A Circularity Revolution: Working to Close the Loop on Global Issues
A Circularity Revolution: Working to Close the Loop on Global Issues is designed to provide students the fundamental knowledge and perspectives to develop and critique sustainable solutions for water, energy, and materials use, re-use, and upcycling from technological, policy, and cultural viewpoints. The class will focus on how each student's personal and disciplinary identities intersect with society’s needs and on creating a common vocabulary, grounding students in natural elemental cycles, differing perspectives on circularity and resource use, and the importance of the co-creation of solutions. Key foci are introducing experimental analytical strategies, and basic tools and mechanisms to achieve and interrogate circularity, such as principles of green engineering, lifecycle assessment, economic and policy tools, and after-progress narratives. Case studies, social practice art interventions, and a group project will be used to demonstrate how science and technology, policy, and expansive community/stakeholder knowledge all are important aspects of developing and re-conceptualizing sustainable solutions to problems in water, material, and energy use. The course compliments a new National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Trainee Program with a circularity theme.