MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures celebrates its 150th graduate

As the MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures celebrates its 150th graduate, Alison Goddard explores what went into developing this unique programme

As Imperial’s MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures celebrates its 150th graduate, Alison Goddard explores what went into developing this unique approach to interdisciplinary teaching and the production of a new energy and business savvy generation of graduates.

Words by Alison Goddard

Illustrations by Arunas Kacinskas

Peals of laughter drift through the foyer of the Electrical Engineering Building. Glasses are raised and clinked. Past and present students are in good cheer as they meet on the eve of Imperial’s Alumni Reunion to mark the fifth anniversary of the MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures. Course director Dr Andy Heyes praises the assembled company for their achievements: completion of a programme that is unique, both within the College and the wider world; and an impressive employment record. The buzz of conversation resumes and laughter spills forth once again.

The MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures is the most multidisciplinary course to be offered by the College. Rooted in energy technology but with a hefty slug of business, economics and policy, the course aims provide its graduates with the ability to grasp the complex interactions inherent in global energy systems. It is delivered by staff with both academic and industrial experience from 12 departments and, unlike any other College course, it has no departmental home. Instead, it is attached to the Energy Futures Lab, Imperial’s multidisciplinary response to the many challenges presented by the energy sector. The arrangement makes it not only distinctive within the College but also extraordinarily tricky to duplicate elsewhere.

Creating any new course is hard work but the interdisciplinary aspect made this one particularly challenging, says Sandro Macchietto, Professor of Process Systems Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering, who was the founding director of the course in 2007. He was determined to develop the ‘MBA in energy’ that people had been talking about for some time and to ensure that it was not dominated by any one discipline.

A sense of belonging

“Energy is a systems problem with many facets,” says Sandro. “You really need to have a vision of how they interact with one another to tackle global warming and energy supply. We wanted to create a course that looked at energy systems rather than specific aspects and it was clear, at that stage, that no one in the world was doing it. However, if you put such a course within a single department, then other departments are likely to feel much less committed to it.”

The high calibre of the students recruited onto the course also helped to encourage staff from each of the departments involved to devote their time, energy and enthusiasm to the course and its students. The MSc attracts applicants not only from engineers and scientists who have recently graduated, but also from bankers, financiers and people already working in the energy sector. Such a mix proves enriching for staff as well as students, says Sandro.

Peering ahead

For example, Anthony Dixon enrolled on the MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures in October 2009, 25 years after completing his degrees in physics and philosophy from the University of Western Australia, and two decades after receiving an MBA from Harvard Business School. “After Harvard, I spent 15 years in financial markets, but I always intended to pursue a second career in the environment. It is what I am passionate about,” he says. “When I left banking, I focused initially on doing what I knew: offering financial advice to companies in the renewable energy sector and it might have been possible to go on doing that with not much more than a dilettante’s knowledge of the technologies and the issues but I wanted to get much deeper into the underlying science. So the MSc was a way to scratch my intellectual itch and get rigorous.

“I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed being back in an academic environment: it was like a part of my brain woke up again. I liked the fact that it was so multidisciplinary. It was also a pleasure and a privilege to be taught by so many people who are world leaders in their field: Imperial is packed with them. And of course it was interesting and great fun to be in class with people much younger than me. That sort of diversity is a great benefit to groups I think – whether they are classes, teams or the workplace.

“The degree was also helpful to my career transition: it gave me added credibility in the subject and, while I was still on the course, I was offered the job of Chief Executive Officer of a startup biodiesel company in Hong Kong. As a start-up with significant capital still to be raised, the company needed someone with financial markets experience, as well as technical knowledge and an understanding of the big picture, in order to articulate a strategic direction to investors. I was excited to be coming to work in Asia again. Countries in this region, with the exception of China and Japan, are not as advanced as Europe or the United States in terms of the deployment of renewable energy technology and supporting policies, so there is a lot of opportunity here.”

Sabine Ziem gained her degree in philosophy and economics from the London School of Economics and then held various leadership roles at AIESEC , an international youth-run organisation to develop management and leadership skills. While working as a sustainability consultant for an oil company in Colombia, she realised she needed a more technical background, so, in October 2010, she enrolled on the MS c. She now works for E4tech, an energy consultancy based in London and Lausanne. “Our projects cover diverse energy issues, but go deep into each of them,” she explains. “On the course we did something similar: it gave us an overview with depth, it was a good preparation for the workplace.”

Dylan Rebois graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland and won a Marshall Scholarship, offered to high-ability Americans to pursue graduate study in Britain. He enrolled on the course in October 2011. Many of the other courses he considered would have given him only a technical grounding, he says, but the Imperial course offered both breadth and depth. The mix of students and staff enhanced their conversations: “It is helpful to have people who deal with issues and know how feasible the proposed solutions really are. I couldn’t have anticipated the central role my peer group would play in the learning experience,” he adds.

Structural integrity

Not only does the course offer a diverse range of disciplines, expertise and people, it also has a unique structure to enable the mix. The 40 students who enrol each year take three compulsory foundation courses in the autumn term to provide them with a common toolset, language and analytical skills. The foundation courses cover energy economics and policy, energy systems technology, and methods for the analysis of energy systems. In common with many of Imperial’s more traditional courses, students are also expected to study subjects that do not count towards their final qualification, including transferable skills workshops on personal effectiveness, presentation and communication, and a tailor-made literature review course.

The current course director has also added material since taking over. For students who start in October 2012, Andy has included a module on debating to prepare them better for the cut and thrust of office politics and to help persuade the wider world of their case. Proponents and opponents will thrash out topics, such as the role of industrialised nations in combating climate change, the construction of new nuclear power stations and their role in Britain, and whether an individual can influence the use of one technology through his or her investment in it.

In the spring term, the students take a succession of deep dives into subjects such as clean fossil fuels, energy transmission and storage, low-carbon technologies, sustainable transport, and urban energy systems. A new course introduced by Andy and delivered by the Business School will examine the role of entrepreneurship in renewable energy, including technology commercialisation, product positioning, new market development and financing options. The courses are designed to equip students with the ability to make meaningful comparisons between competing technologies.

The summer term is devoted to a research project supervised by two academics, usually from different departments. These can range from an impact assessment of smart meters in developing economies, to assessing the potential of using hybrid vehicles as batteries to store surplus energy generated by wind, or using sewage to generate energy.

At the end of the academic year, the students organise a conference at which they present the results of their research to each other and to some of the students who will enrol the following year. Guest speakers at this event have included David MacKay, chief scientific advisor to the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

Blazing a career trail

Five years on, the course is succeeding in its aim to develop a generation of graduates equipped to work not only in the energy industry but also the investment sector and both public and private organisations. Graduates have pursued careers with financial services firms such as J.P. Morgan, management consultancy companies including McKinsey, with governmental organisations such as the Tanzanian Ministry of Energy and Minerals, and with energy companies including ABB, BP, Exxon Mobil, Gazprom, Schlumberger, Shell and Total. Many have also joined smaller consultancies such as London-based Element Energy and EnergyExcel, start-up companies and other small businesses.

Graduates also help support each other’s careers, thanks to a community of alumni that Andy has helped establish and maintain. More than half of the course graduates remain connected to the College through this network and can be called upon to support and advise existing students – as well as to toast the success of the course on its fifth anniversary.

In recognition of his work to establish the MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures, Sandro received a Rector’s Award for Excellence in Leadership and Management in 2008. The following year the College won the Institution of Chemical Engineers Education and Training Award in recognition of the course.

Dr Ray Orbach, director of the new Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and a former under-secretary for science in the United States Department of Energy, chairs the strategy board that oversees the operations of the Energy Futures Lab. He says, “What I love about the programme is that the entire College is involved with the curriculum, both in the sciences and the business arena, and the students are required to work at a postgraduate level in science as well as policy. The quality of the students needs to be noted: they will do so well in their careers and it is to the College’s credit. I don’t know of any other programme like it.

“Energy, business and policy: the mix is very rare in the sector. In America this would be a very unusual programme. I was so impressed by the course that I have invited Andy over here [to Texas] to see if we can project it onto the American system, I find it so exciting.”

This article first appeared in Imperial Magazine, Issue 38. You can view and download a whole copy of the magazine, from www.imperial.ac.uk/imperialmagazine.