PHUV9370 Classroom Research Course description

Students should be aware that a master's degree in a related engineering discipline (electrical, construction, building services, architectural engineering or renewable energy) and relevant undergraduate courses covering the topics of basic indoor climate, and heat and mass transfer is recommended in order to complete this course.

The course includes the following specific topics:

• indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and health for human occupants: in-depth study of indoor air quality (IAQ), user control, thermal preferences and adaption. Advanced methods for field studies of IEQ/IAQ.
• design of building envelopes, including building form, materials and their environmental assessment, and climate-adaption.
• HVAC and building automation, including demand-control, automated commissioning, and optimisation of operation and facilities management.
• building-integrated and city-wide renewable energy supply, including solar energy and energy storage.
• methods for numerical simulation of indoor climate and energy use in buildings
• theory and application of life-cycle analysis (LCA), and its methodological issues

Lectures and seminars

• in lectures, the focus is on theoretical and practical perspectives on observation, interviews and analysis of data in the context of classroom research
• in seminars, the candidates must be prepared to present and discuss their own research project/field of interest including research design, methods, data analysis, and ethical considerations relevant to classroom research, and to provide feedback on other participants’ contributions

Preparations for the course

Students are expected to read the syllabus as described in the provided reading list before each course seminar to be able to participate actively in discussions.

Coursework requirement are:

1. 80 % attendance on the course.

2. Each participant presents orally his/her research project in a plenary seminar with focus on research methods and analysis, 10 minutes each.

The candidate prepares an individual 15-minute oral presentation. The presentation should reflect the candidate’s own project/field of research interest and focus on methodology and/or analysis of data relevant to classroom research. The presentation may be given in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, or English. Following the presentation there will be a five-to-ten-minute sequence with questions/dialogue with the examiners.

In case of failed exam/legal absence, the candidate may have a new exam under the same conditions when a new/postponed exam is arranged.

The candidate may use personal notes and/or a visual support (e.g. PowerPoint etc.) during the presentation.

The grades are "pass" or "fail". The requirement for "pass" is that the presentation builds on insights from the syllabus and outlines ideas on topics related to classroom research.

The presentation will be assessed by the course coordinator and a member of the academic staff with relevant genre competence.