Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division Technical Session 6

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cynthia Hampton, Virginia Tech; David Reeping, Virginia Tech

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

savior film and reviewers' reception. Symbolic Interaction, 33(3), 475-496.[21] Donaldson, W. (2017). In Praise of the “Ologies”: A Discussion of and Framework for Using Soft Skills to Sense and Influence Emergent Behaviors in Sociotechnical Systems. Systems Engineering, 20(5), 467-478.[22] Smolenski, P. (2019). Proof by Verbosity. Bad Arguments: 100 of the Most Important Fallacies in Western Philosophy, 289-292.[23] Kaplan, R. M. & Saccuzo, D. P. (1997). Psychological testing: Principles, applications and issues. Pacific Grove: Brooks Cole Pub. Company.[24] Slaton, A. E., & Pawley, A. L. (2018). The Power and Politics of Engineering Education Research Design: Saving the ‘Small N’. Engineering Studies, 10(2-3

Conference Session

Communicating Across Cultural and Epistemological Boundaries

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Xiaofeng Tang, Ohio State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

designer and the user. That is,the focus on gathering user data in a way downplays the roles of other stakeholders (e.g.,social workers in the case of designing for people with disabilities) in the communicationbetween the designers and the users.Empathy and entrepreneurshipEmpathic design has also made an influential presence in the Division ofEntrepreneurship & Engineering Innovation (EEI). Steffensen recommended “empathicdesign” as an important supplement to questionnaire-based market research, because “auser is not always able to verbalize and talk about his or her specific needs”[23].Believing that the theoretical underpinnings of empathy will perplex engineering studentsand “be rated by the students as a very soft skill,” Steffensen

Conference Session

Design and Making

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah Summers, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Renee D. Rogge, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

experts atchallenging students to develop excellent listening skills, cultural sensitivity, ethics, andempathy13,14. While engineering programs require students to take courses in the arts,humanities, and social sciences, students often compartmentalize these human-centric skills as“liberal arts” skills instead of weaving them into their technical expertise. There are numerousexamples of engineering programs or courses that have incorporated arts and humanities intodesign courses to encourage students to practice integrating human-centric skills with theirtechnical knowledge.15-17 A major challenge faced by this approach is that these courses are oftenseen as design courses and the “soft skills” offered by the arts and humanities faculty are just

Conference Session

Embedding Sociotechnical Systems Thinking II

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amber Genau, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Andre Millard, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

experience of teaching it for the first time during the 2017-2018 academic year, and plans for the future.IntroductionIn 1997, ABET rolled out the Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000), which introduced for the firsttime an understanding of social context as a requirement for engineering education. This is anacknowledgement that engineering practice does not occur in a vacuum, but must be responsiveto the various economic, political, and cultural forces around it. In the years since EC2000,many engineering programs have struggled to meet this criteria in a meaningful way [1]. Thereasons are primarily two-fold. First, the addition of so-called “soft skills” into the curriculum inno way reduces the amount of technical content that is also necessary to

Conference Session

Communication Across the Divisions III: Writing as Social–Technical Integration

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tatiana Teslenko, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Tagged Divisions

Computing & Information Technology, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

- Page 26.787.3professionalism, 3.1.9 - ethics and equity, and 3.1.12 - life-long learning1. These new objectivesresulted in the inclusion of the discourse on sustainability and social learning and an in-depthdiscussion of integrative skills (a.k.a. “soft” skills).The New First-Year CourseLater we developed a first-year course with a theme of sustainability, APSC 176: EngineeringCommunication. Its objectives are to provide students with research, critical thinking andadvanced communication skills necessary for success in the study and practice of globalengineering.We believe that a first-year communication course is uniquely positioned for integratingeducation on sustainability (ESD) with graduate attributes. APSC 176: EngineeringCommunication

Conference Session

Design and Making

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jewell Amanda Brey, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Danianne Mizzy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Richard Goldberg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

best suit the individual projects.Working with and alongside each other, the students gain both hard and soft skills and have theopportunity to pursue interests outside of the classroom. The project encourages undergraduateparticipation to maximize facilities use for both personal and academic projects, and also buildsand amplifies the maker community.The general undergraduate population is the third tier that benefits from the completed projects.The campus-wide value of each project is demonstrated through capstone events to showcaseeach finished project. These large-scale, high-visibility capstone events are designed to inspireundergraduates to become involved in future projects and discover the potential of the makercommunity.Each project

Conference Session

Panel: Embedding Writing in Experiential Learning

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lindsay Corneal, Grand Valley State University; Debbie Morrow, Grand Valley State University; Tracy Volz, Rice University; Ann Saterbak, Duke University; Susan Conrad, Portland State University; Timothy James Pfeiffer P.E., Foundation Engineering, Inc.; Kenneth Lamb, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; William A. Kitch, Angelo State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

education that will help to make them effectiveprofessionals in the wider context of their working lives. In their study, the authors conclude thatthe “complementary studies” courses are perceived by students as providing soft skills trainingand non-technical perspectives that they find somewhat valuable; but that students wished theskills and content were more explicitly integrated with or connected to their technicalcurriculum.In work described by Jovanovic et al. [7], the creation of a faculty learning communitycontaining English, Engineering, and Science scholars explored methods for engineering andscience faculty to incorporate writing assignments in their undergraduate courses that allowstudents to transfer what they learned in English

Conference Session

Engineering Communication I: History and Praxis

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Marcy Bloom Milhomme, Pennsylvania State University; Michael Alley, Pennsylvania State University; Lori B. Miraldi, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

ofthe semester is an elevator pitch in which students highlight their technical skills learned incourses, projects, co-ops, and internships coalesced with essential and soft skills gained throughpart-time employment, clubs, and organizations. Students research a specific company and makea connection between their own experiences and the mission and values of the organization. Theelevator pitch is presented in a mock career fair format. Near the end of the semester, students again communicate firsthand experiences inengineering, but this time do so for the purpose of ambassadorship in a My COE Experience talk.Here, students talk about experiences gained in the College of Engineering such as researchopportunities, engineering clubs

Conference Session

Imagining Others, Defining Self Through Consideration of Ethical and Social Implications

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Idalis Villanueva, Utah State University; Louis S. Nadelson, Colorado Mesa University; Jana Bouwma-Gearhart; Katherine L. Youmans, Utah State University; Sarah Lanci, Colorado Mesa University; Adam Lenz, Oregon State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division Technical Session 7

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Caitlin Donahue Wylie, University of Virginia; Ian Linville, University of Virginia; Angielyn Campo, University of Virginia; Suk Jun Kim, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

graduate students learna great deal from these partnerships, though they tend to learn different things. This findingsuggests that partnering novice and advanced researchers can help fill gaps in both partners’technical and professional knowledge and skills about research.Research skills, such as collaborating with others and identifying and producing “good”evidence, are crucial for future engineers and are difficult to learn. These skills overlap withother categories such as professional skills, technical skills, and "soft" skills. They are necessaryfor conducting research, although they are rarely explicitly defined. Scholars in Science andTechnology Studies (STS) have gained important insights into how experts, such as engineersand scientists

Conference Session

Reflective & Critical Pedagogies

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mania Orand, University of Washington ; Brook Sattler, University of Washington; Jennifer A. Turns, University of Washington; Lauren D. Thomas, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

toparticipating in reflective activities because engineering students are “generally fact focused”[23]and many engineering students consider reflection to be a non-engineering or a soft skill.[6,18,24]In a two-year study of 350 engineering students in Australia, Jolly and Radcliffe report thatstudents were generally resistant to reflection writing and required a lot of follow up andencouragement to get the reflection task done. Jolly and Radcliff added that the studentsparticipated more actively only when the grade percentage of the reflection journal assignmentwas increased. They suggest that students’ attitudes are evidence for the need for engineeringeducators “to model reflective practices and place regular emphasis on its value as a

Conference Session

Studying Engineering Education Research & Institutions

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Corey Owen, University of Saskatchewan; Debora Rolfes, University of Saskatchewan

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

identities based, in part, on shared experienceswithin their discipline, and, as Sullivan and Kedrowicz25 argue, their identity is, in part, basedon the trivialization or rejection of skills regarded as “soft,” such as communication. Thatengineering identity has traditionally rejected the importance of learning effectivecommunication skills is a commonplace.26 Sullivan and Kedrowicz25 contend that thedesignation “soft skills” still ensures the marginalization of communication among students: “Inthe broader context of language and meaning, “hard” and “soft” convey which disciplines havescientific and educational value and gender difference. When communication is repeatedlynoted as “soft,” easy, or something everyone can do … it often loses its

Conference Session

The Interdisciplinary Nature of Engineering

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Benjamin Cohen, Lafayette College; Jenn Stroud Rossmann, Lafayette College; Kristen L. Sanford Bernhardt, Lafayette College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Multidisciplinary Engineering

socio-technical concepts as away to enhance the range of skills that engineering education is intended to teach and to fosterthe status of the engineer as a professional with social responsibility and public engagement. Itasks for engineers to cultivate their identity as technology designers cognizant of foundationalattributes inclusive of technical and non-technical skills.e                                                                                                                e The spatial metaphor that helps promote this vision is important as well. Instead of proposing a radial, atomicmodel, with the core technical attributes in the nucleus and so-called “soft” skills of communication, economicattention, and cultural value awareness

Conference Session

Difference, Disability, and (De)Politicization: The Invisible Axes of Diversity

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julie L Taylor, University of Utah

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

ofclashing beliefs. For example, gender marks a moment of potential unknown, or reaction todifference. More specifically for this study, the engineering discipline is commonly characterizedas masculine, privileging hard science, objectivity, rationality, hegemonic ideology, and evenmale bodies.7 This is in juxtaposition to humanities, a more feminine discipline where scholarsengage in “soft” science, teach “soft” skills, and embrace subjectivity, emotionality, and femalebodies.5 Due to the merging of two cultures in an effort to have multidisciplinary education,different through the representation of gender is illuminated.Difference Discourse The concept of difference is important to examine because it helps us torecognize what is not “standard” or

Conference Session

Advances in Assessment of Communication and Interdisciplinary Competence

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carolyn Kusbit Dunn, East Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

on eitherissue. And there is yet another salient point. In many engineering curricula, adding courseworkin global studies is difficult because of ―the highly sequenced and content-demanding nature ofthe curriculum‖ [3]. This is also a factor frequently cited as to why more technical writingcoursework is not part of an engineering/technology curriculum. Professional or technical writing and communication, along with global competence, is aso called ‗soft skill‘ that both practitioners and scholars have deemed important to the success ofstudents. The discussion on this issue has been going on for decades. In the October-December2011 issue of Technical Communication Quarterly, Wright et al examines the history oftechnical writing via an

Conference Session

Accreditation and Outcomes-based Education

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jens Kabo, Chalmers University of Technology; Xiaofeng Tang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; John Currie, University of Sydney; Hu Wenlong, Beihang University; Caroline Baillie, University of Western Australia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

, segregation has endured betweenprofessional (math, science and engineering analysis courses) and general education (H&SScourses) or “hard” and “soft skills”4 or, in yet other words, technical and social content. In theeyes of Leydens and Schneider, the outcomes-based criteria of ABET EC 2000 have providednew opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and integration of H&SS (in their case,communication content specifically) approaches into engineering education.5As a counterpoint, Seron and Silbey highlight difficulties for innovative engineering educationinitiatives to align with the instrumentality of ABET requirements.6 Studying efforts at FranklinL. Olin College of Engineering and Smith College’s Picker Engineering Program, Seron

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division Poster Session

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steve E. Watkins, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Les Kinsler, Kansas State University, Salina; Julia L. Morse, Kansas State University, Salina; Doug Carroll, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

provide important technical and communication experiences forundergraduate and graduate students. Senior capstone, thesis, design, and other project activitiesare means to develop teamwork and communication skills. ABET student outcomes reflect thesecritical skills [1] and experiences applying soft skills in the context of project work are valuable.The process of documenting a project and presenting the results enhances one’s technicalunderstanding in ways that students do not often appreciate. Technical poster presentations area common communication mode in which effective delivery depends heavily on succinctexpression, audience analysis, and visual design. Much of the literature related to posterpresentations deals with course-level poster

Conference Session

Socially Responsible Engineering II: Pedagogy, Teamwork, and Student Experiences

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Michael D. Gross, Wake Forest University; Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon, Wake Forest University; Michael Lamb, Wake Forest University ; Olga Pierrakos, Wake Forest University ; Adetoun Yeaman, Wake Forest University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

the most widelyused assessments to measure team effectiveness in engineering courses, includes five categories:(1) “contributing to the team’s work”; (2) “interacting with teammates”; (3) “keeping the teamon track”; (4) “expecting quality”; and (5) “having relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities” [12].Others argue that sharing a common goal or purpose is also important for team members [13],[14]. These approaches align with describing teamwork as a performance skill, often referred toas a soft skill or a social skill [15], [16], [17], [18]. Regardless of the modifier, teamwork isapproached as a skill.At Wake Forest University, the Department of Engineering has partnered with the Program onLeadership and Character to infuse character

Conference Session

Social Justice: Pedagogy, Curricular Reform, and Activism

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Rachel Koh, Smith College; Jenn Stroud Rossmann, Lafayette College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

“soft” skills, and the high social status resulting from the challenging and expensive trainingrequired for the position – may be related to the moral superiority associated with historicalpresentism. Presentism is a tendency to view now as the most progressive, advanced momentrelative to a primitive, morally technologically inferior past, and to judge those in the past bycontemporary standards, and to neglect consideration of history (e.g. [42]). Some scholars havefound political motives in presentism (e.g. as “implicit Cold Warriors who saw history, in part, asa vehicle in the fight against radicalism at home and abroad” in [43]).The rigidity of engineering education may also contribute to a pattern of systemic exclusion.Forbes, et al., [44

Conference Session

Ethics, Mindfulness, and Reform During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Shahrima Maharubin, Texas Tech University; Shamsul Arefeen, Texas Tech University; Ryan C. Campbell, Texas Tech University; Roman Taraban, Texas Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Conference Session

Assessment and Liberal Education

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Caitlin Donahue Wylie, University of Virginia; Kathryn A. Neeley, University of Virginia; Toluwalogo Odumosu, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

education can be made more relevant tosocietal needs in the new millennium” (Parrish in Ollis, Neeley, and Luegenbiehl, 2004, p. 15).While these goals provided the energy behind the vision of EC2000, there was no clear logicalbridge between the vision and the discrete outcomes, nor between the various outcomes. Another challenge was posed by the language of “soft skills” (vs. “hard skills”) and themental model underlying it. Some of the most tangible evidence of the progress achieved in thelast 15 years is that the language of “professional skills” has become pervasive if not universal inthe literature on engineering education. Although most conversations assume a distinctionbetween “technical” and “non-technical” (or professional skills

Conference Session

Innovation and Reflection

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Scott A. Newbolds P.E., Benedictine College; Patrick F. O'Malley, Benedictine College; Meredith Stoops, Benedictine College

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

critical reflections in engineering education effective in assessinglearning outcomes? During this investigation, two additional topics of relevance emerged: c)Factors that contribute to successful implementation of reflection and d) The recognition of theneed for further research on reflection.a) Critical Reflections and Achieving Learning OutcomesThe literature reviewed indicated that educators sought diverse learning outcomes through use ofreflection, with many focusing on the development of skills beyond strict technical abilities, suchas teamwork [9][10]. It is interesting to note, however, that reflection upon these “soft” skills ormore consistent reflection over the duration of the project was, in some cases, associated withresults linked

Conference Session

Teaching Communication II

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nabila A. Bousaba, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; James M. Conrad, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Jean L. Coco, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Mehdi Miri, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Robert W. Cox, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

feedback over the course of the three-year design sequence. The junior designprofessor reported that “prior to this process, I viewed the teaching of such ‘soft skills assomewhat difficult and that the ability to master them was something that would come naturallyto the more ambitious students who were driven to succeed. I now feel that such skills cannot betaught effectively without some mechanism for self-reflection.”Currently, we are drawing up plans to integrate scaffolded oral communication assignments,beginning with sophomore design. To link the project to professional workplace readiness, thedesign faculty has continued the current practice of asking a panel of local engineers to evaluatethe students’ final presentations in the senior

Conference Session

Rethinking Engineering Writing

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brad Jerald Henderson, University of California, Davis

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Paper ID #8159”Doing Engineering in the School of Letters & Science: Adding a Manufac-turing Line Design Project to a Writing Program Class for Engineers”Mr. Brad Jerald Henderson, University of California, Davis Brad Henderson is a faculty in writing for the University Writing Program (UWP) at University of Cali- fornia, Davis. Henderson holds a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Cal Poly State University SLO and a Masters in Professional Writing (MPW) from USC. Currently focusing his career on engineer- ing writing and soft-skill education, he has worked as an engineer and engineering educator for Parker

Conference Session

Undergraduate Peer Educators: Mentoring, Observing, Learning

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chandra Anne Turpen, University of Maryland, College Park; Ayush Gupta, University of Maryland, College Park; Jennifer Radoff, University of Maryland, College Park; Andrew Elby, University of Maryland, College Park; Hannah Sabo; Gina Marie Quan, University of Maryland, College Park

Tagged Topics

ASEE Board of Directors, Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

private profit-oriented organizations and on industrial,commercial, and military problems.” (Riley, p. 40), (5) Narrow Technical Focus/Lack of Otherskills, and (6) Uncritical Acceptance of Authority. These mindsets characterize part of thebroader culture of engineering and manifest themselves in the ways that engineering work isorganized: from the reduction of a complex project into a set of smaller components, valuingaccountability of work and success on project components, often hierarchical organization inteams, valuing technical skills over “soft” skills such as collaboration and communication, andthe devaluing of engineering work focused on social welfare

Conference Session

Pedagogies of Making and Design

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Geetanjali R. Date, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research; Sanjay Chandrasekharan, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

courses in Sustainability, Humanitiesand Social Sciences, Ethics, as well as soft skills such as writing, communication and teamwork.7,8,9 Strategies for pedagogical reforms included cornerstone and capstone courses, projectand problem-based learning, active participatory learning opportunities, instructionallaboratories, learning a second language, and foreign country internships.10,11,12,13Nevertheless, most engineering education programs continue to emphasize the technical aspects,while the social and environmental aspects remain externalized.14 Barbara Olds15 notes that “theeducation of science and engineering students has for too long been merely “technical”, oftenneglecting human complexity in order to achieve quantifiable correctness

Conference Session

Integrating Liberal Education and Engineering

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mehmet Vurkac, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

, … the testing of hypotheses, and … the risk of failure” (Ibid.). He givesexamples of art-class projects that are almost identical to undergraduate engineering challengeslike the concrete canoe.The existence of problem-solving in arts curricula is also attested to in Glass et al.’s 2013 articleon Universal Design for Learning24 which discusses the contributions of an arts education tosuch engineering-critical soft skills as “the ability to respond to variability”25, “finding patternsand connections, drawing inferences, … solving problems”26, and being able to generate amultitude of ideas27. These claims are echoed by Louisiana Tech’s Gullat who argues for the roleof an arts education in making students positively disposed to dealing with

Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Technical Session Session 10

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathryn A. Neeley, University of Virginia

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society