Course Overview

Course Title: Low-carbon buildings and cities

Relevant SDGs: SDG 7, SDG 9, SDG13

Credit(s): 2 credits

Course Description:

Course: This course is a public elective course for all undergraduates.

Course Background: Global warming, air pollution, energy shortages and other major challenges are closely related to energy supply and demand in cities. The low-carbon transformation of cities is one of the key elements to solve these problems. The basic unit of low-carbon cities is the low-carbon sustainable building. As buildings account for 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions, reducing building carbon emissions is critical to achieving the Paris climate goals and global carbon neutrality. High-performance buildings, solar buildings, and smart buildings are important methods to achieve low-carbon buildings. In the process of continuous urbanization, the low-carbon transformation of urban infrastructure will significantly affect the city's carbon emissions, as well as the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality implementation progress.

Main teaching content: Aiming at the key methods of low-carbon cities and their basic units of low-carbon buildings, the teaching content of the course mainly includes the basic theory and technology of building electrification, the basic theory and technology of building efficiency, and building intelligence, basic theory and technology of digitalization, basic theory and route of low-carbon city. These approaches can effectively reduce building carbon emissions and contribute to the realization of low-carbon cities using renewable energy, and low-carbon and recyclable building materials.

Course teaching objectives: Let students understand the construction methods to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, master the basic knowledge of artificial intelligence, building Internet, building digitalization, etc., and master the technology of building capacity control and reduction.

What skills will students get?

1. Understand the basic theories and main methods involved in low-carbon buildings and cities, recognize the necessity of low-carbon transformation of the construction industry, and enhance professional knowledge and enthusiasm.
2. Understand the mainstream technologies and methods of low-carbon buildings and cities, and be able to analyze the low-carbon technologies required by different building forms by using the materials inside and outside the classroom, and improve the comprehensive analysis ability.
3. Establish a reliable and relatively complete theoretical and technical framework to analyze the low-carbon performance of buildings and judge the development direction of future buildings, with own analytical ability and correct value level.

Mode of Teaching

Lecture, Tutorial, Discussion, Homework, and Seminar.

Grading

1. Attendance and homework: 30%
2. Course project: 30%
3. Report: 40%

Course-specific Restrictions

None.

Class Schedule

Instructors

Jianhui Hu

Jianhui Hu, Ph.D., Associate Professor (with tenure-track) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is the PI for several funds from NSFC, MOST, JSPS, STCSM and Sino-Japanese Cooperation. He published about 100 peer-reviewed papers and got 16 National Patents. He was selected as the JSPS Fellow in 2018 and was the finalist for Shanghai Science and Technology Youth 35 Leading Program in 2021. His work was awarded the first Prize of Science and Technology Progress Award from Shanghai Government in 2020, which was reported in the mainstream media, whb.cn and sh.eastday.com.

Jian Yang

Jian Yang, the vice Dean of NAOCE, Tenured professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Professor Yang received the funds from EPSRC, NSFC and MOST and completed a number of industry funded research projects. He is an active researcher with a great interest in sustainable materials used in structural engineering, smart construction and maintenance and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Civil Engineering. Also, he is responsible for the teaching affairs of undergraduate students of NAOCE. His research has received more than 10 awards from the government and the associations. 

Paolo Beccarelli

Paolo Beccarelli, Associate Professor in Architectural Structures, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Nottingham, UK. He is a Chartered Engineer and Architect (Italy) and Vice-Chair of the European Network TensiNet, as well as the High-profile Professor of Ministry of Science and Technology, China. He has presided more than 10 national and international funded projects, and undertaken evaluation, consultation and design research for major construction projects in Italy, Spain, UK.

Olga Sovoveva

Olga Soloveva, Associate Professor, Dean of laboratory Development of energy efficient heat exchangers from Kazan State Power Engineering University, Russia. Her group is interested in porous heat exchangers and thermal insulation of high-performance buildings. She is an expert in numerical simulations and experimental study of heat transfer in porous structures of various geometry and various composite materials with foams, fibers, PCM, HGM. He has presided over more than 10 national funded projects, and undertaken evaluation, consultation and design research for high-performance buildings Russia and Europe.

Dingwen ‘Nic’ Bao

Dingwen ‘Nic’ Bao, Ph.D, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Architecture and Architecture Technology Stream Coordinator at the School of Architecture & Urban Design, RMIT University in Australia. His research explores design methodologies for establishing a complementary relationship among computational design, structural engineering, behavioural algorithms, and robotic fabrication. Nic is an award-winning architect and director of architectural practice Studio Nic Bao. He holds both Australian and US Registered Architect and UK RIBA Chartered Architect. Nic has published over 40 articles, including high-impact journals, book chapters and international conferences. His work has been exhibited widely, and recognised at the national and international levels, including Venice Biennale and Melbourne Design Week.

Course Contact

Jianhui Hu: j.hu@sjtu.edu.cn