Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heywood, Trinity College Dublin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

are engineering topics. Davis for examplequestioned whether or not ‘software engineers’ were engineers.3 Williams argues that thefuture of engineering lies in accepting this multiplicity. She argues that engineering isexpanding within its own walls rather than responding to the world outside. Toaccomplish this goal it will need a broader education that encompasses the liberal arts.The author questions what would happen if matters continue as they are? One answer isthat the number of technicians will grow considerably. Students will enter a particularroute, graduate into the field and find there is no way out. They will become specialists.The consequences for employment are profound if the specialism dies. This was aprediction that was made as

Conference Session

Engineering for Social Justice

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Catalano, State University of New York-Binghamton; Caroline Baillie, Queens University-Kingston

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

leastfour levels for the meaning of peace.5 At the most fundamental or literal level, note thedefinition used by Ancient Romans who defined peace, pax, as absentia belli, or theabsence of war. At the next highest level of meaning, the analogical, many believe thatpeace is more than the absence of war but also requires the presence of justice. In thisconception, a society in which one group oppresses another lacks peace even in theabsence of violence, because the oppression itself constitutes evil. At the third or morallevel, peace refers to a harmonious balance between human beings, the rest of the naturalworld, and the cosmos. Peace does not necessarily have to be something the humansmight achieve "some day" but rather can be created and expanded

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

making thingsdifferent, we aim to “make a difference.”36, 37, 38 This approach makes social (power) relationsand social structures vital to students’ design process, but does so without displacing thecentrality of material interventions or negating the potential of material innovation to catalyzesocial change.39 By applying STS methods and concepts in analyzing the social structuressurrounding design processes and outcomes, we do not displace material, localized interventions.A subtle balancing act is needed to move between the local, material intervention and the manylayers of interaction it has or is likely to have with other elements in the complex systems intowhich the local intervention fits.40While STS scholars tend to be more fluent with

Conference Session

Approaches to Learning Outcomes Assessment in Liberal Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kyle Oliver, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Traci Nathans-Kelly; Sandra Courter, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Laura Grossenbacher, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

expressedthan others, but the point is that a multi-genre “humanistic readings” approach coupled with anonline discussion forum that gets everyone involved seems to be an especially effective way tohelp students explore fruitful connections between the readings.Outcome 2: Recognize and work with the role of uncertainty in engineering and its relationshipto social and ethical dimensionsAs we mentioned above, we wanted to articulate a course outcome about uncertainty andambiguity because of very specific feedback our department has received from its industrialadvisory board. The goal here was to get students to grapple with problems in which, say, an