Introduction to Engineering Systems

Environmental Analysis of High-Speed Rail: Calendar

REC #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
R1	Project motivation and background Growing environmental impacts of transportation, and shifts to faster modes Congestion of the air transportation system High-speed rail development in Europe and China High-speed rail in the United States
R2	The case of California and the Northeast Corridor Overview of the proposed California high-speed rail development and current air traffic Overview of the Northeast Corridor: Rail and air transportation Current controversies Discussion on nonlinear behavior of these systems
R3	Full class recitation: Tutorial on Vensim
R4	Demand forecasting and uncertainties Introduction to demand forecasting Current challenges and limitations In-class exercises related to demand forecasting and uncertainty
R5	Full class recitation: Introduction to random variables, probability and statistics
R6	Evaluating the environmental impacts of high-speed transportation Introduction to high-speed rail and air transportation emissions impacts. Discussion of the California case Lifecycle emissions resources (e.g. databases for looking up emissions factors) In-class exercises: example lifecycle emission calculations (for personal vehicles?)	Preliminary project assignment 1 due
R7	Full class recitation: Midterm project presentations
R8	Network models of high-speed transportation Overview of network models of rail and air transportation systems Cooperation and competition between high-speed rail and aviation Discussion on Northeast Corridor network	Preliminary project assignment 2 due
R9	Project feedback and discussion Feedback on preliminary project assignment 1 Project discussion. Guest lecture from Cambridge Systematics
R10	Project feedback and discussion Feedback on preliminary project assignment 2 Discussion on stakeholders	Preliminary project assignment 3 due
R11	Project lab hours Open lab time for students to work on projects
R12	Project lab hours Open lab time for students to work on projects	Project paper draft