Electric Cars: Introduction

Electric vehicles are the future of transportation. Electric mobility has become an essential part of the energy transition, and will imply significant changes for vehicle manufacturers, governments, companies and individuals.

If you are interested in learning about the electric vehicle technology and how it can work for your business or create societal impact, then this is the course for you.

The experts of TU Delft, together with other knowledge institutes and companies in the Netherlands, will prepare you for upcoming developments amid the transition to electric vehicles.

You’ll explore the most important aspects of this new market, including state-of-the-art technology of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure; profitable business models for electric mobility; and effective policies for governmental bodies, which will accelerate the uptake of electric mobility.

The course includes video lectures, presentations and exercises, which are all reinforced with real-world case studies from projects that were implemented in the Netherlands.

The production of this course would not have been possible without the contributions of the Dutch Innovation Centre for Electric Road Transport (D-INCERT) and is taught by experts from both industry and academia, who share their knowledge and insights.

What you will learn

• Role of electric vehicles in the energy transition
• Basics of electric car and charging technology
• Types of electric cars and how do they work
• Introduction to the business of electric vehicles and its future potential
• Policy ambitions and policy instruments for electric mobility

Subjects

Module 1. EVs in the Energy Transition

1.1 Technology Perspective of EV

1.1.1 Role of EVs in the energy transition

1.2 Business Perspective of EV

1.2.1 Business Perspective

1.3 Policy Perspective of EV

1.3.1 Policy Perspective

1.4 Combining Perspectives

1.4.2 Why should I buy an electric car?

1.4.3 When are EVs cheaper?

1.4.4 How to overcome range anxiety?

1.4.5 How do EVs change the economy?

1.4.6 Why take these three perspectives?

Module 2. Introduction to Technology of EVs

2.0 Introduction

2.0.1 Mr. Smith Animation

2.1 Operation of an Electric Car and Key Parts

2.1.1 What’s Inside an Electric Car?

2.1.2 Learning Material

2.2 Types of Electric Vehicles

2.2.1 Types of EV

2.3 Basics of EV Charging

2.3.1 AC and DC Charging

2.3.2 EV Charging Process and Smart Charging

Module 3. Introduction to business of EVs

3.0 Introduction

3.0.1 Mr. Robert Animation

3.1 Electric Vehicle Mobility Business

3.1.1 Introduction to Electric Vehicle Mobility Business

3.2 Electrification, a sustainable business disruption

3.2.1 Electrification, A Sustainable disruption

3.3 Automation, the need for smart E-Mobility

3.3.1 Automation, the need for smart E-Mobility

3.4 Connectivity makes auto-mobility cost efficient

3.4.1 Connectivity makes auto-mobility cost efficient

Module 4. Introduction to Policy for EVs

4.0 Introduction

4.0.1 Mr. Pine Animation

4.1 Policy Ambitions

4.1.1 Policy Ambitions

4.2 Policies and Policy Instruments

4.2.1 Policies and Policy Instruments

4.3 EVs in Infrastructure System

4.3.1 EVs in the Infrastructure System

4.4 The Social Dimensions of EVs

4.4.1 The Social Dimensions of EVs

Bed, Bank and Shoreline Protection

Design of shoreline protection along rivers, canals and the sea; load on bed and shoreline by currents, wind waves and ship motion; stability of elements under current and wave conditions; stability of shore protection elements; design methods, construction methods.

Flow: recapitulation of basics from fluid mechanics (flow, turbulence), stability of individual grains (sand, but also rock) in different type of flow conditions (weirs, jets), scour and erosion. Porous Media: basic equation, pressures and velocities on the stability on the boundary layer; groundwater flow with impermeable and semi-impermeable structures; granular filters and geotextiles. Waves: recapitulation of the basics of waves, focus on wave forces on the land-water boundary, specific aspects of ship induced waves, stability of elements under wave action (loose rock, placed blocks, impermeable layers) Design: overview of the various types of protections, construction and maintenance; design requirements, deterministic and probabilistic design; case studies, examples Materials and environment: overview of materials to be used, teraction with the aquatic environment, role of the land-water boundary as part of the ecosystem; environmentally sound shoreline design.

Subjects

Introduction

Flow Loads / Turbulence / Reynolds number / Flow over sill / Mixing layer

Flow Stability / Stability of a rock on a bed with current only / Stone stability after stone expansion / Stability of marine gravel

Bed Protection and Turbulence

Flow and Erosion / Erosion / Erosion due to turblence / Erosion behind disturbance

Porous flow, general

Porous flows, filters and introduction to waves and loads / GeoOpenFilter / Production and appliction of geotextiles in hydraulic and geotechnical engineering

Waves and loads / Overtopping over a dike / Waves on a slope / Standing waves / Standing waves with lumps

Waves, Erosion & Stability / Coverlayer on seadikes / Hydroblock placement / Rock slopes and gravel beaches / Basalton / Placing Basalton

Ship loads / Return current / Navigation Bank Protection

Dimensions

Protection / Overtopping in Vlissingen

Environment / Read damping / Environmentally friendly shorelines / Overtopping Belgian dike

Materials in Hydraulic Engineering

Construction / Sinking Anglesey / Tencate Nicolon / Placing matresses manually 1 & 2 / block mat / Armor flex

Railway Engineering: An Integral Approach

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get your train on the right platform at the scheduled time every day?

Journey with us into the world of rail - a complex system that connects people, cities and countries.

Railway systems entail much more than a train and a track. They are based on advanced technical and operational solutions, dealing with continuously changing demands for more efficient transport for both passengers and freight every day. Each system consists of many components that must be properly integrated: from trains, tracks, stations, signaling and control systems, through monitoring, maintenance and the impact on cities, landscape and people. This integration is the big challenge and the source of many train delays, inconvenient connections and other issues that impact our society.

This engineering course attempts to tackle those issues by introducing you to a holistic approach to railway systems engineering. You will learn how the system components depend on each other to create a reliable, efficient and state-of-the-art network.

We will address questions such as:

• How do railways work and how did they evolve over time?
• How do different components of the railway system interact?
• What is the effect of railways from an urban, social and economic point of view?
• What can be done to improve the monitoring and maintenance of tracks?
• How are timetables designed in a way that balances passenger demand with the capacity of the railway and is adaptable to handle unexpected disturbances?
• How to prevent and deal with disturbances caused by external factors?
• How does the design of railways influence their performance over time?

A new serious game has been designed for this course to guide you through the process of decision making while building a rail network and maintaining it. Cities have to be connected in an ever-changing setting, dealing with wear, capacity, developments and disturbances. How will your choices affect the performance of the system?

What you'll learn

• Identify the name and function of the main railway network components
• Evaluate the influence that railways exert on their environment and vice versa
• Explain the different methods of train control and their effect on timetabling and safety
• Understand the effects and the internal and external factors of disturbances on railway operations
• Identify the different methods of dealing with system degradation and the effects of interaction between the components
• Explore the state-of-the-art and future developments of railway systems

Are you an expert in the field?While this MOOC introduces different aspects of the railway network, if you want to go into more detail, gain advanced knowledge and expertise for your daily work, you can enroll in our follow-up online professional education courses.

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Process Intensification

In this course the students will learn the following subjects about Process Intensification

1. Introduction to Process Intensification(PI):
– sustainability-related issues in process industry;
– definitions of Process Intensification;
– fundamental principles and approaches of PI.

2. How to design a sustainable, inherently safer processing plant
– presentation of PI case study assignments.

3. PI Approaches:
– STRUCTURE – PI approach in spatial domain
– ENERGY – PI approach in thermodynamic domain
– SYNERGY – PI approach in functional domain
– TIME – PI approach in temporal domain

What you will learn

Basic knowledge in Process Intensification

Subjects

Distallation and dividing-wall column 

Energy I 

Energy II

Light in PI

Philosophy and basics of PI

Rotating Fluidized Beds

Spatial domain

Synergy I

The Bhopal case study

Time domain

Case study

Exercises

Exam

Non Equilibrium Thermodynamics

The course describes in a simple and practical way what non-equilibrium thermodynamics is and how it can contribute to engineering fields. It explains how to derive proper equations of transport from the second law of thermodynamics or the entropy production. The obtained equations are frequently more precise than used so far, and can be used to understand the waste of energy resources in central process units in the industry. The entropy balance is used to define the energy efficiency in energy conversion and create consistent thermodynamic models. It also provides a systematic method for minimizing energy losses that are connected with transport of heat, mass, charge and momentum. The entropy balance examines operation at the state of minimum entropy production and is used to propose some rules of design for energy efficient operation.

For this course some knowledge of engineering thermodynamics is a prerequisite. The first and second law of thermodynamics and terms as entropy should be known before starting this course.

Subjects

1. Why is this field important

2. The heart of the theory / Vidéo / Exercise 1

3. Understanding entropy production  / Vidéo / Exercise 2 / Exercise 3

4. Coupled transport of heat and mass / Vidéo / Exercise 4

5. Coupled transport of charge and mass / Vidéo / Exercise 6

6. Coupled transport of heat and charge / Vidéo / Exercise 5

7. How to find the optimal process unit / Vidéo 

8. Optimal units in chemical processes

Advanced Design and Optimization of Composite Structures I

This course introduces the basic components of an airframe structure and discusses their use and limitations. The realities of composite design such as the effect of material scatter, environmental knockdowns, and damage knockdowns are discussed and guidelines accounting for these effects and leading to robust designs are presented.

The resulting design constraints and predictive tools are applied to real-life design problems in composite structures. A brief revision of lamination theory and failure criteria leads into the development of analytical solutions for typical failure modes for monolithic skins (layup strength, buckling under combined loads and for a variety of boundary conditions) and stiffeners (strength, column buckling under a variety of loads and boundary conditions, local buckling or crippling for one-edge and no-edge-free conditions). These are then combined into stiffened composite structures where additional failure modes such as skin-stiffener separation are considered. Analogous treatment of sandwich skins examines buckling, wrinkling, crimping, intra-cellular buckling failure modes. Once the basic analysis and design techniques have been presented, typical designs (e.g. flange layup, stiffness, taper requirements) are presented and a series of design guidelines (stiffness mismatch minimization, symmetric and balanced layups, 10% rule, etc.) addressing layup and geometry are discussed. On the metal side, the corresponding design practices and analysis methods are presented for the more important failure modes (buckling, crippling) and comparisons to composite designs are made. A design problem is given in the end as an application of the material in this Part of the course.

What you will learn

Provide a link between standard introductory courses in metals and composites and actual applications with focus on composite structures. It is a summary of the main methods used to design and analyze composite and metal structures in practice. Show how some of the approximate methods used in design can be derived and what the limitations of such methods are.

Subjects

  1. Introduction of Advanced Design and Optimization of Composite Structures

  2. Classical Laminate Theory (CLT)

  3. Design considerations with composites / Exercises 1

  4. Energy methods for composite plates

  5. Buckling of composite plates

  6. Post buckling of composite plates / Exercises 2

  7. Composite of stiffeners

  8. Crippling of stiffeners

  9. Skin stiffened structures / Exercises 3

10. Panel breaker condition

11. Composite sandwich structures

12. Skin-stiffener separation

13. Skin wrinkling / Exercises 4

14. Fittings and pressurized structures / Final project

Project Management: Mastering Complexity

Underestimating project complexity is widely accepted as one of the major causes of project failure. Based on international benchmarking activities (Merrow, 2010), we know that an average of 40% of projects do not deliver what they promised; for megaprojects in the oil and gas industry this figure is even worse (Ernst&Young, 2014).

As with most external factors, many of the causes and consequences of complexity are difficult to avoid or control. When dealing with complexity, standard practices in the field of project management often overlook the inherent uncertainties linked to the length and scale of engineering and infrastructure projects and their constantly changing environments. The situation is exacerbated by rapidly evolving technologies and social change.

Attempts to overcome these challenges by simply trying to reduce their causes is not enough.

In this course, you will learn our approach to mastering complexity, focused on front-end development and teamwork, which will help you develop the skills you need to make timely actions in order to tackle complexities and improve your chances of project success. You will learn how to enhance your own capacities and capabilities by ensuring you have the necessary balance of complementary skills in your team.

Project success starts with recognizing the main drivers of complexity, which can be highly subjective and highly dynamic. In this course, you will learn to identify what makes a project complex and how to perform a complexity assessment.

Examining the elements of a project (such as interfaces, stakeholders, cultures, environment, technology, etc.) and their intricate interactions is key to mastering complexity.

You will analyze these elements in the context of your own project. Then, based on our complexity framework, you will identify the complexity footprint of your project and use it to adapt your management processes. With personalized guidance and feedback from our world-class instructors, you will learn how to recognize what competencies you need to develop and how to adapt your management style accordingly, not only to improve project performance but also to enhance your decision-making capacity.

This course has been designed by TU Delft's international experts on Project Complexity, and is based on more than 60 years of practical experience as well as relevant research in the field. "We see projects still fail and there is a need to do things differently. That's what this course is about: delivering the best practices for project execution based on our state-of-the-art research." – Professor Hans Bakker.

What you'll learn

• To identify complexity and its elements.
• To perform a project complexity assessment.
• To develop a complexity footprint.
• To adapt your management processes to fit the complexities of your project.
• To master project complexity.

Program

Week 1: Understanding project complexity
This week introduces the program with some questions to help you understand project complexity. What does it entail? What is it comprised of? What are the main models of complexity? What is the (subjective) nature of complexity?

Week 2: Project complexity assessment
You will create a complexity footprint for your own project. You will use the TOE framework as a means to grasp project complexity. There will be an emphasis on identifying, assessing and understanding project complexity at the earliest possible stages.

Week 3: Managing project complexity
Now that you are aware of the project's complexity, we will discuss how to manage the particular complexities faced. We will provide a palette of different management approaches. You will compare these approaches with the way your own project has been managed.

Week 4: Mastering complexity
And finally, we will discuss how to adjust your management approach to the specific complexities experienced (or expected) and how to maximize the value of your project. This is not about decreasing complexity but rather dealing with complexity and embracing it to fully realize the project's potential. One size does not fit all!

Week 5: Wrap-up and peer review
During the last week of the course you will have time to reflect on the course and you will review your peers' work

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Project Management of Engineering Projects: Preparing for Success

Are you a (project) engineer with a technical background but lack management knowledge? Are you eager to improve project performance and want to expand your knowledge?

This business and management course will focus on the necessary project management skills to successfully manage projects, distinguishing three areas:

• The project manager and the team
• The project process
• The project context

The course focuses on the early project phases, including examples from technical projects within various sectors and industries (amongst others, but not limited to, infrastructure projects and construction projects).

At the end of this course, you will have created your own project execution plan, either in a team effort or on individual basis. Of course the team effort allows for a special learning experience and we appraise active team participation.

What you'll learn

• The importance of the front-end phases to create a successful project
• How to select an appropriate project manager
• How to successfully work together in a specialized project team
• How projects are successfully managed in different sectors and contexts
• To draft a project execution plan

Program

Week 0: Welcome and course overview
Welcome! We'll give an outlook of the course and explain the course structure. The course uses a challenging mix of knowledge clips, video's, quizzes, and assignments integrating your own experiences from practice with attractive examples from industry and new insights from theory.

Week 1: The need for and the importance of project management
This week highlights the need for this course by showing examples of failed projects as well as successful projects. How is project success defined? How is it achieved? We explain the choice of focussing this course on the front-end phase of projects and the people aspect of projects. Also we link to a more strategic level: how to select the right projects?

Week 2: Organizing the team
This week focuses on the team effort that is needed to bring a project to a successful end. It shows why teamwork is essential and why it should not be taken for granted. It explains which challenges the project manager faces in developing a group of specialists into a coherent team. You will obtain insight in your own competences and based on your scores you are challenged to compose multidisciplinary teams with your fellow-students, 5/6 students per team.

Week 3: Opportunity framing
Now that you formed the teams the real experience can start. This week all necessary steps of the early project phases are elaborated: identifying the stakeholders involved, scoping of the project (high level) after formulating the project objectives and setting up the initial risk register. With your team, you will experience the above steps, resulting in the selection of a topic for your team's project execution plan (PEP).

Week 4: The project assurance plan
The content of week 4 and 5 go hand-in-hand: do you select the appropriate contracting strategy after defining the project assurance plan or is it the other way around? We decided to first elaborate on the management processes to be followed in a project. How does a project assurance plan look like?

Week 5: Selecting the contracting strategy
In selecting the appropriate contracting strategy, we should not only focus on the contract. This sounds contradictory, but it is an essential lesson to learn this week. We will introduce the contracting quilt and explain the importance of relational attitudes. Also we discuss the importance of senior management commitment. With your team, you will write the first outline of your project execution plan (PEP).

Week 6: Time and cost estimates
Now that a lot of the project preparation is done, it is time for some basic project management skills: the skills of scheduling and cost estimation. After thorough introduction of these skills, you will be asked (again with your team) to prepare a baseline schedule for your own project and, based on the baseline schedule, create a rough baseline cost estimate.

Week 7: Bringing it together in the project execution plan.
And finally: all comes together. All ingredients of the project execution plan (PEP) have been discussed so far and are to be combined in the PEP that should be delivered at the end of this week. Also, we will link back to the more strategic elements of project management from week 1 and reflect upon your lessons learned during this course.

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Project Finance: Funding Projects Successfully

Are you involved in the development and execution of technical projects and eager to know what it takes to fund a project successfully? Would you like to be more in touch with the latest developments in project finance and able to use these to your advantage? If so, you're in the right place!

This course will provide you with the fundamental knowledge and necessary tools to create the optimum financing structure for your project and enhance its potential to attract funding.

The approach taken is both theoretically sound and practically relevant. This is achieved by using case studies to illustrate the topics, as well as assignments that give learners first-hand experience in what it takes to put together a financeable project.

At the end of the course, you'll understand what is required to achieve successful project financing.

Those who work on infrastructure and industrial projects, especially, will need to have a good understanding of how project financing works and how project investors and lenders think and assess the risks of a project.

Projects are increasingly set up through cooperation between different groups of stakeholders such as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Project contracts are evolving to facilitate and structure such co-operations, which has in turn led to a range of novel contracts and methods of financing.

This course is a good enhancement course for learners who successfully completed the MOOC Project Management. This course builds on the basic knowledge gained in that MOOC, but deals with the financing aspects in considerably more detail.

What you'll learn

• How to create a financing structure that will provide the best chance of successful project financing.
• The optimal allocation of the roles, risks and rewards between the various project stakeholders.
• Creating a financial risk management plan.
• Constructing the optimal legal conditions for project financing to succeed.

Program

Module 1 & 2: Finance and Project Finance?
First, we'll look at financing generally to see what aspects are most important for financing to succeed. Then we'll look at project financing, a specialized form of financing, that is designed to fund (technical and infrastructure) projects.

Module 3: Projects Risk Management
Because of the way in which project finance is structured, where money flows are restricted to the project (= ring fencing and limited recourse financing), careful management of the project risks becomes crucial for the success of the financing. In this week, we'll focus on the system that has been developed to stabilize project cash flows and reduce the financial impact of risks.

Module 4: Optimizing the Legal Structure in Project Finance
By this week, we'll have built up a good understanding of the most important financial and risk management aspects in a project financing. This week we'll look at the standardized legal structure that has been developed to achieve all the project finance objectives.

Module 5: Using a Project Finance Model Support the Funding
In this week you will work with the financial model in Microsoft Excel. You will learn how to create a model for your own project and apply it to convince lenders and investors.

Wrap-up
In the final week you will have a wrap-up module of the course. In this module, we'll bring all elements together to give you a good overview.

Participants opting for the verified certificate will have access to webinars, additional reading materials and a case study (a sample project) that we will use throughout the course to practice the topics we are covering.

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Engineering: Building with Nature

If you're interested in the concept of building with nature, then this is the engineering course for you. This course explores the use of natural materials and ecological processes in achieving effective and sustainable hydraulic infrastructural designs. You will learn the Building with Nature ecosystem-based design concept and its applications in water and coastal systems. During the course, you will be presented with a range of case studies to deepen your knowledge of ecological and engineering principles.

You'll learn from leading Dutch engineers and environmental scientists who see the Building with Nature integrated design approach as fundamental to a new generation of engineers and ecologists.

Join us in exploring the interface between hydraulic engineering, nature and society.

What you'll learn:

• Basic engineering design principles, and basic ecological principles, relevant to the Building with Nature approach
• How to assess which principles are applied in several case studies and so form your own opinion on whether the hydraulic infrastructure is meeting engineering, ecosystem and societal goals
• How to apply your new knowledge in assessing the potential for Building with Nature solutions where you live

Program

1: Introduction to Building with Nature
Introduction to the Building with Nature concept and its importance through a number of dramatic examples. Identifying hydraulic engineering infrastructures, and exploring the diversity of standpoints on their ecological effects.

2: Engineering design principles
The engineering design process is explained and the underlying principles are distilled. Students familiarize themselves with the material through classification exercises.

3: Ecological design principles
The concept of designing in accordance with ecological principles is explained. Students identify different types of aquatic ecosystems and distill principles on the basis of ecosystem character and functioning.

4: Integrated design
Students apply their new knowledge in assessing the potential for Building with Nature solutions in case studies, or in their locality. Trade-offs in applying engineering and ecological principles are explicated, and the opportunities for nature are clarified.

5: Integrated design review
Critical evaluation of whether hydraulic infrastructure is fit for purpose in meeting engineering, ecological and societal goals by peer reviewing case studies from week 4. In particular, students assess the coherence between the infrastructure design and the ecosystem character and function.

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