Educating the global citizen in sustainable development: the influence of accreditation bodies on professional programmes

It is estimated that over 50% of UK CO2 emissions arise from the buildings and industry sector. Globally construction is estimated to be the world’s largest employer with 111 million employees. The Built Environment sector is therefore a major economic player with significant environmental, social and economic influence across the globe. Pressure on Built Environment degree curriculum partly comes from the professional bodies, with whom a large proportion of the School of the Built and Natural Environment’s programmes are accredited. Accreditation is in many cases a requirement in order for graduates to practice their profession while in others it is not a requirement but an expectation. As a result, accreditation is vital to the marketability of School degree programmes. This paper discusses the key competencies within professional accreditation requirements for three case study subject areas within the School. Through this case study analysis it was found that all three accreditation requirements analysed referred to the accepted three pillar model of sustainability (see for example Kates et al (2005); van Zeijl-Rozema et al (2008); Mackelworth and Carić (2010)). Guidance in all three disciplines referred further to ethics and social responsibility. However, the three professional body accreditation guidelines differ in the prescribed quantity, and the detail of guidance, on sustainability criteria. In ensuring compliance with accreditation guidelines, the three subject areas have taken differing approaches across a continuum. The authors consider that the approaches taken, and the extent to which sustainability criteria are explicit or implicit within the curriculum, are in part influenced by the pedagogic approaches typical of the subject discipline

Many-body calculations for periodic materials via quantum machine learning

A state-of-the-art method that combines a quantum computational algorithm and machine learning, so-called quantum machine learning, can be a powerful approach for solving quantum many-body problems. However, the research scope in the field was mainly limited to organic molecules and simple lattice models. Here, we propose a workflow of quantum machine learning applications for periodic systems on the basis of an effective model construction from first principles. The band structures of the Hubbard model of graphene with the mean-field approximation are calculated as a benchmark, and the calculated eigenvalues show good agreement with the exact diagonalization results within a few meV by employing the transfer learning technique in quantum machine learning. The results show that the present computational scheme has the potential to solve many-body problems quickly and correctly for periodic systems using a quantum computer.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Analytical/ML Mixed Approach for Concurrency Regulation in Software Transactional Memory

In this article we exploit a combination of analytical and Machine Learning (ML) techniques in order to build a performance model allowing to dynamically tune the level of concurrency of applications based on Software Transactional Memory (STM). Our mixed approach has the advantage of reducing the training time of pure machine learning methods, and avoiding approximation errors typically affecting pure analytical approaches. Hence it allows very fast construction of highly reliable performance models, which can be promptly and effectively exploited for optimizing actual application runs. We also present a real implementation of a concurrency regulation architecture, based on the mixed modeling approach, which has been integrated with the open source Tiny STM package, together with experimental data related to runs of applications taken from the STAMP benchmark suite demonstrating the effectiveness of our proposal. © 2014 IEEE

Benchmarking assessment: breaking down barriers and building institutional understanding

Benchmarking offers a comprehensive way of measuring current practice in an institution; whilst also gauging achievement against external sources. Although e-learning has been benchmarked with a number of universities in the UK and abroad no one to date has tackled the area of assessment; which is now becoming of more concern with the advent of e-assessment. This paper describes the construction of a set of benchmarking measures/indicators and the outcome of early pilots which combine a survey instrument and semi-structured interview methodologies. The findings suggest that building a comprehensive and robust core of benchmark measures can have great utility and value to institutions; not just in external benchmarking but also in internal reviews. It can also assist with setting baselines, exploring the student experience, providing staff with data meaningful to their role and professional development together with supporting a continuous improvement trajectory

The role of sustainability assessment in sustainability management for urban redevelopment

Sustainability assessment has the potential to influence decision making and hence to improve the management of sustainability. This paper presents the development and reporting of benchmark sustainability indicators and discusses the challenges of embedding sustainability indicators into existing process for urban infrastructure development. It links sustainability indicators with a range of tools that were implemented within a Sustainability Enhancement and Monitoring Framework for the £1billion redevelopment of Dundee Waterfront. The sustainability monitoring framework followed the UK and Scottish Government thematic indicator approach and provided a set of Sustainability Benchmark Indicators for assessing and managing a public sector funded urban redevelopment. The process of indicator development was iterative and consisted of three main activities, literature, interviews and document analysis. Indicators were finalised through close working with Dundee City Council, Scottish Enterprise and partnership stakeholders. The indicators were successfully established in 2010 within Dundee City Council at project and departmental level, providing the link across policies, programmes and projects. The indictor development process is discussed and the findings of a January 2015 review of changes in the benchmark indicators will be reported. The transition of the indicators over time and its impact on future sustainability enhancement opportunities are evaluated alongside the implications for sustainability management of Dundee Waterfront. The efficacy of the benchmark indicators to support sustainability management over the planned 30 year programme of urban redevelopment is discussed. The wider implications of the findings of the Dundee Waterfront project are reviewed in the context of current work on sustainability assessment

Benchmarking of corporate social responsibility: Methodological problems and robustness

This paper investigates the possibilities and problems of benchmarking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). After a methodological analysis of the advantages and problems of benchmarking, we develop a benchmark method that includes economic, social and environmental aspects as well as national and international aspects of CSR. The overall benchmark is based on a weighted average of these aspects. The weights are based on the opinions of companies and NGO’s. Using different methods of weighting, we find that the outcome of the benchmark is rather robust for a sample of more than 50 large Dutch companies.Benchmarking; corporate social responsibility; sensitivity analysis; stakeholder perspective; transparency; triple P bottom line