Field Sites & Selection Criteria
A dynamic and diverse country with over 180 million inhabitants in an area slightly larger than the continental U.S., Brazil offers a rich set of options for field sites. At the same time the country is home to a significant number of world-class engineers and has the world’s cleanest energy matrix, it also suffers from great inequalities and development challenges. Careful site selection in Brazil will ensure that the locations visited provide direct access and exposure to experiences that would not be possible to replicate at Harvard or in the US. By complementing lectures with field site visits, the course will bring together theory and practice in a way that is not possible in a classroom-only or laboratory setting.
Field sites being considered for this course include, but are not limited to, the country’s largest hydroelectric dam, oil exploration and extraction sites, sugar-based ethanol and/or other biofuel/biodiesel sites, large-scale drinking water and waste treatment facilities, and world-class mining operations. The key unifying themes for these sites are (a) energy and (b) technology & the environment.
In order to focus site selection on the best set of options, sites should meet the following four criteria:
1. Will generate high level of student interest;
2. Represent world-class examples;
3. Support teaching objectives;
4. Taken as a group, sites are compatible with course duration and transportation logistics.
Final site selection will take place after verification that access to the locations and people needed to maximize teaching value will be possible. This process is underway.