Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tom A. Eppes, University of Hartford; Ivana Milanovic, University of Hartford; Frederick Sweitzer, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

. • Professional – Included for all E majors and covers topics common to disciplines. Currently, ET programs do not have a professional component. • Capstone – An integrating experience of 3 to 6 semester credits and taken in the final year of study in which the student completes an unscripted design project. • Other – A technical communication course sequence focused on written and oral skills taken by all ET majors.Broader Educational ContextThe changes being mandated by NEASC are part of a much larger policy initiative that isnational in scope. Most, if not all regional accreditation boards are undertaking similar efforts intheir respective areas of authority. Over the last decade, concern over the quality of highereducation

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vassilios Tzouanas, University of Houston, Downtown; Lea Campbell, University of Houston, Downtown

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

application of teaming skills. Courses whichencompass a major team engineering project are a natural point in the curriculum to includeteaming instruction.Because of these constraints, the curriculum which is described in this paper is designed to beinterspersed within the existing coursework of a senior seminar or capstone course whichincludes a major team project as its focus. The tradeoff with this approach is that the teaminginformation presented must be limited to what is most salient and necessary for graduates on thecusp of entering the work force. Students are provided with targeted readings in an effort toprovide an additional degree of depth.The eight teaming lessons outlined in the curriculum in Appendix A are designed to be presentedas

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics and Justice

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

targetingsome of the worst by-products of industrialization). 10More recently, and the Committee for Social Responsibility in Engineering (CSRE) grew out oflate-1960s and early-1970s radicalism. In the early 1970s, CSRE published thenewsletter/magazine SPARK, which emphasized the role of engineering in its social andpolitical-economic context, including especially labor relations. 11 SPARK highlighted andcriticized a range of “oppressive” applications of engineering skills and technology, withparticular attention paid to the connections between engineering and military. Instead ofworking on military projects, SPARK’s editors encouraged engineers to employ their skillstoward progressive, liberatory ends. One of the editors’ major goals was to bring

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George D. Ricco, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

-governance may mean an institution governing itself,Heidegger clearly states that Dasein’s continuous self-examination within the academic sphere isthe only path to subject mastery. The discussion place of the apprentice engineer in modern society and how he or shenegotiates that sphere, and in the greater context how engineering as a whole can be grounded interms of design and soiological principles. Engineering design research currently(41,42) concludesthat engineering expertise and thus engineering mastery is not something that can be explicitlynoted, but something that one knows when one sees it. While there are books, classes, and“capstone” projects in engineering, a real engineer cannot be strictly defined by any textbookdefinition. The