CHNG5009: Digital Circular Economy (2021 - Semester 1)
| Unit: | CHNG5009: Digital Circular Economy (6 CP) |
| Mode: | Normal-Day |
| On Offer: | Yes |
| Level: | Postgraduate |
| Faculty/School: | School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering |
| Unit Coordinator/s: |
A/Prof Abbas, Ali
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| Session options: | Semester 1 |
| Versions for this Unit: |
| Campus: | Camperdown/Darlington |
| Pre-Requisites: | None. |
| Brief Handbook Description: | Key global drivers impacting our environment and urban living include population growth expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, and increasing affluence, which will see the tripling of global consumption of natural resources. Current patterns of production and consumption described as the linear “take-make-dispose” model are unsustainable, in contrast to the circular economy model described as the “reduce-reuse-recycle” which seeks to preserve upstream natural resources (energy and materials), optimise manufacturing processes that reduce generation of irreversible waste. The Circular Economy sets the foundations for engineering resource efficient, sustainable technologies and driving sustainable manufacturing, required to bring deep cuts in environmental damage driven by growing and more affluent global population. Circular economy is an emerging paradigm in environmental management being adopted by organisations around the world to facilitate more efficient resource utilisation, while creating new economic opportunity in a digital age. This UoS will teach: - Foundations of circular economy and its key principles - Digital science as a key enabler to transition circular economy; - Digital and computational tools, technologies and approaches to ‘design out’ waste; o Targeted molecular design o Regenerative product design o Circular process design o Materials flows and circularity o Digital externalities - Build knowledge through circular economy case studies |
| Assumed Knowledge: | None. |
| Tutor/s: | TBC | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Timetable: | CHNG5009 Timetable | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Commitment: |
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| T&L Activities: | Lectures: A series of lectures will introduce Digital Circular Economy topics and learning modules. Project Work - in class: A group project will be used to develop skills and knowledge in Digital Circular Economy. In class group session will help focus on the project assigned. Project Work - own time: Students are expected to work on the project during the week independently of in class sessions. |
Learning outcomes are the key abilities and knowledge that will be assessed in this unit. They are listed according to the course goal supported by each. See Assessment Tab for details how each outcome is assessed.
Unassigned Outcomes
1. Understand the foundations of the circular economy and its key principles and relate them to neighbouring sustainability concepts
2. Appreciate the role digital science and technology play in enabling the transition to circular economy
3. Use digital computational tools, technologies and digital approaches to design materials, products and processes for the circular economy
4. Explain macro-scale data of materials and energy flows and relate them to circularity performance and digital externalities
5. Reflect critically upon the circular economy concept and the role of digital technology in the transition to circular economy
| Assessment Methods: |
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| Assessment Description: | Enrolled students will be undertaking a variety of assessment tasks during the semester with the final mark for this course being drawn from these assessments. There will be no final examination. The assessments use contextual, multidisciplinary approach to learning and are based on active, collaborative and cumulative learning scenarios. The assessments provide opportunity for collaborative and experiential learning that supports transdisciplinary thinking which is highlighted by the inherent multidisciplinary nature of the circular economy topic. As such the assessments will be conducted in groups in problem-based and project-based settings. Students will treat their groups as an business and/or engineering team that will work together to solve the required problems. As these problems resemble real life situations, students are highly encouraged to actively participate so that work skills will be enhanced. Individual assessment will be conducted through peer and self-assessment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assessment Feedback: | Feedback: Students will receive written and verbal feedback. Generic class feedback will be provided for each assessment task to all students. Groups will also receive written feedback on their group submissions. Verbal feedback will be given to individuals to help them advance/adjust their learning and learning styles, as well as to gauge their performance. Grading: Final grades in this unit are awarded at levels of HD for High Distinction, DI (previously D) for Distinction, CR for Credit, PS (previously P) for Pass and FA (previously F) for Fail as defined by University of Sydney Assessment Policy. Details of the Assessment Policy are available on the Policies website at http://sydney.edu.au/policies . Standards for grades in individual assessment tasks and the summative method for obtaining a final mark in the unit will be set out in a marking guide supplied by the unit coordinator. There may be moderation and/or scaling of the raw marks in each assessment component when combining them to get the final mark in this unit of study. |
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| Grading: |
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| Link to Reading List: | http://Students will be expected to read various resources. A list of readings selected for this UoS will be provided and will range from history and introduction to circular economy to circular digital design. Students are expected to build knowledge from the readings and use readings for the assessment tasks. |
| Note on Resources: | There is no specific prescribed text for this unit of study. There is however a readings list that students are required for the various assessments. |
Note that the "Weeks" referred to in this Schedule are those of the official university semester calendar https://web.timetable.usyd.edu.au/calendar.jsp
| Week | Description |
| Week 1 | Lecture: Introduction to the Unit of Study |
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Lecture: Introduction to Circular Economy; The foundations of the circular economy and it key principles, and chronological relations it to neighbouring sustainability concepts Introduce Assessment Task 1 |
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| Week 2 | Lecture: Introduction to Circular Economy; Chemical Engineering foundations for circular economy; Circular economy policy, legislation and certification landscape |
| Lecture: Guest lecture | |
| Tutorial: Work in groups on Assessment Task 1 | |
| Week 3 | Lecture: Introduction to digital science as a key enabler to transition circular economy; Identify digital circular economy practices to remodel business and plan organisational transformation for competitive advantage; Reverse logistics. |
| Tutorial: Work in groups on Assessment Task 1 | |
| Week 4 |
Lecture: 'Designing out' waste using digital and computational tools Targeted molecular design: using contemporary computational approaches including optimisation-based algorithmic intelligence to design molecules for targeting chemicals/materials with enhanced circularity and sustainability metrics; chemical data libraries, physical properties, hazardous properties, chemical and spectroscopic analysis data |
| Tutorial: Work in groups on Assessment Task 1 | |
| Week 5 |
Tutorial: Work in groups on Assessment Task 1 Introduce Assessment Task 2 |
| Assessment Due: Assignment - Linear vs Circular | |
| Week 6 | Lecture: Regenerative product design – creating products that are easy to reuse, repair, and repurpose; |
| Lecture: Regenerative product design - Product Life Cycle Analysis (LCA); Materials circularity assessment (MCA); Emerging tools | |
| Lab: Product disassembly | |
| Week 7 | Lecture: Circular process design – Using systems thinking to create highly efficient, low-waste processes for cleaner production and manufacturing; |
| Lecture: Circular process Design - Design of circular economy eco-parks with materials, resources and energy integration and featuring low emissions | |
| Other: Excursion or Work on Assessment Task 2 | |
| Week 8 |
Lecture: Materials flows and circularity at different levels: organisation, national, international; multi-level geospatial waste data Introduce Assessment Task 3 |
| Assessment Due: Teardown and redesign a product | |
| Week 9 | Lecture: Materials flows and circularity at different levels: Internet of materials (IoM); Monitoring contaminants entering and exiting the economy |
| Tutorial: Work in groups on Assessment Task 3 | |
| Week 10 | Lecture: Digital externalities: markets, natural climate, social networks |
| Tutorial: Work in groups on Assessment Task 3 | |
| Week 11 |
Tutorial: Work in groups on Assessment Task 3 Introduce Assessment Task 4 |
| Assessment Due: Conceptual design of Eco-Industrial Parks | |
| Week 12 | Lecture: Circular Economy cases studies and critical reflections |
| Lecture: Guest Lecture | |
| Tutorial: Work in groups on Assessment Task 4 | |
| Week 13 | Tutorial Assessment: Review Assessment Task 4 submissions |
| Assessment Due: 2-minute video |
Course Relations
The following is a list of courses which have added this Unit to their structure.
Course Goals
This unit contributes to the achievement of the following course goals:
| Attribute | Practiced | Assessed |
| Unit has not been assigned any attributes yet. | ||
These goals are selected from Engineering & IT Graduate Outcomes Table 2018 which defines overall goals for courses where this unit is primarily offered. See Engineering & IT Graduate Outcomes Table 2018 for details of the attributes and levels to be developed in the course as a whole. Percentage figures alongside each course goal provide a rough indication of their relative weighting in assessment for this unit. Note that not all goals are necessarily part of assessment. Some may be more about practice activity. See Learning outcomes for details of what is assessed in relation to each goal and Assessment for details of how the outcome is assessed. See Attributes for details of practice provided for each goal.
