The following requirements are in addition to, or further elaborate upon, those requirements outlined in the Student Services section of this Web site.

The core will consist of a sequence of three 400-level graduate courses which will be co-listed in various departments. They will be mirrored by equivalent, but more basic, undergraduate courses to be developed in 2008-9 by ISEN for a Minor Program in Energy and Sustainability. Each Cluster graduate core course will be anchored by a main instructor, who will invite guest lecturers drawn from the list given in the previous section as well as other visitors.

1. Energy for a Global Society

A course addressing (i) the science and technology concepts behind energy supply and demand; (ii) the relationship of economics and business, social behavior, policies and regulations as applied to energy practices in developed and developing countries.

2. Sustainability in a Global Society

A course describing some key aspects of (i) science and technology of sustainability, e.g. for water, food, energy other natural resources; (ii) the convergence of science, technology, business and economics, and social, political, and legal issues as they apply to sustainability in developed and developing countries.

3. Practicing and Innovating in Sustainability

This capstone course will build upon the previous two courses by presenting case studies in the fields of energy and sustainability. It will feature, for about half the course, guest lectures by practitioners outside the university, e.g., Chief Environmental Officers of large corporations, small business entrepreneurs, leaders of governmental institutions (national laboratories and others) and non-governmental organizations, policy makers, lawyers, and medical doctors.

Each of these courses will have a project option, in which a student, or a small group of students, complete a project paper or software project in lieu of a formal exam. It is expected that all three courses will be offered in the 2009-2010 academic year, following preparation by the Cluster members.

B. Additional Courses

Many existing individual graduate classes with Energy or Sustainability topics will be offered to Cluster graduate students, and will eventually also be part of a 5-year MS program. Examples of existing 300-level courses open to graduate students include:

• CHEM 393-0 Green Chemistry
• CHEM ENG 364-0 Chemical Processing and the Environment
• CHEM ENG 365-0 Sustainability, Technology, and Society
• CIV ENG 349-0 Environmental Management
• CIV ENG 359-0 Hazardous Waste Management
• CIV ENG 360-0 Environmental Impact Evaluation
• CIV ENG 361-0 Environmental Microbiology and Public
• CIV ENG 363-0 Environmental Engineering Applications I: Air and Land
• CIV ENG 364-0 Environmental Engineering Applications II: Water
• CIV ENG 366-0 Ecosystems and Ecotoxicology
• CIV ENG 367-0 Aquatic Chemistry
• CIV ENG 370-0 Environmental Engineering Design
• CIV ENG 371-0 Introduction to Transportation Planning and Analysis
• CIV ENG 376-0 Transportation System Operations
• CIV ENG 382-0 Infrastructure Facilities and Systems
• ECON 370-0 Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
• EDIT 382-0 Environmental Reporting
• IEMS 325-0 Engineering Entrepreneurship
• MAT SCI 395-1 Energy and Materials
• MECH ENG 346-0 Introduction to Tribology
• MECH ENG 379-0 Elements of Combustion Engineering
• MECH ENG 395 Energy and Society
• PHYSICS 301-0 Radiation in the Environment
• POLI SCI 329-0 U.S. Environmental Politics
• POLI SCI 349-0 International Environmental Politics
• SOCIOL 305-0 Demography and Population Problems
• SOCIOL 312-0 Social Basis of Environmental Change

The following classes are given in the Law school

• PPTYTORT 610 - Environmental Law 
• PPTYTORT 611 - Environmental Law Seminar 
• PPTYTORT 613 - Public Policy and Law: Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development 
• PPTYTORT 660 - International Environmental Law 

The following classes are given at the Kellogg School of Management

• FINC-930-A  - Environmental Finance
• MKTG-938-B - Cases in Sustainability
• MORS-925-0 - Business Design for Environmental Sustainability
• SEEK-916-0 - Socially Responsible Business Practices
• SEEK-915-0 - Sustainability Lab
• SEEK-935-0 - Environmental Management and Sustainability

It is likely that new courses will be offered in the future, given the interest in the topic expressed by both students and instructors, and they will be co-listed in the Cluster.

C. NUvention course

NUvention is “a visionary academic partnership created by the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation that attempts to expand upon Northwestern University's excellence in interdisciplinary study”. The first NUvention course (IEMS 495 - Medical Innovation) focuses on “identifying unmet clinical needs, innovating novel medical technology, and delivering this innovation to the bedside. Students experience the entire innovation/business life cycle from ideation to prototyping and business plan development.”

In collaboration with the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation led by Prof. Mike Marasco, the Cluster will create a 400-level NUvention course on Energy and/or Sustainability that will follow many of the successful aspects of “Medical Innovation”. Under the guidance of faculty from McCormick, Kellogg, Weinberg and the Law School, students will work in teams to develop products or projects related to energy or sustainability. Students will “experience the entire innovation life cycle from conceptualization to prototyping, legal protection, market sizing and business plan development. At the end of the course, the teams present their business plans to a panel of venture capitalists with the goal of securing funding and possible formation of a start-up. Key deliverables in this class include: “elevator pitch” to request prototype/pilot funding, prototype development, provisional patent application, and business plan presentation to venture capitalists”.