The innovative interdisciplinary curriculum is made up of 60% technical courses taught from leading experts at the Faculty of Applied Science and 40% business courses taught by faculty from UBC Sauder’s Robert H. Lee Graduate School.
Your instructors are working at the forefront of their fields. Internationally respected researchers and educators, they are collaborating with industry, government and other organizations to develop innovative solutions and make a tangible difference to our world. They are passionate about their work, committed to student achievement and excited to share their knowledge.
Learning environment
Before each class, you will independently review material through assigned readings and lecture videos. Classes are a time for active learning where you will contribute to discussions, apply your knowledge to real-world case studies and collaborate on group projects. This interactive format ensures a deeper understanding and enables you to gain practical, hands-on experience with the subject matter.
Course overview
The academic year consists of three semesters, starting in January and ending in December. The following graphic shows the technical and leadership courses you will take each semester.
Winter term courses: January to April
CEEN 501: Energy System Fundamentals
This course will focus on the thermodynamic analysis of energy systems, conversion processes, power cycles and refrigeration cycles, and principles of thermochemistry. You will have an opportunity to learn and utilise process simulation software and perform technoeconomic analyses of conventional energy systems and low carbon alternatives. As a prerequisite, you must have completed a course in thermodynamics at the second-year level of undergraduate engineering programs.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Apply thermodynamic principles and economic metrics to evaluate energy processes and power cycles
- Devise strategies to improve the energy and/or exergy efficiency of power cycles
- Perform detailed steady state material, energy, and exergy balance calculations for various energy systems
- Simulate different processes and power cycles to calculate thermal efficiency, and composition and flowrate of all streams, and perform sensitivity analyses
- Prepare a professional technical report and recommendation by conducting literature review, obtaining relevant data, and performing appropriate techno-economical calculations while working and collaborating effectively in a team
CEEN 523: Energy & the Environment
The course will cover energy, environment and society interactions, the development of energy resources, energy demand and its determinants, the policy dimension of energy and climate change, impacts on ecosystems, life-cycle analysis and impact assessment and other tools for quantitative and qualitative evaluation of various energy sources. Through case studies and project assignments, you will build your analytical skills related to environmental, ecosystem, social and health impacts, and risk analysis, and you will be immersed in the decision-making process about the feasibility and validity of various energy systems.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand and explain the concept of sustainability, with its techno-economic, environmental and social components.
- Understand and articulate the policy implications of energy supply and use, including climate change.
- Analyse energy systems to reveal their economic, environmental and social impacts and risks.
- Apply and interpret the results of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of energy and other product systems.
- Understand the concept of industrial ecology and apply it in integrating systems of energy conversion, supply and use, to improve sustainability.
APPP 503: Organizational Leadership
Understand the behaviour of people and groups and how this applies to management and leadership within professional organizations. This course explores motivation, group dynamics, organizational structure, leadership styles and tools for assessing organizational effectiveness. The course is collaboratively delivered with UBC Sauder's Robert H. Lee Graduate School.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Apply theoretical principles of leadership and organization behaviour in a variety of organizational contexts and industries.
- Diagnose organizational behaviour and people management challenges and find solutions that deliver business results and ensure employee engagement.
- Understand what it takes to build effective manager-employee relationships, given the realities of power, motivation and commitment in an organizational setting.
- Develop and present recommendations for organizational leadership challenges using the case study analysis approach.
BAEN 540: Strategy & Innovation
This course provides an introduction to the principles and frameworks of strategic management, as well as concepts surrounding the creation or expansion of innovation capabilities, within organizations. Strategic management involves analysis, planning and execution of initiatives that achieve objectives in support of organizational goals. Innovation generally involves the development of revolutionary new or evolutionary improvements to existing ideas, methods, products, services, or combinations thereof that are adopted. The course will also consider the changing nature of organizational strategy and innovation in an environment of increasing globalization, digitization and automation. Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship will be recurring themes throughout the course. The course will emphasize actionable lessons and models that students, regardless of their professional or academic backgrounds, can apply in practice to create tangible and valuable outcomes across organizational types, growth stages, and industries.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand strategic decision making and organizational innovation processes.
- Analyze business situations using relevant concepts and tools.
- Understand business approaches for managing strategy and innovation programs and projects.
- Create and present plans for solutions to organizationally important challenges.
- Communicate effectively about planning and delivering on strategy and innovation.
Summer term courses: May to August
CEEN 503: Sustainable Energy Systems
Students will explore planetary thermodynamics, energy systems evolution, and the role and trends in utilization of renewable energy sources in the modern world. The course will provide an overview of low carbon and sustainable energy technologies such as solar, wind, hydro, tidal, geothermal, and biochemical energy, and electromechanical conversion processes.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Recognise the role and potential of renewable energy resources and alternative energy technologies.
- Apply thermodynamic principles and fundamentals of energy conversion to sustainable technologies.
- Evaluate sustainable energy systems, and potential for system integration
- Assess sustainable energy technologies using techno-economic tools.
- Analyse contemporary issues related to renewable energy and sustainable energy technologies.
CEEN 504: Energy Storage & Transmission
This course investigates the role and uses of energy storage, and integration of energy storage into complex energy systems to increase efficiency and resilience of energy systems. It covers the thermal, mechanical and electrochemical storage technologies, and transport components of electrical and thermal energy systems, transmission and distribution design systems, and distributed generation systems.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify thermal energy and electrical energy storage systems and conversion.
- Evaluate technologies involving thermal storage and PCM, thermochemical energy storage, fuel cells, batteries, pumped hydro and compressed gas, among others.
- Recognise contemporary issues related to conversion, storage and transmission of energy and itegration of energy storage with sustainable energy technologies.
- Design and apply energy storage and transmission systems that meet the demand for sustainable energy generation and application.
APPP 504: Business Acumen for Technical Leaders
An asset to the aspiring technical leader, business acumen is knowing how business works and applying that knowledge with the goal of business improvement. This course offers an elevated perspective of how technical skills contribute to building value in a business. The course immerses aspiring technical leaders in the practical application of core business skills and the development of six core business competencies, which are presented as modules: Managerial Accounting, Strategy and Performance, Market Evaluation, Operations Management, Negotiations and Contract Management and Business-Case Building and Valuation. This course is collaboratively delivered with UBC Sauder's Robert H. Lee Graduate School.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Apply theoretical principles of business in a variety of contexts.
- Analyze and discuss common business situations encountered by managers from multiple angles using the case study analysis approach.
- Appreciate the importance of each of the functional areas, as well as the inter-connectedness of business decision-making.
- Appreciate the importance of excellent written and oral communication skills.
- Understand the importance of effective team work and strong ethical standards in management.
- Plan and present effective and meaningful presentations.
Fall term courses: September to December
CEEN 525: Energy Policy
This course provides an opportunity to build a practitioner-based understanding of the complex interactions between energy technology, policy, human societies and the environment, for engineers and scientists. The overarching learning objective of this course is to learn how energy policy levers and tools can be used to foster sustainable energy systems and to improve stakeholder outcomes.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Describe phases of the policy process and relate this understanding to contemporary and historical energy policy debates.
- Identify relevant energy policy stakeholders in the governance system, both within and outside of government, and relate this understanding to contemporary and historical energy policy debates.
- Identify strengths and limitations of different policy instruments and approaches for energy systems decarbonization, and relate this understanding to contemporary and historical energy policy debates.
- Identify enablers and barriers to clean energy transitions from socio-economic, political, and environmental perspectives, for different regional contexts around the globe.
- Evaluate existing and proposed energy policies, and their outcomes, from multiple stakeholder viewpoints.
- Articulate goals and outcomes of energy policy in plain language to stakeholders, often with diverse values, needs and world-views.
- Collaborate in teams to analyze real-world energy policy cases.
- Develop and articulate a personal vision of how engineers and scientists can engage in energy policy debates.
CEEN 550: Energy Efficiency & Conservation
The course will focus on the engineering concepts of demand side management (DSM), including energy auditing, analysis of buildings, industrial equipment, measurement and verification and system data analysis. The course also covers energy-efficient technologies for green buildings and industrial processes, behaviour and energy use and DSM policy concepts.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Apply concepts of energy efficiency and conservation with an emphasis on the demand side management (DSM) and energy engineering.
- Apply monitoring, targeting and reporting methods in energy management.
- Identify and address potential problems related to energy efficiency and conservation in residential, commercial and industrial applications.
- Demonstrate energy efficiency methods in green building design.
APPP 502: Sustainability & Leadership
This course helps students build skills to lead change that influences the triple bottom line and explores concepts related to sustainability, change agency systems thinking, awareness and perspective for engagement and communication, adaptive leadership, and change dynamics. It also incorporates case studies in organizational and social change. This course is collaboratively delivered with UBC Sauder's Robert H. Lee Graduate School.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Recognize tools, concepts, standards and frameworks used in sustainable business.
- Analyze current realities, market opportunities and issues related to sustainability across a range of industries.
- Integrate sustainability-related concepts into their own industry and/or personal experiences.
- Synthesize, apply and communicate sustainability knowledge to one’s peers.
- Apply various leadership concepts and tools into their professional practice, and in particular to sustainability-related initiatives.
Electives from UBC Sauder's Robert H. Lee Graduate School
Students can choose an elective course from UBC Sauder's Robert H. Lee Graduate School to gain greater exposure to a particular area of interest. Options include (subject to change):
BASC 550: Operations and Logistics
This course will introduce students to the key concepts and tools needed to understand and effectively manage supply chains and business operations in general. A key concept in this course is the “business process”, and managing and improving such processes.
BAMA 519: Building Brands with Purpose
This course explores the core principles of branding within the context of social and environmental responsibility including healthcare, sustainability and human rights. Fundamental marketing strategies are reinforced as they relate specifically to:
- non-profits;
- social marketing designed to change society’s behaviour;
- cause-related-marketing within the corporate sector.
BA 563: Decision Making for Managers
This course is designed to make you a better decision maker by helping you understand your weaknesses and build on your strengths in decision-making. This is an integrative course that links material from Economics, Operations, Statistics, Marketing, Psychology, Finance, and Strategy.
BAEN 580B: Special Topics in Business: Creative Destruction Lab
The Creative Destruction Lab Venture Program is a 3-credit course in entrepreneurship in which students will work with the Creative Destruction Lab West (CDL-West) team to help emerging technology and science focused start-ups. Students will become familiar with the CDL-West companies and will have the opportunity to support with market analysis, customer development, financial analysis, and other core activities related to building early stage start-ups. Students will be provided with visibility into how venture capitalists and angel investors make investment decisions.
