Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nadia Kellam, University of Georgia; Joachim Walther, University of Georgia; Tracie Costantino, University of Georgia; Bonnie Cramond, University of Georgia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

AC 2010-1747: INTEGRATING THE ENGINEERING CURRICULUM THROUGHCROSSDISCIPLINARY STUDIOSNadia Kellam, University of Georgia Nadia Kellam is an Assistant Professor and engineering educational researcher in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Georgia. She is co-director of the Collaborative Lounge for Understanding Society and Technology through Educational Research (CLUSTER) research group. Her research interests include interdisciplinarity, creativity, identity formation, and the role of emotion in cognition.Joachim Walther, University of Georgia Joachim Walther is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Georgia

Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heywood, Trinity College Dublin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

teach allthe “tool” subjects without hopelessly overloading the curriculum it will be necessary toprovide some form of integration. The possibility of understanding the principle ofmutual relations would seem to be better in an integrated program than in a traditionalsubject based curriculum. The key to creating that understanding and developingreflective practice will be in the techniques of assessment that are used and the backwasheffect they have on teaching as well as learning. The model shown in exhibit 2 isintended to illustrate this fact and also to show what is possible in a short period of time.It is based on part of course that was developed for the Engineer in Society examinationof the Council of Engineering Institutions in the UK

Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cherrice Traver, Union College; J. Douglas Klein, Union College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

work on complex, multi-faceted problemsrequires increased efforts to include more breadth in both engineering and liberal education.This paper reports on one school’s pilot program to integrate engineering and liberal artseducation, motivated by the need for a technically literate citizenship, work force, and politicalleadership, fostered by providing students in technical and non-technical programs opportunitiesto communicate with one another. Rather than take the approach of an institutional mandate for a“tech lit” requirement, we present models that are small-scale, portable, and that can be grown Page 15.779.2organically with the right

Conference Session

Communication - Needs and Methods

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah Lockwood, University of Calgary; Daryl Caswell, University of Calgary; Marjan Eggermont, University of Calgary

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

the role of the communications instructor to capitalize on this manyfaceted skill set that, if properly integrated, can greatly enhance the quality, scope andrelevance to the engineering educational coursework.IntroductionCommunication is increasingly an element of engineering education. A brief survey ofthe curriculum of ten Canadian and American engineering programs1 reveals that at leastone course in communication is mandatory across the board. In the past this course was Page 15.292.2almost exclusively a university-dictated compulsory communications course, designedfor students in many disciplines. While certainly better than no communications

Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Grondin, Arizona State University; Chell Roberts, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

specialization. We requirejust above the minimum content but view the last two years of the engineering programas being centered in a primary focus area which the student selects from a menu thatcurrently consists of three choices: sustainable land development; electrical integration of Page 15.421.3engineering systems; and mechanical systems. Prior to the junior year the student doesnot need to select any particular focus inside of engineering. These foci are probablylarger than Newberry and Farison’s “short stem” but are definitely smaller than that thedisciplinary options of an instrumental program, which Newberry and Farison describe astypically closely

Conference Session

Communication - Needs and Methods

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Warren Waggenspack, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Sarah Liggett, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Warren Hull, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; David Bowles, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Stephen Sears, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Daniel Thomas, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Paige Davis, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Society for Engineering Education. June 2008.[3] Hull, W.R., Waggenspack, W.N., Bridwell-Bowles, L., Bowles, D., Choplin, T. “An Innovative Model forTeaching Communications Skills In the Engineering Curriculum” Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Conference ofthe American Society for Engineering Education. June 2009.[4] Hull, W.R., Waggenspack, W.N., Bowles, D. “Assessing the Integration of Communication into EngineeringCurricula” Proceedings of the 2007 Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education. June2007.[5] Engineering Accreditation Commission, Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs Effective forEvaluations During the 2005-2006 Accreditation Cycle, Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.,Report, Nov

Conference Session

Innovative Courses/Pedagogies in Liberal Education I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kyle Simmons, University of Utah; Susan Sample, University of Utah; April Kedrowicz, University of Utah

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona; her research interests include narrative theory in health communication.April Kedrowicz, University of Utah Dr. April A. Kedrowicz is the Director of the CLEAR (Communication, Leadership, Ethics, And Research) Program at the University of Utah, a collaboration between the College of Humanities and College of Engineering. The program was developed in 2003 through a grant from the Hewlett Foundation, with the goal of integrating communication (speaking and writing), teamwork, and ethics into the curriculum of every department in the College of Engineering. Dr. Kedrowicz’s work with Engineering began during her tenure as a

Conference Session

Normative Commitments and Public Engagement in Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Juan Lucena, Colorado School of Mines; Jen Schneider, Colorado School of Mines; Jon Leydens, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

contextual listening 1) counters biasescommon in SCD contexts, 2) fosters a community-centric approach to problem defining andsolving, and 3) integrates multiple perspectives and sectors.6. Case study: Sika Dhari’s WindmillWe researched and developed a Sustainable Community Development (SCD) projectimplemented in Sika Dhari village in western India. In this project, an engineering professorteamed up with a non-governmental organization (NGO), the US Environmental ProtectionAgency, a group of her graduate students, and others to work with the villagers of Sika Dhari indesigning and implementing a windmill. The windmill is used to generate energy for poweringflashlights in the village. Throughout this project, the engineering professor was committed

Conference Session

Innovative Courses/Pedagogies in Liberal Education I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Deborah Sinnreich-Levi, Stevens Institute of Technology; Susan Metz, Stevens Institute of Technology; David Silverstein, Stevens Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

in engineering and science through research, policy and program development. She is currently the principal investigator for ENGAGE, Engaging Students in Engineering, (www.engageengineering.org) a five year project funded by the National Science Foundation to work with 30 engineering schools to integrate research based strategies that increase retention. Susan’s work at Stevens has been recognized by the White House as a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM). She was honored by the Maria Mitchell Association with the Women in Science Award in 2002 and was named an AWIS Fellow in 2007.David Silverstein, Stevens Institute

Conference Session

Normative Commitments and Public Engagement in Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary Downey, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

himrefocus on the University’s motto, “Enter to learn, go forth to serve.” Without giving up oneconomic competitiveness as a goal for both the country and the individual student, Alanexplains that he “realized students need to place their engineering solutions within their humancontext and understand the impact engineering can make on developing countries.”39. Expanding performance measures (for sustainability engineering)—James Mihelcic I tend to pursue things that integrated my heart and personal convictions with the structure of my engineering brain. I was always willing to devote the same time to an undergraduate in need as to a doctoral student of great promise. And I was always willing to assist a small community group that

Conference Session

Liberal Education for 21st Century Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Betty Harper, Pennsylvania State University; Lisa Lattuca, Pennsylvania State University; Alexander Yin, Penn State University; Patrick Terenzini, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

prepared towork collaboratively in culturally diverse and global settings. In order to remain relevant in anevolving field, they must also be creative and innovative, imbued with an entrepreneurial spirit,and educated for leadership and life-long learning. Traditionally, the development of attributessuch as these have not been the primary goals of the undergraduate engineering curriculum,although recent changes in accreditation standards strongly encourage engineering programs tohelp students develop teamwork and lifelong learning skills.While support for what have been understood historically as liberal (or general) education goalsfuels many discussions in engineering education community, the level to which these goalscurrently permeate

Conference Session

Historical Perspectives for Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Atsushi Akera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

. Boelter rose to the position of Associate Dean by1943. The earliest proposal to offer an engineering curriculum at the Los Angeles campus datedback to 1937, but it was only in the context of war preparedness that the University of CaliforniaRegents finally authorized an engineering degree program in 1941, initially in industrialtechnology. It was through direct legislative intervention, as backed by a special appropriation aswell as through the vocal support of a UCLA alumni organization, that UC President RobertGordon Sproul was compelled to open a new College of Engineering at UCLA in 1944. Involvedin the planning process, Boelter placed himself in the candidate pool for the deanship.11Boelter is generally credited with pioneering a unified