As Thammasat University students grow accustomed to online learning and distance education, some may wish to explore overseas opportunities after they have done their required coursework. Taking a massive open online course (MOOC) may be informative and help complement main areas of study, giving students new ideas and perspectives and help them practice their English as well.

Delft University of Technology offers free online courses. Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) is the largest and oldest technological university in the Netherlands. It is consistently ranked as the best university in the Netherlands. Its motto in English is Challenge the Future.

It is located in Delft, a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands between Rotterdam and The Hague.

The Thammasat University Library collection includes a book that originated as a PhD thesis at TU Delft.

It is Spatial pattern dynamics in aquatic ecosystem modelling by Hong Li. Its subject is aquatic ecology, statistical methods, and spatial analysis. The book is shelved in the General Stacks of the Puey Ungphakorn Library, Rangsit campus.

The TU Library also owns a number of books on other subjects, also published in Delft.

These include Architecture and the built environment : research portfolio 2010-2015 edited by Frank Van der Hoeven; Atlas of clinical fungi  edited by G.S. de Hoog & J. Guarro with major contributions by M.J. Figueras & J. Gene; Foooodscapes: towards a Deleuzian ethics of consumption by Rick Dolphijn; Livelihood and microfinance : anthropological and sociological perspectives on savings and debt edited by Hotze Lont and Otto Hospes; Planning office spaces: a practical guide for managers and designers by Juriaan van Meel, Yuri Martens, and Hermen Jan van Ree; Psychological mechanisms of human creativity: the temptation for reassessment edited by Tadeusz Marek; and To know self–to understand others edited by Maria Jarymowicz.

Among the MOOCS courses available at TU Delft is Circular Economy for a Sustainable Built Environment

The course description reads:

Learn how the principles of the Circular Economy can be applied to the built environment ranging from products and buildings to metropolitan and regional development strategies.

Building construction is one of the most waste producing sectors. In the European Union, construction alone accounts for approximately 30% of the raw material input. In addition, the different life-cycle stages of buildings, from construction to end-of-life, cause a significant environmental impact related to energy consumption, waste generation and direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.

The Circular Economy model offers guidelines and principles for promoting more sustainable building construction and reducing the impact on our environment. If you are interested in taking your first steps in transitioning to a more sustainable manner of construction, then this course is for you!

In this course you will become familiar with circularity as a systemic, multi-disciplinary approach, concerned with the different scale, from material to product, building, city, and region.

Some aspects of circularity that will be included in this course are maximizing reuse and recycle levels by closing the material loops. You will also learn how the Circular Economy can help to realign business incentives in supply chains, and how consumers can be engaged and contribute to the transition through new business models enabling circular design, reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling of building components.

In addition, you will learn how architecture and urban design can be adapted according to the principles of the Circular Economy and ensure that construction is more sustainable. You will also learn from case studies how companies already profitably incorporate this new theory into the design, construction and operation of the built environment.

What you’ll learn

At the end of the course you will be able to:

• Recognize the principles of circularity and their application to the built environment
• Identify the scales of the built environment from materials and products to cities and regions
• Identify the life-cycle phases of building products and how they can be circular
• Discuss design principles in building of products and key aspects such as stakeholders, incentives, time-frames, business models
• Discuss the circular design and development approach for buildings and recognize the impact of a building on society and the environment during its life-cycle
• Recognize the flows at different city scales and how they differ depending on the actors and the local context
• Reflect on the complexity and variety of possible circular solutions in terms of energy, water and waste management
• Analyze and map the different stages and value webs of building materials at the regional level
• Reflect on possible environmental impacts of the different building life-cycle stages and activities along the value web
• Explore the potential of intervening to steer the value web towards more circularity

Course instructors include Professor Tillmann Klein, Professor of Building Product Innovation and Associate Professor Marcel Bilow, both of TU Delft.

Another MOOC possibility at TU Delft is Mind of the Universe – Robots in Society: Blessing or Curse?

In this class, students may learn about the societal impact of artificially intelligent robots and what can be done about it:

About this course

Combining artificial intelligence with robotics may offer positive implications for our society and our well-being. However, it also raises a lot of ethical questions.

In this course we will discuss questions and dilemmas such as:

• will artificially intelligent robots take away our jobs?
• will they have their own free will and – as some prophesy – have the power to take over the world?
• should we program robots to detect and respond to human emotions, and if so how?
• under what conditions can we use robots for military purposes?

We will also touch upon the design principles that developers should adhere to, and critically reflect on issues such as robot autonomy, consciousness and intelligence.

This course will provide you with plenty of learning resources on this important topic including interviews with top experts in this field.

This course is a spin-off of the “Mind of the Universe” documentary series, created by the Dutch broadcasting company VPRO and professor Robbert Dijkgraaf, Princeton University. A number of universities in The Netherlands have used the open source material of the documentary series as a starting point to create similar learning experiences.

What you’ll learn

• Identify the ethical questions about artificially intelligent robots.
• Identify the various areas where concern is in place.
• Reflect critically upon developments with regard to Artificially intelligent robots and the impact it has on society.
• Express a nuanced point of view towards the issue of Artificially intelligent robots in society.

The class will be taught by, among others, Associate Professor Virginia Dignum, Associate Professor on Social Artificial Intelligence and Jordi Bieger, AI researcher, both of TU Delft.

The TU Library has an extensive collection of books about robots and artificial intelligence to complement studies in this area.

A further choice among the many MOOCS available at TU Delft is

Managing Building Adaptation: A Sustainable Approach.

In this MOOC, students learn how to adapt buildings sustainably by applying management tools to real-life cases in the built environment:

About this course

Do you have a passion for buildings and want to contribute to a sustainable environment? Then this is your chance to make a difference! The biggest sustainability challenge for cities worldwide is adapting existing obsolescent buildings and making them future-proof. In this course, you will learn about adapting buildings for sustainability.

This course first introduces you to the challenging management task of redeveloping buildings for future use. Then you will learn how different management tools can be used to convert old buildings for sustainable reuse.

Prior experience with studies or jobs related to the built environment is not essential for this course, but will be a great advantage.

This MOOC is especially relevant for students who are interested in Real Estate, Project Management, Urban Planning, Architecture, Construction, Engineering, and Sustainability.

The course is taught by a multi-disciplinary team of instructors and professors with relevant practical and theoretical experience. You can use the practical knowledge you obtain during this course to tackle many challenges related to the built environment.

What you’ll learn

• Understand building adaptation management as a cyclical process;
• Identify various sustainability challenges that occur in building adaptations;
• Distinguish between multiple actor perspectives and interests related to building adaptation;
• Apply project management tools that assist in making decisions about building adaptation;
• Translate design concepts into practical solutions for sustainable building adaptation

Class instructors will include Associate Professor Hilde Remøy, Associate Professor of Real Estate Management at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment; Assistant Professor Erwin Heurkens, Assistant Professor in Urban Development Management at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment; and Assistant Professor Gerard van Bortel, Assistant Professor of Housing Management at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, all of TU Delft.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)