Please note: The capstone project is only accessible for ID-verified MicroMasters Program learners who successfully obtained verified certificate in all MicroMasters Program courses. In the first three courses of the MicroMasters Program, you will learn about all the different steps in a biobased process and the business and operations aspects you should consider before choosing a certain process. In this capstone project, you will work on integrating the technological section with the business and operations sections to develop a sustainable biobased practice. The focus is on linking the various aspects into an integral research, based on literature research and applied to a practical case. The final product in this capstone project is a written report. From a business perspective, you will write an advice for an audience of your choice, for example the executive board of a company, an investor or a governmental agency. You are free to choose the subjects you want to address in this advice. This means you get the opportunity to work on a case of your choice and receive feedback from experts in the field. In order to find the information and publications you need, you will get tips and advice on how to do proper literature research. Along the way, you will get feedback on your proposal, draft and final report. The final report should reflect the academic research capabilities on a master's level, i.e. defining a research proposal, proper literature research, methodology, data, results and conclusions and discussion. You can start the capstone project after completing all other courses in the MicroMasters Program Business and Operations for a Circular Economy , with a verified certificate for every course: Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Approach Business Strategy and Operations in a Biobased Economy From Fossil Resources to Biomass: a Chemistry Perspective

Desert regions may seem optimal for solar energy and the deployment of photovoltaic (PV) applications. However, the heat and dust experienced in the region poses a challenge for the optimal performance of PV modules and reliability of the applications. In this course, you will learn how to mitigate these challenges by understanding the components of solar radiation and the characteristics of solar cells and the solar spectrum. You will also learn about forecasting and nowcasting and how this influences selecting a site for PV application. The economic impact of PV applications is a key area of interest and this course provides you with knowledge on the costs and benefits of solar energy from PV applications.

Food access: Learn about food supply and food security Have you ever considered that you’re not the only one who decides what food ends up on your plate? In this environmental studies course, you’ll explore how key actors at household, local, national and international levels negotiate and make choices on access to food. You will understand why the choices you make have been predestined. And you will learn what it takes to provide access to a safe and nutritious food supply every day. For whom? This introductory course is taught by instructors with decades of experience in university teaching and real life projects about access to food all over the world. This course will be beneficial to students, food and nutrition policy makers, development practitioners and trainers at international, national, household and individual level. Wageningen University is specialized The University of Wageningen offers an excellent combination of conducting research worldwide and educating in the area of ‘healthy food and living environment’. The institute ranks among the top Dutch universities and has scored the third place in the Times Higher Education (THE) World Ranking 2017 for research performance. Learn from professors who have gained decades of experience from both teaching at a specialized university and real life projects about access to food worldwide. XSeries This MOOC is part of the XSeries programme Food Security and Sustainability , which learns you more about how we can feed the world with its growing population and wealth in a sustainable way. The other courses in this XSeries are Sustainable Food Security: Crop Production and Sustainable Food Security: The Value of Systems Thinking .

This course looks at how increasing greenhouse gases are warming the climate and what it means to decarbonise - reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of - the power sector. It will also provide a range of arguments in favour of decarbonisation, including consideration of  ease of access to a secure and affordable energy supply and improvements to health and the environment. This course gathers together information about these different motivating factors for building a lower carbon power sector in one place, and includes a careful consideration of the importance of the political context. This course will challenge you to critically analyse your own political context. We would welcome advisors to senior decision makers in government, civil society activists and others interested in understanding and promoting renewable electricity to take this course. This course will help you develop a better understanding of the different dimensions of a move towards a cleaner power sector and develop more nuanced and detailed arguments.

The course introduces the basic theories and experimentalworkfocused on earthquake generation and seismic wave propagation. It centers on methods and technologies used to image the earthquakeas well as real-time simulations and mapping. The course begins with a review of the theoretical models and observations related to earthquakes; introducing different scales of observation of seismic phenomena: the size of the source, the spatial extent of the monitoring networks, and the frequency/wavelength range of the seismic signals. The “point-source” approximation of the earthquake source has long been used to characterize the faulting process. Here, it will be used to illustrate the concepts and estimation methods of location, magnitude, seismic moment, and focal mechanisms; all deriving from this simplified but effective representation of the seismic phenomenon. Earthquakes are caused by fracture phenomena that develop on extended fault surfaces hidden in the fragile layers of the Earth. The observations and the dynamic/kinematic rupture models will illustrate the modalities of nucleation, propagation, and arrest of an earthquake rupture. These help seismologists simulate the propagation of seismic waves and precisely predict the strong ground shaking produced by potentially destructive events. Finally, the course will provide an overview of the basics of real-time seismology - the new frontier of research in earthquake science.

Climate change is arguably the greatest challenge of our time. Human activity has already warmed the planet by one degree Celsius relative to pre-industrial times, and we are feeling the effects through record heat waves, droughts, wildfires and flooding. If we continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, the planet will reach two degrees of warming by 2050—the threshold that many scientists have identified as a dangerous tipping point. What is the science behind these projections? Join climate science expert Michael Mann to learn about the basic scientific principles behind climate change and global warming. We need to understand the science in order to solve the broader environmental, societal and economic changes that climate change is bringing. By the end of this course, you will: Develop a deep scientific understanding of HOW the climate system has been changing; Articulate WHY the climate system is changing; Understand the nature of these changes; Develop a systems thinking approach to analyzing the impacts of climate change on both natural and human systems. The course covers the basic principles of atmospheric science, methods of climate data collection and tracking of greenhouse gas emissions. It introduces basic climate modeling and explores the impact of various greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Finally, it outlines the impacts of climate change on environmental, social, economic and human systems, from coral reefs and sea level rise to urban infrastructure. The course follows the general outline of the 5th Assessement Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change .

Wind turbines and solar panels are likely to play a critical role in achieving a low-carbon power sector that helps address climate change and local pollution, resulting from fossil fuel power generation. Because wind and solar power output is weather-dependent, it is variable in nature and somewhat more uncertain than output from conventional fossil fuel generators. It is therefore important to consider how to manage high penetrations of solar and wind so as to maintain electricity system reliability. This introductory course, delivered by Ieading academics from Imperial College London, with technical input and contributions from the National Energy Renewable Lab (Golden, Colorado), will discuss what challenges variable output renewables pose to the achievability of a reliable, stable electricity system, how these challenges can be addressed and at what costs. Its overall objective is to demonstrate that there is already a range of established technologies, policies and operating procedures to achieve a flexible, stable, reliable electricity system with a high penetration of renewables such as wind and solar. The course uses a variety of country and context-specific examples to demonstrate the concepts. Policy makers, regulators, grid operators and investors in renewable electricity will benefit from a solid understanding of these considerations, thereby helping them drive forward the development of a fit-for-purpose clean power system in their own regional context.

Please note: The capstone project is only accessible for ID-verified MicroMasters learners who successfully obtained verified certificate in all MicroMasters programme courses. In the first three courses of the MicroMasters, you will learn about all the different steps in a biobased process and the business and operations aspects you should consider before choosing a certain process. In this capstone project, you will work on integrating the technological section with the business and operations sections to develop a sustainable biobased practice. The focus is on linking the various aspects into an integral research, based on literature research and applied to a practical case. The final product in this capstone project is a written report. From a business perspective, you will write an advice for an audience of your choice, for example the executive board of a company, an investor or a governmental agency. You are free to choose the subjects you want to address in this advice. This means you get the opportunity to work on a case of your choice and receive feedback from experts in the field. In order to find the information and publications you need, you will get tips and advice on how to do proper literature research. Along the way, you will get feedback on your proposal, draft and final report. The final report should reflect the academic research capabilities on a master's level, i.e. defining a research proposal, proper literature research, methodology, data, results and conclusions and discussion. You can start the capstone project after completing all other courses in the MicroMasters programme Business and Operations for a Circular Economy , with a verified certificate for every course: Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Approach Business Strategy and Operations in a Biobased Economy From Fossil Resources to Biomass: a Chemistry Perspective

The high insolation in desert regions can result in a lower cost of solar energy. While this may be a key motivation to deploying PV in desert climates, there are also several challenges related to the technology that must be considered. In this course, you will learn what effect temperature and dust has on the solar cells and PV modules. The course looks at the cleaning methods used to reduce soiling, how to measure solar cell and PV module performance and optimize the design of the technology to enhance the energy yield. Finally, you will have the opportunity to consider how you would deploy PV technology in your specific context.

The Hands-on training on Solar Study Lamp Assembly is a part of the Gandhi Global Solar Yatra (GGSY), initiated by Prof. Chetan Singh Solanki, Department of Energy Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay. As a part of this yatra, a Students Solar Ambassador Workshop is organized on the 2nd October 2019, marking the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Under this workshop, more than 1 Million Students will assemble their own solar study lamps across the globe and will pledge to Non-Violence towards Environment. ‘Solar Study Lamp’ is a lighting device consisting of a solar PV module, battery, LED, and electronics. Battery, LED, and electronics are placed in a plastic housing.The look of the lamp is similar to a table lamp wherein the lamp base is connected to the LED via flexible gooseneck. The solar lamp uses 1 Watt LED as the light source and houses 3.2 Volt, 2000 mAh rechargeable Lithium Ferrous Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery to store the power. A 2.5 Watt Solar Panel charges the lamp during daytime. The lamp is designed to provide 5-6 hours of study light every day throughout the year. This workshop is expected to be taking place at 10,000-15,000 locations. Till date, 101 countries have registered to be a part of this mega-global event. This course has been designed for Master Trainers. They will be able to understand climate change, energy sustainability and will learn to assemble a solar study lamp. The course also lays protocols for conducting the Students Solar Ambassador Workshop. A similar workshop was organized last year also, wherein over 1.32 lakh students participated in this mega-global event, of which 5,000 students came to IIT Bombay campus, which was also a Guinness World Record event. This course contains 11 modules and 26 sections. The module will contain reading materials, videos, and quizzes, etc. For the successful completion of the course and to receive the due certification, the pursuant should complete the quiz at the end of each module. Individuals cannot participate in this workshop any institute can participate and can register on our website < www.ggsy.in/collaborate >. If an individual wishes to participate as a Master Trainer, they need to approach the institution and make them register on our website.