Conference Session

Learning to Communicate with Engineers and Non-Engineers

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Leslie Potter, Iowa State University; John Jackman, Iowa State University; K. Jo Min, Iowa State University; Matthew Search, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

AC 2008-1477: A NEW ENGINEERING COMMUNICATIONS COURSE BASEDON A PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSLeslie Potter, Iowa State University Leslie Potter is a Lecturer in the department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering at Iowa State University. She has extensive professional engineering experience, including seven years with Deere & Company in various engineering and supervision capacities. She received her M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Penn State University prior to joining the IMSE department at ISU. She is currently teaching her eighth year of the IE capstone design course. Her research interests include capstone design course effectiveness, engineering and

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

(PDI) program was initiated in 1999 in an effort to integrate engineering, STS, andarts/architecture pedagogy within a single program. PDI students typically receive a dual-degree(usually in STS and engineering), and the curriculum is built upon a foundation ofinterdisciplinary design studios, where technical, social, and aesthetic concerns are dealt withsimultaneously by faculty representing disciplines in engineering, STS, and arts/architecture.The paper reviews the PDI curricular structure as well as pedagogical experimentationsurrounding PDI studios, highlighting the role of theoretical contributions from STS and howthese are integrated into product design pedagogy. While the PDI program has been remarkablysuccessful in attracting students

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

support teaching and learning within engineering. Page 11.581.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Engineering, Social Justice and Peace: A Revolution of the HeartAbstractThe Engineering, Social Justice and Peace effort, begun at Queens University by a groupof concerned academics from across Canada and the United States in the fall 2004,focuses upon the connections that exist among engineering and the pursuit of socialjustice and peace. Several conferences of interested faculty and practitioners have beenheld subsequently. The present work offers a new paradigm for engineering educationbased on the Integral Model

Conference Session

Critical Thinking and Creative Arts

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Beth Todd, University of Alabama; Garry Warren, University of Alabama; Susan Burkett, University of Alabama; David Cordes, University of Alabama; Marcus Brown, University of Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

primaryreasons for the existence of this group. At the same time, faculty members and engineeringprograms can use our reading group to assess ABET criterion 3, outcome j, a knowledge ofcontemporary issues, by making assignments that involve attending and discussing a news articlewith the group. The ability to measure this type of knowledge gain is important. In 2007, astudy involving a small number of senior students in eight different engineering programs foundstudents to be relatively unaware of contemporary issues in their field and unaware of currentglobal concerns 1. Their ability to communicate and participate in discussion without eitherdominating or withdrawing was also a problem.Faculty members are addressing measurement of knowledge of

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Endeavor

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph Herkert, Arizona State University Polytechnic; Jameson Wetmore, Arizona State University; Heather Canary, Arizona State University Polytechnic; Karin Ellison, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

implications of emerging technologies, on the other hand, generally fall within therealm of macroethics. “Microethics” refers to moral dilemmas and issues confronting individualresearchers or practitioners, whereas “macroethics” refers to moral dilemmas and issues thatcollectively confront the scientific enterprise or the engineering profession, as well as societaldecisions about science and technology7. Microethical issues in engineering practice includesuch topics as health & safety and bribes & gifts, while macroethical issues include such topicsas sustainable development and privacy concerns posed by emerging information andcommunication technologies. Similarly, microethical issues in scientific research include, forexample, research

Conference Session

Questions of Identity

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mike Graham, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Amy Wendt, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Paul Peercy, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Patrick Farrell, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jay Martin, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Sarah Pfatteicher, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Jeffrey Russell, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

different in 2010 and beyond. While we havebeen responsive to, and the subject of, events and forces requiring change in the past, it appearsthat now a variety of factors will truly change the way that engineering education is carried in theUnited States in the future (cf. The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Centuryand Retooling.) The key questions for us then become “How will the faculty, staff, and studentsof the College of Engineering (COE) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison respond to currentchallenges such as changes in demographics, scarce resources and globalization?” and “Will thecollege make the optimum use of the available people, skills, and resources to not only meetthese challenges, but at the same time, become

Conference Session

Philosophy of Engineering Education: Epistemology and Ethics

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Valenzuela, University of Evansville; James Allen, University of Evansville; Brian Swenty, University of Evansville

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

responsibility. However, the survey of programsreveals other underlying issues that engineering programs may wish to consider as they provideinput into the general education programs of their respective institutions, including globalismand diversity, the interconnectedness of learning areas, and attitudes for life-long learning. Theresults of the survey are examined in light of two perspectives, one from outside the profession(Association of American Colleges and Universities, College Learning for a New GlobalCentury) and another from inside the profession (American Society of Civil Engineers, CivilEngineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century, 2nd edition, Draft 8).IntroductionIn the 2006-2007 academic year, the University of Evansville, under the

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

AC 2010-633: INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERING AND THE LIBERAL ARTS: ATWO-WAY STREETCherrice Traver, Union College Cherrice Traver received her BS in Physics from the State University of New York at Albany in 1982 and her PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 1988. She has been a faculty member at Union College in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department since 1986, and has been the Dean of Engineering since 2005. Recently Dr. Traver has been involved in initiatives at the interface of engineering and the liberal arts. She has led two national symposia on Engineering and Liberal Education at Union College and she was General Chair for the 2008 Frontiers

Conference Session

Historical Perspectives for Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Atsushi Akera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

remained a difficult change foran established college was significantly easier to accomplish in a school built from scratch. Italso helped that aviation firms, for technical reasons13 as well as for reasons of a desperate labormarket, were willing to hire any and all engineers and offer them specialized training at “fullpay” on company time, as stated in the Lockheed ad. There was also the explicit expectation thatBoelter would develop a program complementary to the one at Berkeley. Finally, Boelter had nochoice but to begin with a single, unified curriculum. With but a limited appropriation, whichprovided no money for new buildings, Boelter opened the doors to his college in August 1945with a small handful of faculty and but 25 students. During

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

studyand a coherent curriculum. Educators debated the role of general education and its propercontent, as well as the goals of academic specialization.14, 15 By 1945, a blue-ribbon committeeof the Harvard faculty issued a report calling for a balance between general and specializededucation. Known as the “Harvard Redbook,”16 the report defined general education not as“some airy education in knowledge in general” but as “that part of a student’s whole educationwhich looks first of all to his life as a responsible human being and citizen” (p. 51). The Page 15.844.5complement to general education was specialization, what we think of today as the major

Conference Session

Normative Commitments and Public Engagement in Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Erin Cech, University of California, San Diego

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

uncertainty.16Professional socialization is the process by which students learn and adapt to a new culture thatinvolves comfort in working effectively with social uncertainty, and, in accordance with formaland informal codes of ethics, recognition that one has a broader set of responsibilities tosociety.16, 17, 13 Emersion in a professional culture involves learning and inculcating a “web ofvalues, norms, rules, beliefs, and taken-for-granted assumptions” which helps students todevelop the “habits of mind” of a committed professional.18 Through classes, internships,research with faculty, summer jobs, assignments, involvement in student chapters of professionalorganizations, hall talk and friendships, students are transformed into a “professional” as

Conference Session

Writing Is Fundamental

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Murali Krishnamurthi, Northern Illinois University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

integrate writing assignments effectively into engineeringcourses. Wheeler and McDonald17 state that “engineering faculty members have a common“discomfort with their ability to assign, and especially evaluate prose” as many engineering Page 14.1042.2faculty members may feel that it is the responsibility of the English department to teach studentswriting. Another legitimate concern of faculty members is the time required for developing,assigning and evaluating writing assignments. Engineering students also have some unique needsand issues when it comes to effective writing. Many engineering student may view writing as a“flat representation of facts

Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carole Goodson, University of Houston; Susan Miertschin, University of Houston; Barbara Stewart, University of Houston; Luces Faulkenberry, University of Houston; Curtis Johnson, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

social science with instruction in and experience with technology built in. The othertwo courses presented are technical courses which also present impact and context issues withrespect to culture and society. The faculty involved plan to follow through with more formalstudy of the success of the four courses in meeting the goal of technological literacy.Bibliography1. Pearson, G. P. and Young, A. T., Eds. Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More aboutTechnology (2002) National Academy of Sciences.2. Technological Literacy for All: A Rationale and Structure for the Study of Technology 2nd Ed (2006)International Technology Education Association.3. Wendt, A., Martin, J., Russell, J., Graham, M. Farrell, P., Peercy, P., Pfatteicher

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

-op, even as an unpaid volunteer, with SCD-related institutions such as Water for People (WFP), International Development Enterprises (IDE), or Mercy Corps. Make sure that the organization you are volunteering with has an institutionalized program to recruit, train and mentor volunteers so as not to become a burden to the organization.≠ Develop and enhance your ability to listen beyond basic listening.For faculty involved in SCD-related program, courses or initiatives, we recommend to≠ Use our book early in design engineering education, preferably in introductory design courses, so students have time to assimilate the questions and issues that we raise about senior design.≠ Consider using specific chapters for specific

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II: Practical Perspectives on Teaching and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kathleen Jernquist, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; David Godfrey, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Todd Taylor, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

upper-level technical writing; it orients new faculty to institutional writing conventions; and itclarifies expectations for engineering writing among students, faculty and the existing pool ofcross-disciplinary writing center tutors.Institutions with similar academic scheduling and faculty constraints as USCGA could use asimilar approach to solve their concerns with technical writing. First, by developing a Page 12.486.11relationship with the writing center, the instructors can improve their own writing pedagogy and,as a result, their students’ writing skills. Encouraging, and even requiring, students to use thewriting center will help the

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna Riley, Smith College

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

Page 13.570.5engineering that integrate a variety of ethical considerations that mean to address critiquesencountered throughout the course. Forms of resistance including dissent of individualexperts41,42, collective dissent of professional societies43, and citizen action44. New visions ofdoing and teaching science in response to macroethical concerns are presented45-49, along withdiscussions of teaching and doing engineering in ways that promote peace and social justice 50-52.Challenges posed by the content. It may be apparent that at least some of the readings presentedhere, particularly those that draw either on philosophy or critical theory (or both), may be quitechallenging for engineering students. If this material is important to their

Conference Session

Blurring the Boundary between Content Knowledge and Professional Knowledge

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Verna Fitzsimmons, Kent State University - Kent; Stephane Booth, Kent State University - Kent

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

intentional models throughout theirlearning experiences. Faculty cannot assume that somehow students know how to takeall the elements (skills, information, and knowledge) of their academic experience andintuitively know how and when to use the relevant pieces.The opportunity to teach this course in the manner described did not provide a clearanswer to the questions initially posed but it does provide a basis for further discussions.In other words, it posed more questions. As it turns out these are the same questions thatthis university will be grappling with during the next year. Under a new president andprovost the university will undertake a university-wide discussion on the philosophy ofan undergraduate education and the impact of that definition

Conference Session

Beyond Individual Ethics: Engineering in Context

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kristyn Masters, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Sarah Pfatteicher, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

ethical discussions andproblem-solving activities into their courses, there are many challenges to doing so, including: 1) the difficulty of finding out the ‘best’ ways to teach these topics and subsequent development of new course materials 2) the need expressed by engineering faculty for instructional modules to have quantifiable, measurable outcomes 3) instructor hesitancy to teach about issues in which they may have little or no training 4) already-packed syllabi that allow little room for introduction of new (and non-technical) topics 5) the challenge of identifying relevant and appropriately scaled case studies.To be successful in incorporating ethics across the entire engineering curriculum, it is

Conference Session

Liberal Education Division Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Walsh, California Polytechnic State University; Stacey Breitenbach, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

in a way limited by physical constraints, the otherlimited only by imagination.VisionThe vision for developing this new program was twofold, and grew from the challenges facingengineering education outlined above. There was a need perceived for educating a newgeneration of students whose educational preparation was unlike that of existing disciplines. Itwould vary from existing engineering programs, science programs and liberal arts programs, andprovide a hybrid that integrates ethics, societal issues, humanities and policy with science andengineering in a broader context. This was seen as a vehicle to address the issues of recruitment, Page

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary and Liberal Education

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Martello, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering; Jonathan Stolk, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

to benefit student learning and retention, some students complain thatintegrated schemes driven by the grouping of related technical content do not always placedisciplinary knowledge in context.25,26One possible solution to the lack of context in integrated technical curricula is the explicitintegration of humanities and social science topics. Calls for engineering education reformclearly identify the need for increased consideration of social, economic, political, andenvironmental factors.1,2,27 Atman and Nair report that first-year engineering students haveweak conceptual frameworks on science, technology, and society issues;28 and Vanderburg andKahn express deep concern over the lack of context in engineering curricula.29 Several

Conference Session

Tree-huggers, Diggers, and Queers--Oh my!

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

: In December 2008 a new minor in Sustainability Studies was approved to beoffered by the STS Department at Rensselaer starting in the Fall semester of 2009. Despite someinitial concerns regarding the name of the minor (after all, no single discipline “owns” Page 14.1386.8sustainability), the minor proposal succeeded in winning Institute approval. The new minor wasmotivated by several converging factors, including the recent hiring of STS faculty with researchagenda that included sustainability and the desire by sponsoring faculty 1) to promoteenvironmental awareness among students, 2) to bring STS analytic tools to more

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary and Liberal Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hilkat Soysal, Frostburg State University; Oguz Soysal, Frostburg State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

the scientificreasoning skill and technological literacy of students in all majors.In Frostburg State University an interdisciplinary course titled “Science Technology andSociety (IDIS 160)” was developed with the motivation of the Undergraduate EducationInitiative (UEI) [1] approved by the Faculty Senate in February 2005. IDIS 160 isdesigned as a pilot freshman course for mainly non-science/engineering majors to meetthe new general education requirements.The main purpose of the course is to introduce the “models of research, the developmentof science and technology, and the application and subsequent impact of thedevelopments on society and the environment.” The course goal is consistent with theFSU general education program, which

Conference Session

Writing and Communication I: Innovative Models for Curriculum and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marie Paretti, Virginia Tech; Lisa McNair, Virginia Tech; Diana George, Virginia Tech; kelly belanger, Virginia Tech; Lisa Norris, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

student development, oftenin collaboration with communication faculty in English departments, Writing-Across-the-Curriculum programs, and centers housed within engineering colleges themselves.What many of these same efforts lack, however, is an approach to communication informed byresearch on how students learn to write, and particularly on the metacognitive rhetorical skillsstudents need to transfer their experiences from one context to the communication challenges ofa new situation. In a 2004 article in the International Journal of Engineering Education, CarolBoiarsky outlined the metacognitive knowledge engineering students need to ground their

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

AC 2010-949: DEVELOPMENT OF PERSPECTIVE IN A GENERALENGINEERING DEGREERobert Grondin, Arizona State UniversityChell Roberts, Arizona State University Page 15.421.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Development of Perspective in a General Engineering DegreeIntroductionIn fall of 2004, a team of faculty at Arizona State University (ASU) was tasked with thecreation of a new undergraduate engineering program for ASU’s Polytechnic Campus inMesa, Arizona. ASU already had a full suite of traditional engineering programs taughtin the Ira A Fulton Schools of Engineering on its Tempe campus. These programs alloffered a disciplinary specific degree and generally emphasized a

Conference Session

Historical Perspectives for Engineering Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rachel Maines, Cornell University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

3 The course was offered through the Women’s Studies Department; seven of the tenstudents were Women’s Studies majors and three were majoring in premedical biology. It wasclear that few of these students had previously associated health concerns with engineering, orconnected the regulation of the built environment with industrial democracies’ larger goals forthe health, welfare and self-realization of their citizens. The structure of the course wasorganized around the upward travel of responsibility for health and epidemiological issues fromthe body personal to the body politic. Much of the class discussion focused on quantification asa tool in the process of translating health policy into safety engineering. Who “counts”? Who

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

which [led] to a deep and thoughtful discussion. He was also very open to discussion and encouraged different perspectives of an issue rather than pushing the class to agree with his own personal arguments. I believe the way he led his class should be a model for how all discussions in this course are led.Many of the instructors themselves were also concerned about this tension between over- andunder-facilitating the conversation. One instructor suggested that “The less of an agenda theprofessors had, the better the class went.” Another agreed in principle but pointed out that whilean agenda-less approach might work for a class of seven to ten students, it was untenable for aclass of 15 and a couple instructors

Conference Session

Philosophy of Engineering Education: Epistemology and Ethics

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Heywood, Trinity College-Dublin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

objects in an area of inquiry are not there to be discovered but are invented or constructed.38. Bucciarelli, Louis, L (2003) Engineering Philosophy. Delft University Press, Delft, Netherlands.39. This account of Plato is greatly simplified. See Copleston, F (1946). A History of Philosophy. Burnes Oates & Washbourne, London. Paperback edition 1993, Doubleday, New York. See also Scott-Kakures, D et al (eds) (1993). History of Philosophy. Harper Collins, New York. On the particular issue i Copleston writes: “if a man is asked what justice is, and he points to imperfect embodiements of justice, particular instances which fall short of the universal ideal e.g. the action of a particular man, a particular constitution or set

Conference Session

Normative Commitments and Public Engagement in Engineering

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary Downey, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

3India, Bolivia, California, Atlanta), it also refers to movements through institutional locations(e.g., faculty member in engineering or foreign languages, education administrator, departmenthead, dean) and other relationships (e.g., collegial relations, relations with host individuals andorganizations). Producing personal geographies challenged participants to map their changing identities asthey have traveled through work and life, focusing attention on key transitions in which theyfound themselves in new relationships with unfamiliar people and things, organizations andinstitutions. I describe these transitions as “adding identities.” For the purposes of this project,the term “identities” refers simply to relationships among entities (id

Conference Session

Writing and Communication II: Practical Perspectives on Teaching and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Luke Niiler; David Beams

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

writing samples gathered inportfolios). It employs several assessment strategies (quantitative analyses of student writingsamples, quantitative analyses of written surveys, and qualitative analyses of interviewtranscripts).BackgroundThe EWI began in 2004 with the our shared sense of frustration over the quality of studentwriting skills in engineering coursework. Unprofessional language, poor grammar and spelling,badly-formatted tables, figures, and graphs, and data reported without any sense of context:these and many other problems were endemic in the UT-Tyler engineering program. Weattempted to address these concerns with the publication of a style guide,1 yet the changesbrought about by that tool were cosmetic, at best. The first year of this

Conference Session

Innovative Courses/Pedagogies in Liberal Education I

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ari Epstein, MIT; Joellen Easton, American Public Media; Rekha Murthy, Public Radio Exchange; Emily Davidson, MIT; Jennifer de Bruijn, MIT; Tracey Hayse, MIT; Elise Hens, MIT; Margaret Lloyd

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education

community and public radio stations nationwide.Student and faculty feedback on the class has been extremely positive, both in informal forumsand in formal assessments. Students report (and show) strong learning gains both in oralcommunication, as one might expect, and also in written communication and the ability toexplore in detail the broader societal context of their technical studies. Many students have usedtheir work in the class as a jumping-off point, from which they have continued their explorationof radio/audio. For example, one group of former Terrascope Radio students created and nowproduces its own weekly radio program on environmental and social issues. Others work asmentors in Terrascope Youth Radio, an outreach program in which local