A new interdisciplinary Architecture course open to non-majors has been added to the Winter Quarter time schedule:
mobilizing SOLAR ENERGY
EMPOWERING STUDENTS TO DESIGN AND LEAD THE RENEWABLE ENERGY REVOLUTION
ARCH 498x (SLN 20293) 2 credits
WINTER 2012
Tuesday 4:00 - 5:50 pm
Architecture Hall 160
Instructor: Rob Peña, Associate Professor rbpena@uw.edu
Prerequisites: None
Disciplines: Students in science, design, art, business, engineering, and
communications are encouraged to enroll; non-architecture majors
may obtain an add-code from the instructor.
Lectures: Guest lectures are open to the public beginning at 4:30 pm.
Background
Transformational change in how we harness, use, and think about solar energy is
emerging from a diversity of disciplines across the UW Campus including design,
physics, material science, chemistry, business, engineering, communication, and others;
collaboration across these sectors is driving new creative innovations.
Mobilizing Solar Energy will draw talent from across campus and the community to speak
about the latest photovoltaic (solar cell) innovations and applications, and explore ways
to communicate energy information to help mobilize a renewable solar energy revolution.
Charrette
This course will be organized as an extended design charrette. A “charrette” is a
collaborative session in which a group of people draft a solution to a design problem.
The design problem is to develop concepts for the SunDawg, a solar-powered, mobile,
interactive information kiosk that will rotate around campus. The SunDawg will reach
hundreds of thousands of people each year, engaging and informing them in a playful,
compelling and interactive manner about the future of solar energy, the world-class solar
research at UW, and related energy projects on the UW campus and beyond.
Students will draw on their discipline-specific knowledge, informed by readings and guest
lectures, to generate a set of ideas and design concepts for a SunDawg prototype.
Course
The weekly readings and guest lectures will develop at least two major themes informing
the design of the SunDawg: How can advancements in the technology and application of
photovoltaics transform our energy future, and how can information about energy choices
and technology be most effectively conveyed to catalyze change?
The course will consist of a selection of weekly readings and a series of guest lectures by
experts in energy policy, photovoltaics, information, and behavior. After each lecture,
participants will be asked to write a brief response to a question related to the course
themes and the SunDawg design challenge. Ideas will be posted in a shared space and
used to inform the design of the SunDawg kiosk, which will be built and launched in 2012.
