Conference Session

Engineering, Engineers and Setting Public Policy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Douglas Sicker, University of Colorado at Boulder; Tom Lookabaugh, University of Colorado at Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

summarized results.Using the Zoomerang survey tool [6], 67 respondents were surveyed concerning their opinions ofthe SFTP events. These respondents were all present or former ITP students and composed awide variety of technical and non-technical backgrounds. Nearly 80% of these individuals havetechnical backgrounds (meaning undergraduate degrees in engineering, science or mathematics)and 70% have two or more years professional work experience. ITP has a strong internationalstudent body and the survey reflects this with 36% of the respondents being from abroad.Finally, the majority of those surveyed attended the SFTP events in the last 18 months.In the student interviews, we found a number of interesting issues regarding the students’perceptions of

Conference Session

Engineering, Engineers and Setting Public Policy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Haws, Boise State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

begsthe question of why there should be public hearings at all. Nietzsche, in his responsev to von Hartmann’s manipulation of Hegel’s “world-process,”agreed that ethics could not be based on any chimerical allusion to Natural Rights. But whileRousseau, Kant and Hegel posited a moral foundation in man’s historic (social) nature, and theinevitable movement toward global freedom, Nietzsche felt that an optimistic allusion to historyand “world-process” would prove similarly fruitless. He agreed that his supra-historical viewwas nihilistic, and morally debilitating, but none-the-less felt his to be the inevitable conclusionof adequate reflection (and that the inevitable chaos would be embraced by “great” men—whowould thus become noble, blonde

Conference Session

Engineering, Engineers and Setting Public Policy

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Reisel, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Tagged Divisions

Engineering and Public Policy

courselectures.Statement 8 indicates success from the project in causing the students to now give additionalthought as to how electricity is generated in the United States, as 81% of the students agreed thattheir thoughts on how electricity should be generated has changed. This is likely a reflection ofboth the students’ increased knowledge of different techniques and what they learned about theenvironmental effects, economics, and public perception of each technique.From the viewpoint of encouraging engineering students to become more involved with policyformation in their careers, the results from Statement 7 are the most apropos. The average scorefor how much the students are likely to try to be involved in public policy decisions in the futurecomes in