penn IUR and in collaboration with Perry World House and the Kleinman Center. C2IFI is an important project being incubated at the University of Pennsylvania in partnership with the Cities Climate Finance Leadership Alliance (https://www.citiesclimatefinance.org/), the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and others.

Emergent transdisciplinary fields, such as the environmental and medical humanities, reflect a growing awareness that responses to contemporary environmental dilemmas require the collaborative work of not only diverse scientists, medical practitioners, and engineers, but also more expansive publics, including artists, urban and rural communities, social scientists, and legal fields. This course is inspired by the need to attend to environmental challenges, and their health, justice, and knowledge production implications, as inherently social concerns. The class is co-taught by faculty from the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Medicine, and will address the challenges and possibilities of working across disciplinary boundaries, building collaborative affinities, and negotiating frictions between diverse methodologies and epistemological approaches. Dr. Kristina Lyons from the Department of Anthropology brings years of experience collaborating with scientists, small farmers, indigenous communities, lawyers, and judges in Colombia and Chile on watershed restoration projects, soil degradation, toxicity, and the implementation of socio-ecological justice. Dr. Marilyn Howarth is a medical doctor from the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology of the School of Medicine and has experience engaging the public, legislators and regulators around environmental health issues affecting the quality of air, water, soil and consumer products. Through their different lenses, they will foster interdisciplinary environmental collaboration and scholarship by engaging students in discussions and research that bring together the arts and sciences regarding issues of urban air pollution, soil remediation, deforestation, and water contamination, among other environmental health problems. This class offers a unique opportunity for students from engineering, natural and social sciences, humanities, and the arts to learn to converse and collaborate around pr

The course provides a unified introduction to momentum, energy (heat), and mass transport processes. The basic mechanisms and the constitutive laws for the various transport processes will be delineated, and the conservation equations will be derived and applied to internal and external flows featuring a few examples from mechanical, chemical, and biological systems. Reactive flows will also be considered.

This course introduces students to the development and uses of the 4-step urban transportation model (trip generation-trip distribution-mode choice-traffic assignment) for community and metropolitan mobility planning. Using the VISUM transportation desktop planning package, students will learn how to build and test their own models, apply them to real projects, and critique the results. Prerequisite: CPLN 505 or other planning statistics course.

The course will compreshensively cover both theoretical and practical tribology, the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion. The various modes of lubrication, hydrodynamic, elastohydrodynamic, hydrostatic, mixed, solid and dry, will be studied in detail. The contact between solid surfaces will be covered, leading to an understanding of friction and various modes of wear. At each stage, it will be shown how the tribological principles learned can be applied in practice to improve the efficiency and durability of mechanical equipment and thereby enhance sustainability through energy and materials conservation

An opportunity for the student to work closely with a professor in a project to develop skills and technique in research and development. To register for this course, the student writes a one-page proposal that is approved by the professor supervising the research and submitted to the undergraduate curriculum chairman during the first week of the term.

An opportunity for the student to become closely associated with a professor (1) in a research effort to develop research skills and technique and/or (2) to develop a program of independent in-depth study in a subject area in which the professor and student have a common interest. The challenge of the task undertaken must be consistent with the student's academic level. To register for this course, the student and professor jointly submit a detailed proposal to the undergraduate curriculum chairman no later than the end of the first week of the term. Note: a maximum of 2 c.u. of MSE 099 may be applied toward the B.A.S. or B.S.E. degree requirements. Open to all sttudents.

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma and even death. Children up to the age of six are especially at risk because of their developing systems; they often ingest lead chips and dust while playing in their home and yards. In ENVS 404, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of lead poisoning, the pathways of exposure, and methods for community outreach and education. Penn students collaborate with middle school and high school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage middle school children in exercises that apply environmental research relating to lead poisoning to their homes and neighborhoods.

Asthma as a pediatric chronic disease is undergoing a dramatic and unexplained increase. It has become the number one cause of public school absenteeism and now accounts for a significant number of childhood deaths each year in the USA.The Surgeon General of the United States has characterized childhood asthma as an epidemic. In ENVS 408, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of urban asthma, the debate about the probable causes of the current asthma crisis, and the nature and distribution of environmental factors that modern medicine describes as potential triggers of asthma episodes. Penn students will co-teach asthma classes offered in public schools in West Philadelphia and survey asthma caregivers,providing them with the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world situations,promotecommunity education and awareness about asthma, and use problem-solving learning to enhance student education in environmental health.

The purpose of this course is to examine the financing of governments in the urban economy. Topics to be covered include the causes and consequences of the urban fiscal crisis, the design of optimal tax and spending policies for local governments, funding of public infrastructures and the workings of the municipal bond market, privatization of government services, and public financial systems for emerging economies. Applications include analyses of recent fiscal crises, local services and taxes as important determinants of real estate prices, the infrastructure crisis, financing and the provision of public education, and fiscal constitutions for new democracies using South Africa as an example.

Urban Real Estate Economics uses economic concepts to analyze real estate markets, values, and trends. The course focuses on market dynamics in the U.S. and internationally, with an emphasis on how urban growth and local and federal government policies impact urban development and real estate pricing. A group development project gives hands on experience, and invited guest speakers bring industry knowledge. Besides the group project and presentation, problem sets are required along with a midterm and optional second exam. Lecture with discussion required.

This course is a comprehensive introduction to the sociological study of urban areas. This includes more general topics as the rise of cities and theories urbanism, as well as more specific areas of inquiry, including American urbanism, segregation, urban poverty, suburbanization and sprawl, neighborhoods and crime, and immigrant ghettos. The course will also devote significant attention to globalization and the process of urbanization in less developed counties.

Can we successfully adapt our urban water systems to meet the growing challenges of flood, drought, water contamination, heat/fires, extreme weather and sea level rise? How do we make our cities resilient and our communities sustainable, even in the face of these threats? When does change begin? How does it happen? Our urban water systems and their watersheds are already severely challenged. We will explore the human right to water and sanitation on a local and a global scale through a review of (1) water policies, practices and law; (2) technology; (3) governance and funding; and (4) land use (think green/blue infrastructure and “nature-based” solutions). Among many the many topics to be examined, we will study (1) how leadership, technology and politics were essential to achieving change through an analysis of Philadelphia’s Green City Clean Waters program; (2) how we make potable water from wastewater palatable to the public, (3) how to manage PFAS in the environment, the drinking water, the land disposal of biosolids, and in communicating its risk to the public; and (4) make ESG, GHG emissions, energy independence and 100% water recycling/reuse integral to the water industry culture and operations.

This 0.5 CU course is the first part of a two-semester seminar designed to introduce students to the VIPER program and help them prepare for energy-related research. Research articles on various energy-related topics will be discussed. Readings, assignments and discussions concerning responsible and ethical research practices, scientific and engineering methods, library research, presentation of data, data analysis, and advisor identification will also be covered. The course will also discuss how to conduct research in an ethical and responsible manner. During this course, invited speakers from across Penn will share their research to introduce students to a breadth of different topics within energy science, and students will discuss a variety of energy research topics. Students will be provided guidance on how to identify research groups of interest and reach out to faculty members in preparation for their research projects during the summer. Students will develop their scientific research skills by reviewing scientific literature and synthesizing their findings, and they will build their collaboration skills by regularly working together in small, interactive student groups.

This 0.5 CU course is the second part of a two-semester seminar designed to introduce students to the VIPER program and help them prepare for energy-related research. Students will build upon their work in VIPR-1200 crafting scientific research projects, and in VIPR-1210, they will focus on how to communicate science effectively using a variety of different platforms. Students will develop their communication skills by critically thinking about elements of content development and visual design to best engage with their audience, and they will develop their collaboration skills by regularly working together in small, interactive student groups and by providing peer feedback to each other. We will continue to discuss how to conduct research ethically and responsibly as well as critically evaluate the systems used to communicate science and their challenges.

This course is designed to support and prepare students in the Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) in their on-going commitment to research activities and enhance their development as energy research leaders. This course is offered in the summer, fall, and spring terms, and module assignments will be specific to the term, as described below. Students are expected to complete a minimum number of graded module assignments which can be tailored to reflect their current research efforts and plans. This structure is designed to support sophomore, junior, and senior students throughout their undergraduate career. Students may register repeatedly for VIPR-1300 as they continue with their research experiences throughout their undergraduate career. Activities include making arrangements to conduct VIPER research over the summer, reading scientific literature related to their summer research projects, writing reports in preparation for and summarizing their summer research activities, summarizing and reflecting on their on-going research efforts during the semester, being actively involved in energy-relevant activities and submitting reflections about their experiences, and preparing materials for and presenting their energy research to the Penn community in the form of poster sessions and/or campus-wide presentations.

This class will provide an overview of water topics and issues and is intended to provide geologists and environmental scientists with a working understanding of current water resource issues and challenges ranging from stormwater and flooding to stream restoration, water re-use and ecological restoration. Starting with an understanding of hydrology, streams, and related ecosystems, the class will look at the various ways we use and depend on water, the ways in which water resources are degraded, and practices to restore and protect the resource. Topics to be covered include green infrastructure, water and wastewater sources and water reuse, stream health, stream channel restoration, riparian buffers, floodplains, best practices, and the concept of “one water”. We will also cover current regulations, changing water policies, sustainability, and the implications of climate change

Globally, 2 billion people lack access to clean, safe water that is vital for drinking, sanitation, and agriculture. Climate change coupled with contamination of existing water supplies have exacerbated water scarcity, making technologies to remediate, reuse, and desalinate water more critical than ever. This course will cover the fundamental principles of water treatment engineering and examine how it can be applied to ensure access to safe and clean water, mitigate waterborne diseases, protect the environment, and support sustainable development. Water treatment engineering is the application of scientific and engineering principles to design, develop, and implement processes and technologies to purify and manage water resources for specific quality and safety standards. We will explore a wide range of water engineering technologies used in drinking water treatment, wastewater remediation, resource recovery, and desalination. Fundamental principles and advanced concepts governing water treatment systems will be introduced with a particular focus on the application of fundamental engineering sciences including thermodynamics, mass transport, and fluid dynamics to examine the efficiency of treatment and utilization of energy/emissions required for treatment. In addition to the engineering and scientific aspects of water treatment, this course will also place emphasis on the important humanitarian and economic aspects of water engineering and discuss global issues on water quality, scarcity, and environmental justice. Course content includes: (1) an overview of water engineering and its significance in environmental, societal, industrial, and municipal contexts, (2) a review of key concepts from fluid mechanics, mass transfer, and thermodynamics, (3) a brief introduction to water chemistry and contaminants of importance for human health and ecosystem protection, (4) the key physio-chemical and thermodynamic principles underlying all water treatment processes, (5) analysis of specific unit operations used in municipal water treatment, wastewater treatment, and desalination including membrane processes; and (6) an overview of advanced treatment operations for specific industrial and emerging applications.