Search: Energy and Resources Group

With the approval of the Cal Climate Action Partnership (CalCAP - <http://calcap.berkeley.edu/> http://calcap.berkeley.edu) proposal this past spring, Chancellor Birgeneau committed UC Berkeley to reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2014. The proposal was written by a team of authors guided by a steering committee composed of faculty, administrators, staff, and students and chaired by Vice Provost Cathy Koshland. It was built upon and extended a campus wide sustainability assessment completed in 2005 under the Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Sustainability (CACS) that represented the first attempt to inventory campus wide greenhouse gas emissions and resource consumption and make specific recommendations for reducing the ecological impact of campus activities. This Climate Action Course will bring together interested students to study the projects currently being considered for implementation under CalCAP, identify new projects the campus might undertake, and to move them forward through action-oriented research. This course will provide motivated students an opportunity to contribute to significant reductions in campus greenhouse gas emissions and the realization of longer term sustainability goals. Course sessions will engage CalCAP contributors, facilities management, research faculty, outside experts, and the UC administration in conversation on specific CalCAP projects and additional opportunities for emissions reductions on campus. Readings will include the 2005 Sustainability Assessment, the recently adopted CalCAP Proposal, documentation on similar commitments from campuses around the country, and peer reviewed literature on emissions reductions, behavior change, energy economics, building resource use, etc.

This course provides concepts and hands-on design experience with innovative products or processes for improving sustainable communities. The focus will be resource-constrained communities. Teams of three or four students each will take on separate practical projects, with guidance from subject experts, to help mature technical/scientific innovations into useful products or processes.

Required of second-year Energy and Resources' Master's candidates. Topics include the adoption of a research project, research design, presentation of work, statistical analyses. Students will apply the interdisciplinary methods, approaches, and perspectives learned in the core curriculum. Sequence begins spring each year. Credit and grade to be awarded upon completion of the full sequence

Quantitative methods for energy and resource analysis. Topics include linear algebra, differential equations, statistical methods, chemical equilibrium theory, and thermodynamics

Presentations of research in energy issues by faculty, students, and visiting lecturers. Master's degree students required to enroll for two semesters.

Modeling methods in ecology and meteorology; stability analysis; effects of anthropogenic stress on natural systems.

This course will review the background mathematical and statistical tools necessary for students interested in pursuing ecological and environmental modeling. Topics include linear algebra; difference equation, ordinary differential equation, and partial differential equation models; stochastic processes; parameter estimation; and a number of statistical techniques. This course will be recommended as a prerequisite for advanced modeling courses in Integrative Biology, Energy and Resources Group, and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management.