Mid Sweden University

Ingenjörsyrket innebär bland annat att skriva rapporter, utredningar, beskrivningaroch instruktioner. Därför behöver ingenjörsstudenter träna på att skrivaen rad olika texter. Många lärare på ingenjörsprogram saknar dock kompetensför att undervisa om skrivande. Skrivlyftet vid Mittuniversitetet erbjuder läraregenerella skrivdidaktiska metoder. I ett försök att vidareutveckla dessa metodermed specifik inriktning mot skrivande i tekniska sammanhang och inom ingenjörsutbildningarna,rapporteras här ett utvecklingsarbete som avser att stärkaingenjörsstudenters förmåga att beskriva sin kunskap i välorganiserade rapportermed tydlig struktur och röd tråd. Utvecklingsarbetet resulterade i en ämnesspecifikmetod som fick namnet Bullseye-metoden. Med metoden undervisas studenterom rapportskrivande i en iterativ process samtidigt som de genomför en tekniskundersökning. Metoden utvecklades med hjälp av kunskap från Skrivlyftet ochbaseras på en rapportmodell som kombineras med en systematisk metod förundervisning i rapportskrivande. Under läsåret 2020–21 genomfördes en interventionsstudiedär högskoleingenjörsstudenter vid Byggingenjörsprogrammetpå Mittuniversitetet undervisades med hjälp av denna metod. Interventionenseffekt utvärderades med kvalitetskriterier som bedömde rapportens organisationav innehållet. Resultatet visade att rapporter som skrivits av de grupper som undervisatsmed Bullseye-metoden i högre grad innehöll de strukturelement somförväntas i en rapport, jämfört med kontrollgruppen som undervisats på ett traditionelltsätt. Det går dock inte med säkerhet att säga vad som orsakar skillnadernai resultat mellan grupperna med interventionsstudien som grund. För att blivandeingenjörer ska kunna kommunicera resultat från undersökningar genomfördamed vetenskaplig metod, rekommenderas ämnesintegrerad undervisning medBullseye-metoden.

Buildings can play an important role in reducing GHG emissions through increased energy efficiency. The European Commission mandates that all new buildings should be "zero emission buildings" (ZEB), aiming at a zero GHG emission building stock by 2050. The extent to which ZEB can contribute to reduced GHG emissions, however, varies between countries, due to different energy systems. It is also important to consider other environmental effects to avoid that climate benefits come with unintended consequences. Here, we explore the life-cycle environmental performance for a ZEB in a case where electricity and heating are largely fossil-free. The assessment concentrates on i) environmental impact of the use stage in relation to the product stage, ii) the interrelation between different energy sources, with focus on household electricity, and iii) the performance for more impact categories than primary energy use and climate change. While our results generally support the use of ZEBs from an environmental perspective, they also show that the climate benefit in this setting is marginal. However, given that energy systems are connected and energy savings in one place can reduce the demand for fossil energy elsewhere, the climate benefit of ZEBs is likely underestimated. Besides methodological implications for future studies, this indicates that current EU policy is promising, as incentives for implementation of ZEBs are unaffected by domestic effects.

Ingenjörer förväntas skriva rapporter i sitt arbete, men många universitetslärare saknar kompetens för att undervisa om skrivande. Skrivlyftet som genomförts vid Mittuniversitetet erbjuder lärare metoder för att undervisa om skrivande. Vi saknade en metod för ämneslärare att undervisa om skrivande på ingenjörsprogram, varför vi utvecklade Bullseye-metoden med hjälp av kunskap från Skrivlyftet. Den består av en Rapportmodell och en metod för att undervisa om den. Syftet var att öka studenters förmåga att beskriva sin kunskap i välorganiserade rapporter med en tydlig röd tråd. Metoden testades i en interventionsstudie bland högskoleingenjörsstudenter vid Mittuniversitetet under höstterminerna 2020 och 2021. En grupp studenter undervisades med Bullseye-metoden samtidigt som de genomförde en teknisk undersökning. Sedan jämfördes deras förmåga att organisera rapporter med en grupp studenter som inte undervisats med metoden. Resultaten visade att grupper med studenter som undervisats med Bullseye-metoden hade högre förmåga att organisera rapporters innehåll än andra grupper och att de vanligaste felen var en bristfällig organisering av innehållet och en avsaknad av delstrukturer i Introduktion och Diskussion. Det gick inte att dra några säkra slutsatser om vad som orsakade skillnaderna mellan grupperna med undersökningen som grund. En möjlig orsak är att Bullseye-metoden fungerar. En annan är att gruppen med studenter som inte undervisats med metoden saknat återkoppling på organisering av innehållet i rapporter sedan de undervisades i rapportskrivande två år före undersökningen genomfördes. Vi vill presentera Bullseye-metoden och diskutera hur man kan skapa en kontinuitet för studenters organisering av rapporters innehåll genom ett helt ingenjörsprogram. 

A large proportion of the earth's resource turnover is caused by building and construction activities. There are also many health and safety problems related to the built environment. All these effects are contained in the concept of sustainability. In order to reduce the impact of the built environment it is important to plan for higher ecological, social, economic and cultural sustainability in all stages of the building and construction planning process. A problem is that these processes are complex with many actors involved in different stages. The complexity can be handled with an integrated planning model that is based on continuous dialogue during the process between the actors involved. Case studies of construction projects show that such models for continuous experience feedback can work in practice. The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze sustainable construction processes with regard to clear goal formulation and continuous follow-up of the sustainability parameters. It is also to develop a general model for managing sustainable construction and housing processes regarding ecological, economic, social and cultural dimensions. The model is the result of action research-oriented case studies carried out within the framework of the EU-project Sustainable Built Environment in Mid Sweden (SBEMS). 

As the building construction industry accounts for a large part of the ecological burden, sustainable construction processes are very important for achieving sustainable communities. Construction is often a linear process, where different actors act at different stages of the process. In this process there are critical borderlines where the information is to be transferred from one actor to another. Over the years, the construction industry has developed a well-functioning and standardized arrangement for how this happens. However, this has proven to be problematic when sustainability is to be introduced in construction projects. Sustainability goals can often be perceived as diffuse and difficult to interpret. Different actors with different values and knowledge level regarding sustainability also interpret the goals differently. A common way is to set environmental goals as checklists with criteria to be met. In this process, it is common for certain aspects to be sub-optimized while other important aspects fall outside the scope. It is therefore very important to simplify the sustainability parameters without sacrificing complexity. The goals must be clearly formulated initially and followed up continuously throughout the process. The purpose of this paper is to study and analyze good examples of sustainable construction processes with regard to clear goal formulation and continuous follow-up. The result end up in a proposal for a model for knowledge management of sustainable construction processes. 

The sustainable building engineering education at Mid Sweden University has since it started 1994 a strong focus on sustainable building. It is also committed to be a pilot case for blended learning. All courses in the building engineering program were from the autumn 2012 adapted to a blended learning concept. That means that all courses are available in an integrated mix of ordinary campus and online distance education in real time. Blended learning is a way of taking in account different needs concerning student study situation. Adult students, bound with house and families, often prefer more distance education while younger students need more campus education. The results of the case study show that blended learning attracts more students, and allows students with different backgrounds to study and gives a more solid base of students for the program. It also allows a more flexible way of allocating resources by integrating two previous modes of delivery for the same program. This provides an education with a well thought through quality assurance. Another strength of blended learning is the possibility to connect individual students to a larger collective of students, making it possible for them to relate to and learn with and from others by social interactions that are difficult to achieve in solely online education. The pilot case is so far limited to the sustainable building engineering program but in a next stage the concept is planned to be spread to other engineering programs and other education programs at Mid Sweden University.

The municipality of Östersund is presently developing a new township called Storsjö Strand close to the town centre by the lakefront of the lake Storsjön. The ambition is that the new area should be a good example of more sustainable building engineering and societal planning. Mid Sweden University was engaged to follow the process in action research setting, and to enhance the learning process. A triple helix process intending to better achieve such outcomes was presented at the Eco-tech 2014 conference. The process has now moved to a stage where the first two buildings are erected.

This paper reports on present status with a focus on how the sustainability goals have been transferred through the chain of involved organizations and individuals, developers and contractors, but also how the goals affect the production of the building, regarding materials, methods and costs, based on interviews . We have observed connections between sustainability outcomes, and the combination of quality of the goals set for the project and the types of processes for achieving them. So far, it seems like the sustainability goals partly have been transferred through the process. The process will be followed until the buildings has been in use for some time

A life cycle assessment (LCA) of a low energy / passive house in northern Sweden, including building materials and energy use is reported. The case study building is semi detached house for two families situated in Östersund (lat. 63°N), Sweden. Each apartment having a floor space of 160 m2 divided on two floors. The building was constructed during 2010 with a design meeting the requirements for Swedish passive houses as defined by the Forum for energy efficiency buildings (FEBY) and the Swedish center for zero energy houses (SCNH).When it comes to more sustainable buildings, energy use in the build environment has been in focus for some time. The life cycle assessment in this study reveals that the building materials can contribute significantly to environmental burdens of a residential building in northern Sweden. Energy efficiency, efficient use of good building materials and issues of appropriate design need to be discussed in the same context to move toward a more sustainable built environment.For energy efficient buildings in a energy system with renewably based energy carriers, building materials might give rise to a significant or even dominating part of the life cycle impact of a building. This give rise to considerations regarding choices of building materials as well as design of buildings to minimize such impact; while not forgetting social aspects impacted by building design.