Johnson, K., & Leydens, J. A., & Moskal, B. M., & Silva, D., & Fantasky, J. S. (2015, June), Social Justice in Control Systems Engineering   Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24715

\bibitem{asee_peer_24715}
  Johnson, K., \& Leydens, J. A., \& Moskal, B. M., \& Silva, D., \& Fantasky, J. S. (2015, June), \emph{Social Justice in Control Systems Engineering }
  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington.
  10.18260/p.24715

Kathryn Johnson, Jon A. Leydens, Barbara M. Moskal, Deborath Silva, and Justin Stephen Fantasky.  "Social Justice in Control Systems Engineering ".  2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2015.  https://peer.asee.org/24715 Internet.  18 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_24715}
  Kathryn Johnson, Jon A. Leydens, Barbara M. Moskal, Deborath Silva, and Justin Stephen Fantasky.
  "Social Justice in Control Systems Engineering ".
  \emph{2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2015.
  https://peer.asee.org/24715 Internet.  18 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_24715
author = "Kathryn Johnson, Jon A. Leydens, Barbara M. Moskal, Deborath Silva, and Justin Stephen Fantasky"
title = "Social Justice in Control Systems Engineering "
booktitle = "2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2015"
month = "June"
address = "Seattle, Washington"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/24715}
number = {10.18260/p.24715}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                 Social Justice in Control Systems EngineeringThe research "Social Justice in Engineering with a Focus on Control Systems" integrates socialjustice into a control systems class and examines the impacts of such integration on studentlearning and motivation. The concept of social justice defies a universal definition, but is funda-mentally about human rights. The vision implied in social justice is that people and communitieshave the right to equality (in various senses), to health, to dignity, and to opportunities.Problem Statement Social elements such as social justice may not be perceived as“engineering” by faculty and students, leading to an engineering workforce not well-trained insocial elements of sustainable engineering solutions. Engineers work within an existing systemwithout significant effort to change the social constructs of that system [1]. Social justice isclosely tied to care for the natural environment and is a key element of sustainability. [2]However, whereas economics has long been considered an important part of engineeringeducation and the environment has gained significant ground in recent years, social justicereceives very little attention within typical engineering curricula. Therefore, most engineeringgraduates are unprepared to perform thorough assessments of the social justice implications oftheir engineering decisions and designs [2]. Our work seeks to remedy this shortcoming.Research Approach Using a mixed-methods approach, we begin by assessing the state of socialjustice awareness of the students entering the “Introduction to Feedback Control Systems”(IFCS) class. We then provide various social justice interventions to help students learn about theinherent connections between social justice inherent and control systems engineering. Ourresearch questions are: (1) What exposure to social justice concepts have students had in theiruniversity courses prior to taking IFCS?, (2) How do students report their perceptions of controlsystems classes that explicitly include engineering and social justice units compared to similarclasses that do not include social justice?, and (3) How does targeted social justice instructionimpact student performance on control systems course outcomes, student plans to pursueadditional control systems courses, and student ability to recognize the social justice dimensionsof control systems? A survey offered to all enrolled students is followed by focus groups andsemi-structured interviews for a smaller subset of students. Two sections of the course areoffered each semester, and students from both sections are invited to participate in surveys, focusgroups, and interviews. One of the two sections includes social justice interventions and the othersection follows a more traditional approach so that comparisons can be made between the two.Expected Results We will assess student learning outcomes in terms of traditional technicalcriteria and engagement. The research will help to expand understanding of social justiceelements of control systems engineering specifically and to collect baseline information of theseelectrical and mechanical engineering students’ prior experiences with engineering and socialjustice. This baseline information will provide important background for future curricularchanges required to teach social justice. Finally, this research includes an evaluation of theimpact of social justice interventions within a required control systems course. Ideally, thestudents exposed to the social justice interventions will become ambassadors for social justicewithin their future careers. We will share intervention materials with the control systems andsocial justice teaching communities, thereby increasing the opportunity for additional students tolearn about this important area.Note: This paper is one of four in the session, “Pushing the Boundaries of the Liberal Arts andEngineering: Integrating Social Justice in Engineering Science Courses”References   [1]     Riley, Donna, Engineering and Social Justice, San Rafael, CA: Morgan and Claypool           Publishers, 2008.   [2]     Cech, Erin, “The (Mis)framing of social justice: Why ideologies of depoliticization and           meritocracy hinder engineers’ ability to think about social injustices,” in Engineering           education for social justice: Critical explorations and opportunities, (ed.) Juan Lucena, New           York: Springer, pp. 67-84, 2013.
AU  - Kathryn Johnson
AU  - Jon A. Leydens
AU  - Barbara M. Moskal
AU  - Deborath Silva
AU  - Justin Stephen Fantasky
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Social Justice in Control Systems Engineering 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/24715
DO  - 10.18260/p.24715
ER  -