Syllabus

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After the course, the students are expected to:

• Describe fundamental concepts of sustainability.
• Understand the interconnections between sustainability and circular economy.
• Gain insights into various research groups and their specific topics of study.
• Apply sustainability and circular economy principles to practical projects.
• Cultivate a professional identity as an expert and innovator in the field.
• Enhance skills in project management, teamwork within design groups, and communication.
• Learn to present group work, and their results, and defend them.
• Develop the ability to evaluate the work of others.

Credits: 5

Schedule: 07.01.2025 - 19.02.2025

Teacher in charge (valid for whole curriculum period):

Teacher in charge (applies in this implementation): Weiwei Lin

Contact information for the course (applies in this implementation):

CEFR level (valid for whole curriculum period):

Language of instruction and studies (applies in this implementation):

Teaching language: English. Languages of study attainment: English

CONTENT, ASSESSMENT AND WORKLOAD

Content

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  It provides the basic knowledge of sustainability, circular economy in civil engineering. This course can be connected to the other courses about sustainability at either Aalto University or other universities.

• applies in this implementation

  Week	Date	Teacher / advisor	Topic
  1	9/1/2025	Weiwei Lin	Introduction, grouping, assignment of FCs
  	10/1/2025	Elina Salo-Miilumäki	Lecture 1 Biodiversity and nature-based solutions for structural engineering
  2	13/1/2025	Leena Korkiala-Tanttu	Lecture 2 Circular economy
  	17/1/2025	Matti Kuittinen	Lecture 3 Resource flows and planetary boundaries
  3	20/1/2025	Jouni Punkki	FC1 Environmental impacts of construction materials
  	24/1/2025	Mohamed Noureldin & Weiwei Lin	FC2 Reuse and Recycling in deconstruction Project topic: LCA for buildings
  4	27/1/2025	Andrea Ferrantelli & Xiaoshu Lu	FC3 Energy efficiency and renewables
  	31/1/2025	Gerhard Fink	FC4 Design for Disassembly and Reuse – Timber Connection Systems
  5	3/2/2025	Antti Peltokorpi and Olli Seppänen	FC5 Reducing CO2 emissions in construction phase
  	7/2/2025	Heidi Salonen, and Camilla Vornanen-Winqvist	FC6 Sustainability in indoor environment
  6	10/2/2025	Nina Raitanen	FC7 The decarbonisation of the Asphalt Industry
  	14/2/2025	Sanandam Bordoloi & Anoosheh Iravanian	FC8 Recyclability in infraconstruction
  	Group 9	Simo Hostikka	FC9 New energy carriers and safety of built environment
  	Group 10	Magda Posani and Katja Tähtinen	FC10 Sustainable building envelopes: designing for durable, climate-resilient, comfortable buildings.
  			Note: The idea is to offer more topics (floating topics) than required (8 groups in the end). If any group has very few students (0-1), it will be canceled/combined, resulting in only 8 groups. Since we don’t know the students' backgrounds for next year yet, this may offer flexibility for both teachers and students.
  7	19/2/2024	All	Final presentation session. Feedback discussion of the course. Self-assessment of group work.

  
  

Assessment Methods and Criteria

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  The course grade consists of flipped classroom presentations and group projects and presentations. More details will be announced in the course syllabus and the first lecture. 

Workload

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Teaching sessions, flipped classroom presentations, and group project work, etc.

DETAILS

Study Material

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Session slides and materials, professional handbooks, regulations, and standards.

Substitutes for Courses

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Substitutes for Courses

Prerequisites

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Prerequisites

SDG: Sustainable Development Goals

9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

12 Responsible Production and Consumption

13 Climate Action

FURTHER INFORMATION

Further Information

• valid for whole curriculum period:

  Teaching Language: English

  Teaching Period: 2024-2025 Spring III
  2025-2026 Spring III

  Registration:

  40 participants. Priorities will be given to CIV and GEO students in the Department of Civil Engineering. 

  See more specific information: 

  1. The maximum number of students is 40.
  2. Please help to establish admission priorities for the course participants:
  • Second-year (or older) students in both Building Techniques and Geoengineering programmes
  • Doctoral students in both Building Techniques and Geoengineering programmes
  • Visiting students to both Building Techniques and Geoengineering programmes (second year or higher)
  • First-year students in both Building Techniques and Geoengineering programmess
  • Other visiting students or students from other programs/universities, etc.

Description