A new Energy Studies Minor will be offered to all undergraduate majors at the University of Notre Dame beginning in Fall 2011. This minor will prepare students to become successful leaders from all disciplines who understand the complexity of the energy challenge. They will be better prepared to provide goods and services that allow an acceptable quality of life in a more energy efficient manner. In addition, students will be able to draw from technical and non-technical resources to move our country and the world toward a sustainable energy future.
The program will offer two tracks from which students may select. Track 1 will be a technical track, primarily intended to provide a foundation of technical knowledge in energy for students in non-technical major disciplines. Track 2 will be a non-technical track, intended to provide students of any major with a broader perspective of the business, societal, and political considerations of energy generation and use.
Both tracks will require two, three-hour courses (listed below) as well as a capstone project to be determined by the student and the minor advisor. In addition, three, three-hour elective courses are required to be selected from a technical or non-technical list in consultation with the minor advisor.
Required Courses:
- ENER 20101: fundamental technical skills needed to understand energy systems (taught by Physics).
- ENER 20202: survey of energy resources, global climate change, basics of energy business and finance, energy economics, national and global energy policy, the psychology and ethics of energy consumption and behavior, and new urbanism (organized through the Mendoza College of Business).
Technical and non-technical courses: Elective Course List
Publications for printing:
energy_studies_minor_brochure.pdf
energy_studies_minor_flyer.pdf
Read the recent article in The Observer: http://www.ndsmcobserver.com/news/nd-creates-two-new-environmental-minors-for-fall-2011-semester-1.2124213