Sustainability goals, railway system, transport, innovation, Design Thinking, solving open and wicked problems, interaction with stakeholders.

After successfully completing the course, the student should be able to:

• Understand and explain the railway system, including both the internal relationships of its different stakeholders, and its function and usefulness in the wider transport system.
• Solve open complex challenges in the wider transport system where railway solutions are a valid mobility option.
• Collaborate towards the sustainability goals in groups with diverse backgrounds (including stakeholders), facilitating discussions and, in turn, learning from peers.
• Analyse and judge the optimality of solutions to sustainability-related challenges, from normative restrictions to own personal motivations.

The course starts with an Initial presentation lecture, including explicitly stating the idea behind the course, ILOs, the description of the whole course activities and the reason behind them, and the examination. Presentation of the available challenge/challenges and the interested stakeholders, if any.

The plan is to have a weekly module of group meetings that starts with a short introduction plus own work and/or a workshop about that lecture, then some days to work on it, and finally a consolidation meeting where that part is wrapped up and “closed”, and the necessary input for the next weekly plan is generated. An intermediate meeting is also scheduled with a pre-booked lecture room for the groups to use as deemed necessary. The course has three meetings scheduled per week, where the following activities are planned:

• Lectures: The first meeting in each week will be a lecture on a specific concept or method on focus and to be practiced that week.
• Self-steered groupwork: the second meeting in the week is for the group to use as they decide.
• Discussion and Self-reflection: in the third meeting of the week there will be a wider discussion about the ongoing work in that week and write an individual self-reflection on the learning objectives.
• Peer review: during the first meeting the week after, there is a peer-review session where students review each other’s reflections.

Based on an eight-week course plan, with three meetings per week, the schedule is:

          Start of week                    Mid-week                         End of week

          Preparation meeting          Free meeting time             Consolidation meeting

W1     Course intro, Design thinking, challenge definition

W2     Innovation process, Stakeholders, Design thinking: Empathize

W3     Design thinking: Define

W4     Design thinking: Ideate

W5     Design thinking: Prototype

W6     Design thinking: Test

W7     Final prototypes, Individual Interviews

W8        

A more detailed schedule will be available in the Canvas page.

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

Funka - compensatory support for students with disabilities

P, F

• PRO1 - Project task, 7.5 credits, Grading scale: P, 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.

The grading scale will be Fail/Pass/Pass with Distinction.

The assessment will be based on:

1. Technical Portfolio and Self-reflection - an individual journal where the students reflect on their own learning, from both technical aspects and more open ones.
2. Oral presentation - a group presentation where they present their work and reflect on the multidisciplinary collaboration.
3. Personal interview: the grading will be fine-tuned with a personal interview that intends to deepen in the analyses and answers provided in the Portfolio and Self-Reflection

The grading scale will be Fail/Pass

Grading Criteria for a Pass level, including the Portfolio of Self-reflections, Oral presentation, and Personal interview

• ILO1 - The work is framed in the critical analysis of the Railway System and its surroundings, reflecting the student’s knowledge of its possibilities and limitations. There is a reflection on the different scales of the problem (from small technical developments to the wider transport system) with the sustainability goals in sight.
• ILO2 - The students collaboratively worked throughout the Design Thinking process until its later stages while approaching every stage critically. They were able to strategically adapt the work objectives and tasks as they moved forward.
• ILO3 - The project was collaboratively performed, with significant contribution from the student. They regularly participated and were active in group meetings, defining activities and doing the work that is assigned by the group. They reflected on the lessons learned from the groupwork and workflow, and proposed improvement for future collaborative works.
• ILO4 - The student has evaluated the impact of their work at a user level. They have also contextualised and evaluated their work within the SDGs, the societal challenges, the existing and future constraints, and their own opinions and values on sustainability and/or rail systems.

• 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.

As teachers and course responsibles we expect every student to have a Growth Mindset towards the course content and activities. This is an engagement-intensive but low-risk course where students should not just drift towards a Pass level supported by the rest of the group, but are instead encouraged to invest time and effort in learning as much as you can, engage in constructive group and problem solving dynamics, and deepen your interest in understanding what makes you learn more and better.