Using lcopt/ActivityBrowser/Brightway in teaching

[pjamesjoyce]

@cardosan, @bsteubing, @tmillross - Moving the discussion on using lcopt in teaching from here (LCA-ActivityBrowser/activity-browser#153) and here (LCA-ActivityBrowser/activity-browser#153) to its own separate thread

[pjamesjoyce]

@pjamesjoyce any news about the lcopt course you are preparing I mean this.
I am also gonna use lcopt for mine and would be happy to give a look to what you have done.

We have 2 courses coming up at KTH where we'll be using lcopt, one run by the biotech school (info here) and one run by the chemical engineering school (info here). The biotech course begins at the end of October, I'm writing the exercises for that one at the moment.

I'll have to check with the person in charge of the courses about sharing materials once they're prepared - I can't imagine it being a problem, but you never know.

The outline of the lcopt bit of the course is to have 3 computer lab sessions with students working at their own pace, with people around to support them.

The first will be introducing lcopt by watching the video on the website then exploring the pre-made 'cup of tea' example model, add an extra input or two etc. (I'll probably update the example so the mass flow works (#50), and I might update the video to include the new features in lcopt-dev).

The second will be building their own model from scratch based on information provided (currently making a cup of coffee - including the roasting and grinding process, boiling the water, dealing with waste coffee grounds, adding milk/sugar etc.). The information will be such that they should work out they need to model it with global paramters/functions (e.g. kettle power rating/boil time/capacity instead of energy use per litre).

Then in the third they'll have to find their own data to build an LCA model relevent to their course (i.e. some kind of biotech process for the biotech one, some kind of resource recovery process for the chem eng course).

I'll update you on how it goes.

@cardosan: what's the topic of the course you're teaching?

RE:

P.S: I am still in for the idea of @bsteubing of pooling resources to make a some joint teaching material, what do you think, are the time mature to think concretely about this?

and

@cardosan : Let's talk about pooling resources at some point! Maybe we can also find some funding through a grant application. I think some other universities might be interested in this as well.

I'll have to check with the powers that be, but I think this would be an excellent and potentially popular idea, especially if there was external funding.

[bsteubing]

Hi all,
although the issue/topic here is "lcopt for teaching", I think this can be broadened to "brightway/ActivityBrowser/lcopt" for teaching. ETH Zurich has previously shown interest to use the AB in teaching, so potentially we are now with Leiden University, KU Leuven, KTH, and ETH Zurich. We have written several successful teaching proposals in the past, so with such a consortium like this and the intent of making all the new exciting stuff in brightway/AB/lcopt available to students, I think there is a good chance to get some funding. I have a deadline early October, but could look into this afterwards. Let me know if you are interested...

[cardosan]

@pjamesjoyce I will have a "hands-on" course on LCA. Hands-on in the sense that they already had another part with the theoretical background and this one is supposed to be practical i.e. the students will choose a product and perform a LCA (report included).
@bsteubing just for clarification, I am currently at TUM. But I am sure there would be also interested on this in Belgium (KUL and/or ULB).

[pjamesjoyce]

I can send you the materials I'm developing for the two courses at KTH (via email).

If you send me an email to [email protected], I can reply with the exercises.

@bsteubing I'd be interested in looking at potential sources of funding for developing a brightway/AB/lcopt course - let me know what you find out (and good luck with the deadline!)

@cardosan I didn't realise you were at TUM! I'm in Munich until the beginning of November (at least). Give me a shout if you want to meet up in person.