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This website features work from the completion of Phase 1 of the SCALES Project.

We are currently seeking partnerships for Phase 2.

SDG 7 – Affordable & Clean Energy

  • Wiki Design Notebook

    Each week, your team should update your team’s wiki page. If you do a great job documenting everything, it will make your final report much, MUCH easier to write.

    The wiki should include key documents (project specs, etc.), an ever-changing schedule, photos from experiments, scans of best brainstormed ideas, etc. It should also contain a weekly report on your communications with your community partner (you should do everything in your power — regular emails and/or phone calls to stay in touch) so that they are up to date on your progress and can offer feedback.

    Read more: Wiki Design Notebook

  • Problem Set 3

    Problem set for the course D-Lab: Energy.

    Read more: Problem Set 3

  • Problem Set 2: Personal Energy Consumption Challenge

    Problem set for the course D-Lab: Energy.

    Read more: Problem Set 2: Personal Energy Consumption Challenge

  • Problem Set 1

    Problem set for the course D-Lab: Energy.

    Read more: Problem Set 1

  • Problem Set 0

    Using the given LED (3.6V, 20mA) and 9V battery provided in class, a resistor of your choosing, and found materials, construct a lantern. The lantern should be able to turn on and off.

    Read more: Problem Set 0

  • Personal Energy Consumption

    Determine your average daily energy consumption (in kWh). For this assignment, you can take into account only the electricity that you use, though you should be aware that there are additional energy expenditures in terms of transportation, heating, manufacturing processes to make the products that you use, etc. You should submit this as a table showing your energy consumption (power x time) for a few days and then come up with an average value.

    Read more: Personal Energy Consumption

  • Final Project: Essay & Digital Communications Project

    • Choose a problem that is useful to show what you have learned in this class. Nexus approach? Social or political dimensions of technology? Social histories of institutions, policy entrepreneurs, or bilateral activists? socioecological impacts of production/consumption systems?
    • Pay attention to what problem/theme/topic might be professionally useful for you in the future. Something that you can show you have researched in the past? Something that could serve as the first exploration for a future research or project?
    Read more: Final Project: Essay & Digital Communications Project

  • Paper 2: Providing Expert Advice

    Wakanda's president recently created an interagency commission to address the challenges and opportunities in developing a policy framework of this nature. The interagency commission has called for a group of experts including: industrial leaders, worker's unions, local communities, scientists, social scientists, policy scholars, and foreign experts on comparative environmental governance.

    You are one of the members of this last group. Your job is to advise how to better discuss, design, and implement a policy framework considering ecological, social, economic, and political aspects.

    Read more: Paper 2: Providing Expert Advice

  • Paper 1

    Please write an essay addressing ONE of the following questions. Your essay should be between 1000 and 1500 words. Please also consider:

    • For this essay, you should use (discuss, reference, quote) at least 5 of the readings from session 1–5.
    • While developing your argument include the analysis of 2–3 case studies (countries/environmental conflicts/regions).
    • You should bring a draft (printed copy of at least 700 words) to session 6.
    • A complete draft (100-1500 words) should be submitted (printed copy) on session 7. This draft is part of your final grade.
    Read more: Paper 1

  • Term Project

    The purpose of the term projects is to research and study an energy conversion technology in greater depth than possible in class. The project should incorporate thermodynamic analysis if dealing with thermal energy as well as the energy source/fuel, methods of conversion, targeted power range, political and economic constraints, and competing technologies. A technical report and a presentation session will be the final deliverables for the project.

    Read more: Term Project

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Please reach out to esi [at] mit.edu and include SCALES Website in the subject of your email.
Feedback and any actions taken with regards to the feedback, will be shared as they are addressed.