Institution
Limerick Institute of Technology

Web Site

Factual description
The SESYM programme is a Masters of Science programme which is open to students from technical and non-technical cognate areas. Course groups typically involve a mixture of science, engineering, business and social science students. The programme address the multi-disciplinary challenge of the energy transition and address the technical, financial, political and organizational aspects. A unique approach to assessment is a Synpotic Assessment where students groups will work with a targeted region e.g. a community planning for transition and contribute to the social, technical, economic planning of their transition agenda. Students will work with the communities to understand the cultural and regional perspectives while also addressing the relevant learning outcomes from their respective modules. This bottom up approach which uses a problem based learning methodology allows the students to gain a thorough grasp of the complexity of energy transition and prepares them for the specification which they will focus on in Semester 2.

Relevance in complex systems
The energy system is in itself becoming increasing complex and moving from a linear supply demand model to one where multi factoral supply and demand issues have to be considered. Coupled with the societal changes in the use and engagement with energy system this programme addresses this by bringing engineering, science, business and social science experts together

Strong points
Programme has been running for a number of years with excellent student engagement and feedback.

Transferability potential
The framework of the programme is available for consideration by other HEIs