The course includes lectures, seminars, project work in groups and a home exam. Lectures and seminars include presentations and discussions about challenges and goals of sustainable development in different parts of society, for example how digitalisation can contribute with solutions but also contribute to new challenges, and basic innovation theory with applications for sustainable innovation.

The project work is carried out in collaboration with a company or research project. The aim is that the students should apply knowledge and skills in digitalisation from earlier courses on different problems with connection to sustainable development. The project work is reported in a written report and orally at a final seminar.

In the home exam, the students are given the opportunity to specialise in an area of digitalisation for sustainable development of their own choice.

The overall aim of the course is that students upon completion of the course should have sufficient knowledge of the advantages and disadvantages of digitalisation, with regard to ecological and social sustainable development in a system perspective, so that they can make conscious choices and can search additional knowledge in a well-informed way when developing new solutions.

On completion of the course, the students should be able to

• Give an account of and problematise the concept sustainable development
• Give an account of central concepts and methods that are used to describe and assess sustainability aspects of technical solutions with a system perspective
• Describe societal challenges with connection to ecological and social sustainable development
• Give an account of national and international goals for sustainable development
• Apply knowledge of sustainable development to independently suggest, describe and evaluate new solutions within digitalisation for sustainable development in a system’s perspective
• By means of basic innovation theory reflect on the potential of digitalisation for sustainable development
• Cooperate in project form and based on given preconditions develop new solutions
• Present results in scientific written format and popular oral format
• Present and receive criticism orally and in writing

Learning activities include:

• 11 on-campus lectures
• 4 on-line lectures (video content)
• A theory seminar, incl written assignments
• A group project, incl supervision meetings, presentations and discussions in project seminars, and a written report
• A home exam (written literature assignment)

No course book

Course literature/media (articles, reports, and on-line media) complementing each lecture is listed in the overview of lectures on Canvas. All material is available in Canvas or on-line.

The course literature/media should be used as reference material when preparing for Thematic seminars writing the Home exam. 

Students at KTH with a permanent disability can get support during studies from Funka:

Funka - compensatory support for students with disabilities

• SEM1 - Seminar, 1.0 credits, grading scale: P, F
• TEN1 - Home exam, 1.5 credits, grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F
• PRO1 - Project work, 5.0 credits, grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

If the course is discontinued, students may request to be examined during the following two academic years.

PRO1: Project, 5.0 hp (grading A-F)

Project work is done in groups of 4-5 students. There are two options to pass this assignment:

PRO1 - Alternative 1 (graded as Pass = E) Projects done on with assignments from industry or ongoing research projects. Compulsory attendance in 3 project seminars. PRO1-Alt1 examines the same intended learning outcomes as PRO1-Alt2, but at a basic level. Therefore, the assignment is more pre-defined, with fewer scheduled project activities, and a more streamlined project report. Important note: PRO1-Alt 1 cannot be combined with TEN1-Alt2, because of too much similarity between assignments. 

PRO1 - Alternative 12 (graded as A-E) Projects with assignments from industry or ongoing research projects. Compulsory attendance in 3 supervision meetings and 3 project seminars.

Detailed instructions are available on Canvas for students enrolled in the course.

SEM 1: Theory seminar, 1.0 hp (grading P/F)

SEM1 includes compulsory attendance in one seminar, an individual hand-in assignment before the seminar, and a group assignment during the seminar.

Detailed instructions are available on Canvas for students enrolled in the course

TEN1: Home exam, 1.5 hp (grading A-F)

TEN1 is an individual assignment. There are two options to pass this assignment:

TEN 1 - Alternative 1 (graded as Pass = E) Hand in short comments to a number of lectures (specified in Canvas) directly after the lectures. There are no options to hand in later.

TEN1 - Alternative 2 (graded as A-E) Write an essay about digitalization, innovation and sustainable development, using material from lectures, the course literature and other sources. Important note: TEN1-Alt 2 cannot be combined with PRO1-Alt1, because of too much similarity between assignments.

Detailed instructions are available on Canvas for students enrolled in the course

The course is to a large extent based on attendance and active participation. Lectures, seminars and supervision of projects therefore have requirements of a certain level of attendance. All items are however designed to give the students flexibility to complete in other ways of the items where they have not been able to attend.

Final grade

The final course grade is calculated as the average of PRO1 and TEN1 (equal weight).

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

For PRO1, an alternative examination at Pass (E) level has been added: PRO1-Alt1. The previous outline of this examination module is now called PRO1-Alt2

Lecture content has been updated

The number of project status reports (for PRO1-Alt2) has been reduced and are now only required to submit before superivsion meetings.

Online open-office hours has been introduced to increase students' access to their supervisors