Education, 2023Beyond Uncritical Blindness: How critical praxis about engineering for community development could lead to socially responsible and just projectsAbstractThis paper explores how using concepts and frameworks from Science and Technology Studies(STS) to think and practice critically about engineering for community development (ECD) is anecessary precondition and preparation if engineering educators hope to instill sociallyresponsible behavior in our students and social justice in their community projects. With thesignificant surge of community engagement projects in US engineering programs, there is agrowing need for developing critical lenses for engineering students involved in communitydevelopment, so
of work being maintained. Following the theoreticalframework of an Activity System [16], we organized our analyses based on the components of anactivity system and conducted a thematic analysis of each component—Subjects, Objectives,Tools, Rules, Communities, and Division of Labor (see Figure 2).Subjects of the Study. Participants described occupational and organizational roles and positionsin various activity systems in the organization. We identified two categories of subjects—individual roles and teams/groups. Within those categories we identified five subcategories ofindividuals: engineers (structural, design, plant), systems operator, supervisor of engineeringteams, construction site coordinators (CSC), and project managers (PM). In
student success; and (c) cultivate more ethical future scientists and engineers by blending social, political and technological spheres. She prioritizes working on projects that seek to share power with students and orient to stu- dents as partners in educational transformation. She pursues projects that aim to advance social justice in undergraduate STEM programs and she makes these struggles for change a direct focus of her research.Devyn Elizabeth ShaferDr. Brianne Gutmann, San Jos´e State University Brianne Gutmann (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at San Jos´e State University. She does physics education research with expertise in adaptive online learning tools, identity-responsive mentoring and community
, equity, andinclusion issue directly and individually to give the best chance at leveling the opportunities foreveryone.The Climate Survey Report for a survey conducted in 2021 and published in 2022 in our Schoolof Engineering calls on members to “Seek out opportunities … to educate yourself about theexperiences of people with backgrounds and experiences different from your own, particularlygroups who are marginalized in engineering,” and for faculty to “Bring diverse perspectives toclass through the examples you use, the practicing engineers and projects you highlight and byallowing students some flexibility in helping you identify some of these examples and topics forreal-life applications of course material” [8]. This project was designed to
intersection of science and/or technology in society, and the theme for our work is “what is good engineering and science.”This is an excerpt from an email that two authors of this paper, Elizabeth Reddy and MarieStettler Kleine, sent out in the summer of 2022. We were excited for the opportunity to invite ourcolleagues to join us in the project of interdisciplinary engineering education, informed byScience and Technology Studies (or STS). This project was an opportunity to stage playfulworkshops and facilitate conversations we did not often get to have, all designed to stimulateinterdisciplinary reflections on what we do and why we do it. We were informed by theories of“trading zones” from STS and theories of the classroom drawn from
projects. Future efforts focuson more consistently scaffolding writing throughout the full materials science program andengaging a larger set of faculty around these areas. The paper will share findings of how theseefforts have supported student learning and explore how faculty can address areas that still needsupport. Overall, this collaboration has not only allowed the materials science program to fullymeet ABET outcomes but also understand the ways communication support enables graduates todevelop engineering identities and move into the next phase with the skills they need to besuccessful.IntroductionDriven by ABET Student Outcomes and industry needs, engineering programs aim to providestudents the opportunity to develop communication and
National Science Foundation projects in the engineering education realm, researching engineering career trajectories, student motivation, and learning. Sreyoshi has been recognized as a Fellow at the Academy for Teaching Excellence at Virginia Tech (VTGrATE) and a Fellow at the Global Perspectives Program (GPP) and was inducted to the Yale Bouchet Honor Society during her time at Virginia Tech. She has also been honored as an Engaged Ad- vocate in 2022 and an Emerging Leader in Technology (New ELiTE) in 2021 by the Society of Women Engineers. Views expressed in this paper are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those of organizations she is associated with. Learn more about Sreyoshi’s impact
-called Western countries as a reference point to emulate. And the governments had heavilyrelied on human resources trained in Western countries, in particular the United States, whoserved as the main engine of production and dissemination of advanced scientific knowledgeand technology (Choi 1999). ICT fields from infrastructure to human resources were a focusof development policy for the future (Ko and Kang 2014). Viewing that the IT infrastructure,the industry, and human resources had had a tremendous success in terms of quantitativeexpansion, in 2010 the government launched a project to cultivate “IT Elites” or “IT Talents”at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It was a 10-year-long educational program aimed atcultivating global leaders in
East region and examines the initial impact of the team’sreorganization of a required Technical Professional Writing course on engineering students'educational experience as they learn effective and relevant professional communication skills inthe field of engineering; as they network with mentors from various industries; and as they trainto be effective writers and competitive candidates in their engineering fields.We hypothesize that the significant collaboration between English and Engineering faculty indeveloping assignments, providing feedback to students throughout their projects, and assessingstudents’ final products, as well as the partnership with various partner industries, considerablyimproves our students’ writing journey at TAMUQ
level is not, in and of itself novel. A simple Google Scholar search willgenerate over 24,000 citations elaborating upon such efforts. Peer-reviewed research on thistopic can be summarized into categories of innovation and specialized project development -including industry involvement (Goldberg, Cariapa, Corliss, et. al., 2014); professionalpreparation, and attribute/competency development (Hotaling, Fasse, Bost, et. al., 2012); andcapstone best-practices, pedagogy and assessment approaches (Newell, Doty, & Klein, 1990;Behdinan, Pop-Iliev, & Foster, 2014). Noticeably, however, the presence of recent innovativescholarship in this area appears scant.Looking back however to 1990, Newell, Doty, and Klein suggested that anecdotally, there
through language and behavior rather than biological markers[21]. Central to social constructionist approaches is the notion that the experience and expressionof emotion are dependent on cultural norms and are therefore not universal. In the past twodecades, there has been growing research in education using social constructionism. However,the aforementioned review of literature on emotions in engineering education indicates a lack ofstudies with a cultural and sociological focus, and the authors call for broader engagement withsocio-cultural perspectives in engineering education [13].MethodsProject ContextThe present study is part of a larger project that is exploring macroethical development in civiland architectural engineering among
research involves examining different types of homework problems in undergraduate engineering science courses, the intersection of affect and engineering identity, and improving the teaching of engineering courses.Courtney Burris ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2023 Addressing Engineers and Stakeholders Social and Institutional Power in a Human-Centered Design Capstone CourseIntroductionAs trained professionals, engineers have well recognized areas of expertise. Such expertise oftentranslates into expert power in their professional practice. Expert power can be defined as theability to influence other people, decision-making, and project planning and/or project outcomesbased on the
Engineering & Society, University of Virginia. Before joining UVA. she was a research fellow at National Institutes of Health, and worked for Drexel University as assistant research professor.Dr. Jongmin Lee, University of Science and TechnologyDr. Sean Michael Ferguson, CSUCI This paper is a joint project of Drs. Sean Ferguson, Sharon Ku, Jongmin Lee, and our amazing RA Yixiang Sun. Sean Ferguson was Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering and Society’s Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Program at the University of Virginia from 2014-2022. He currently has been working with a team at NYCU in Taiwan and UST in Korea to run a global virtual classroom. In addition, with collaborators at California State
University of Virginia. He is the principal investigator at University of Virginia on the ’4C Project’ on Cultivating Cultures of Ethical STEM education with col- leagues from Notre Dame, Xavier University and St. Mary’s College. His research focuses on wicked problems that arise at the intersection of society and technology. Rider holds a Ph.D. in Sustainability from Arizona State University, and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Harvard Uni- versity and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from University of New Hampshire. Before earning his doctorate, he has worked for a decade in consulting and emergency response for Triumvirate Environmental Inc.Andrew LiRebecca Jun, University of Virginia
inequities in student success; and (c) cultivate more ethical future scientists and engineers by blending social, political and technological spheres. She prioritizes working on projects that seek to share power with students and orient to stu- dents as partners in educational transformation. She pursues projects that aim to advance social justice in undergraduate STEM programs and she makes these struggles for change a direct focus of her research.Dr. David Tomblin, University of Maryland, College Park David is the director of the Science, Technology and Society program at the University of Maryland, Col- lege Park. He works with STEM majors on the ethical and social dimensions of science and technology. David also does
to toxic silica dust, amineral that slices the lung like shards of glass” (Lancianese, 2019, par. 5). The National ParkServices cite 764 as the death toll, in which the majority of these deaths were Black men (NPS,n.d.). Following congressional hearings and the public outcry about the working conditions atGauley Bridge, the Walsh Healy Act was passed in 1936, which was the first federal governmentintervention in worker safety and health (Bingham, 1980). This act only applied to contractorsworking on government-funded projects, which stipulated minimum wages, overtime wages, andsome health and safety requirements. Part of the act was to mandate the use of respirators,another way to shift the responsibility from the company to the workers
Society (STS) joined forces with the Chair of the Engineering Department atLoyola University Maryland (LUM) to radically transform the university’s introductoryengineering course. The former contributor arrived at the project having spent several yearsexperimenting in the classroom with various pedagogical strategies intended to historicize forengineering students the political, social, and economic context in which they (and those whocame before them) have lived, learned, and worked. That the complementary interests and skillsof a recent STS PhD and a seasoned Electrical Engineer would converge on the same problem(i.e., How to place engineering in context?) and at the same moment in time (i.e., mid-2022) maybe fortuitous. More likely, though, it
unfamiliar organizational context and negotiatereal world engineering projects with escalating complexities and uncertainties. Career resilienceplays an important role in early career engineers’ identify transition from students to professionals,yet current literature examining the career resilience of engineers is rather limited, and the samplesof resilience studies were largely confined to engineers in North America. Based on interviewswith 16 early career engineers in China, this paper presents a grounded theory analysis of thedevelopment of career resilience for recent engineering graduates at the workplace. The studyfound that perceived mini-crises, supporting resources, and positive adaptation are the threeladders of career resilience for
positive impacts of diverse thinking in STEM and how to negotiatediversity to the benefit of a team, project, or product. The same students may then be instructedto use number-based peer-assessment tools that compare team member task completion to thedetails of the team contract. The expectation is that such assessment will address team discord,despite the students never being expressly taught about conflict types, resolution strategies, orthe constructive aspects of well-managed conflict in communication and team settings. Such anapproach invites well-organized complaining based on a narrowly structured and poorlyunderstood team contract from students who may have little to no understanding of or patiencefor perspectives and ways of being that
’ perception of Community Engaged Learning pedagogy in 2020 at North Dakota State University. Over my final undergraduate years, I created a Humanitarian Engineering lab on OSU’s campus. The lab served over 125 students when I graduated in May 2022. I currently attend Colorado School of Mines to study Humanitarian Engineering and Science. At Mines, I am a teaching assistant for the Engineering With Community Design Studio. It consists of eight capstone projects applying engineering for social good. After Mines, I want to become a lecturer for general engineering courses and Humanitarian Engineering.Dr. Dean Nieusma, Colorado School of Mines Dean Nieusma is Department Head of Engineering, Design, and Society at Colorado
ofNorthern California) but now is part of a nationally coordinated effort (through NCSEA,National Council of Structural Engineers Associations) with many chapters in many differentstates. To learn more about this work and to glimpse the strengths and weaknesses of theinitiative, I interviewed past and current leaders of SE3 from SEAONC, reviewed materialsavailable on their website, and looked at some internal resources that were shared with me. Iinterviewed ten people between April 2022 and August 2022 via zoom. I have kept theirquotations anonymous and sent a draft for their review, to be sure that no unwanted identifyingmarkers remained. Prior to this work, I contacted the UCLA Institutional Board of Review aboutthis project, explained my research
(HDSTEM) curriculum uses a humanities format as a context todiscuss science and engineering advancement. The foundation of an HDSTEM curriculum is thatit would reassert the importance of humans and human impact in science and engineering, whilerecognizing the social, political, and cultural catalysts and outcomes of technological innovation.Therefore, we hypothesize that through an HDSTEM curriculum, students will not only developtechnically accurate solutions to problems posed in an engineering curriculum but will alsoquestion their ideas' impact on society. For this project, we draw on the case of an HDSTEMcourse, “World War II and Technology,” taught at Texas Tech University (TTU) and RochesterInstitute of Technology (RIT). Specifically, we
professors at Triune University, developed an introductorymechanical engineering design course that attempted to integrate themes from Frankenstein intorobot design projects [3]. The principle aim of the course was to provide a vehicle for students“to experiment with connecting engineering and the humanities” [3]. To facilitate thisconnection, students were tasked to develop designs for robots that related to themes in MaryShelley’s Frankenstein. As they read the novel, students reflected on certain passages theythought could serve as thematic inspiration for robot design concepts. In their reflections,students included a sketch of the concept design along with an explanation of its connection to aparticular theme in the novel. After analyzing the
learned here in Fairbanks] to those buildings out there.After this successful building project, stories about the affordability and efficacy of theintegrated truss system spread. By the time we began collecting data on housing issues inNorthern Alaska, over 20 homes had been built in the region using the method. Stories andidiomatic references to the system emerged early in our research, and most emphasized the valueof this system, including how it might be extended to other settings. One plan was to develop anintegrated truss plant in Bethel, a hub community for the larger Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region(YK Delta) in western Alaska.Example 2: Economic revitalizationThe plan to develop integrated truss manufacturing in the center of the YK
, whicharguably have more daily use than their calculus or physics skills which might not appear to have as muchuse in daily life. Reflection.The next idea that was covered was reflection. The individuals that chose to shareabout this idea had fairly similar comments. Reflection gave people time to think about “how am Ipositively contributing to society and how can I use engineering to positively contribute to society(Skipping Orange).” An example of the most notable projects being a wind turbine project that was givenas an assignment in a reflection session and again during a class. In the first case, students were asked todetermine which areas on a plot would be the most ethical to place an anchor to not disturb thecommunity, and then the second
. Sociotechnical thinking inengineering is discussed using a range of lenses and approaches within engineering education, andI will attempt to synthesize some of the cutting-edge research.One major effort has been out of the Colorado School of Mines. Here, researchers explored a widerange of factors related to sociotechnical thinking in undergraduate engineering programs. Theyexamined the perceptions and experiences of both students and faculty regarding sociotechnicalintegration and its impact on sociotechnical habits of mind [2], [12]–[14]. This work wasconducted across a range of engineering curricular settings which included design as well asengineering science courses. One of their major research projects entails exploring student andfaculty
/technical dualism have included revising stand-alone ethicscourses and adding more social components to previously purely technical courses, such asdesign courses [6-9].Research in this space is still identifying what to expect of students and how to support deeperengagement in sociotechnical topics. This is being investigated through, for example, analyzingstudent interviews and focus groups [10-13], in class whole-group discussion [7, 14], andstudents’ written work [15]. Here, we build on this research base by looking at small group in-class discussions.This study is part of an NSF-funded research project to implement and study integratingsociotechnical components throughout a first-year computing for engineers course. In oneiteration of the
important mechanism of cultural reproduction inengineering education is what education scholars call “the hidden curriculum”, which can bedefined as “the set of structured learning experiences or conditions that occur beyond designintent and apart from the explicit curriculum” [1]. Engineering education scholars have exploreddifferent ways the hidden curriculum manifests and impacts student experiences [2] [3], givingspecial attention to impacts on underrepresented and marginalized student groups [4] [5].This paper derives from a larger project exploring cultural reproduction in engineering with afocus on how engineering students and recent graduates think about individual and professionalethics [6]. That project has considered some of the
Paper ID #39174Applying STS to Engineering Education: A Comparative Study of STS Mi-norsProf. MC Forelle, University of Virginia MC Forelle is an assistant professor, teaching track, in Engineering & Society at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science. Their work examines the intersection of law, technology, and culture, with particular interests in materiality, sustainability, and practices of resistance and change. Currently, they are developing a a book project that studies the technological challenges faced by users, tinkerers, and repair communities working to repair, maintain, and
Paper ID #39243Transgender and Nonbinary Computing and Engineering Education: AWorkshop Experience ReportStacey SextonAmanda Menier, SageFox Consulting GroupRebecca Zarch, SageFox Consulting Group Rebecca Zarch is an evaluator and a director of SageFox Consulting Group. She has spent almost 20 years evaluating and researching STEM education projects from K-12 through graduate programs. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2023 Transgender and Nonbinary Computing and Engineering Education: A Workshop Experience ReportExisting gender diversity Broadening