BTT 511E - Energy, Transport and Society

Course Objectives

1. To introduce topics related to science, technology, and society;
2. To examine the relationship between energy and transport infrastructures and societal changes;
3. To do research in contemporary energy and transpor technology debates;
4. To develop the ability to understand and discuss the texts related to transport and energy technologies;
5. To develop the capacity to locate and evaluate engineering problems in their social contexts.

Course Description

İTÜ BTT511E ENERGY TRANSPORT SOCIETY (ETS)

Main topics to be treated in one or more weeks, combining lectures, external seminars, students presentations, team work and projects:

1 LARGE SCALE SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS and their networks, how we represent analyse and model them
2 INTER-DEPENDENCE BETWEEN ENERGY and TRANSPORT who is dominating the interaction, what are the transported fluxes
3 THE CASE OF RAİLROADS transporting persons, goods but also space and time, regulations, modes of life; international comparisons in terms of nation building...
4 THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY AND OF ITS SOCİAL ACCEPTANCE
5 TRANSITIONS: how we analyse and manage them
6 SUPERPOSİTION OF NETWORKS, HYBRID SYSTEMS how we analyse them
7 HISTORICAL ANALOGİES: RAILROADS AND THE SPACE TECHNOLOGİES
8 WHAT HAPPENS TODAY IN THIS TRYPTIC IN A CARBON CONSTRAINED WORLD
9 HYDROGEN IN ENERGY, TRANSPORT AND SOCİETY
10 BACK TO THEORY large scale socio-technical systems approach, actor network theory, interdiscplinarity, the risk society...