Conference Session

Sustainability

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Justin L. Hess, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Sarah Aileen Brownell, Rochester Institute of Technology; Alexander T. Dale, Engineers for a Sustainable World

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Multidisciplinary Engineering

Page 24.1257.2profession, especially those covering sustainability topics, contain several of the 10 aspects ofwickedness.3 The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineeringprovides one relevant large-scale list4 but more regional issues such as urban transportation orwater infrastructure pose similarly complex challenges due to local variations. These issues mayhave a variety of clear technical responses, but implementation requires social and politicalagreement that engineers have rarely addressed. With the added contemporary need forconsideration of depleting resources and global crises such as climate change – which has beendefined as a “super” wicked problem5 – novel approaches to engineering education that