Bringing it down from the ivory tower: Translating Engineering-for-Community-Development (ECD) graduate student research into community engagement and undergraduate student learning

Juan Lucena; Sofia Schlezak; Emma Chapman; Mateo Rojas; Jaime Elizabeth Styer

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Community Engagement Division Technical Session 2 - Community Engagement without Frontiers
Page Count: 30
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41881
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41881
Download Count: 453

Paper Authors

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Juan Lucena Colorado School of Mines

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Dr. Juan Lucena is Professor of Engineering Studies and Director of Humanitarian Engineering Undergraduate Programs at the Colorado School of Mines. Juan has a Ph.D. in Science & Technology Studies from Virginia Tech and two engineering degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His books include Engineering & Sustainable Community Development (Morgan & Claypool, 2010), Engineering Education for Social Justice: Critical Explorations and Opportunities (Springer, 2013), and Engineering Justice: Transforming Engineering Education and Practice (IEEE-Wiley, 2017). Born in Colombia, he learned to value and learn from the poorest people in Colombian society. As an engineering student, he learned the strengths and limitations of engineering assumptions and methods for engaging communities, particularly those neglected by engineering. In his Ph.D., he learned that engineering has culture that can be studied and transformed for the wellbeing of communities, social justice, and sustainability.

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Abstract

The goal of this paper is to show how graduate engineering students working on Engineering-for-Community-Development (ECD) projects and theses 1) acquire socio-technical education that prepares them to critically engage with community development (formation); 2) propose to translate their academic scholarship into formats and language that lead to effective engagement and appropriation by the communities they want to serve (translation); and, from this translation, 3) extend their scholarship into curricular opportunities for undergraduate engineers interested in ECD (extension). Traditional graduate engineering training often lacks education about understanding engineering as a socio-technical endeavor while graduate engineering research is often for graduate advisors to be presented in professional conferences, published in academic journals, and eventually contributing to the output of a research lab. Even when graduate engineering education is complemented with ancillary “social” topics like research ethics or professional communication, it often lacks a concerted effort to view engineering as a socio-technical endeavor, which, as we propose, is a necessary precondition for effective community engagement. Even when the research topic could be relevant to communities or undergraduate engineering students interested in ECD projects, graduate students rarely translate their results into formats and languages understandable by different audiences. For the process of formation, we will outline how graduate students in the Humanitarian Engineering and Science (HES) Program at Colorado School of Mines (Mines) receive education and mentoring in epistemic decolonization where they learn to question the assumptions, knowledge, and methods that engineers from the Global North have used to engage communities from the Global South and the processes through which students frame their research questions, methods, and community engagement. For the process of translation, we will review the literature on “research translation” and propose models for research translation specific to the community contexts in which they are working: recyclers of electronic and construction waste, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) communities, and houseless communities in need of clean water. For the process of extension, we will review the literature on graduate-undergraduate mentoring related to engineering design projects and propose curricular opportunities for involving other engineering students in community development generated from the graduate student research and translation activities. With an increasing number of ECD-related graduate programs appearing in the horizon, there will be an increasing need for effective models for formation, research translation, and extension like those proposed in this paper. This paper hopes to contribute to these emerging needs and the future development of these crucial areas of graduate engineering education.

Citation
Format

Lucena, J., & Schlezak, S., & Chapman, E., & Rojas, M., & Styer, J. E. (2022, August), Bringing it down from the ivory tower: Translating Engineering-for-Community-Development (ECD) graduate student research into community engagement and undergraduate student learning Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41881

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The goal of this paper is to show how graduate engineering students working on Engineering-for-Community-Development (ECD) projects and theses 1) acquire socio-technical education that prepares them to critically engage with community development (formation); 2) propose to translate their academic scholarship into formats and language that lead to effective engagement and appropriation by the communities they want to serve (translation); and, from this translation, 3) extend their scholarship into curricular opportunities for undergraduate engineers interested in ECD (extension). Traditional graduate engineering training often lacks education about understanding engineering as a socio-technical endeavor while graduate engineering research is often for graduate advisors to be presented in professional conferences, published in academic journals, and eventually contributing to the output of a research lab. Even when graduate engineering education is complemented with ancillary “social” topics like research ethics or professional communication, it often lacks a concerted effort to view engineering as a socio-technical endeavor, which, as we propose, is a necessary precondition for effective community engagement. Even when the research topic could be relevant to communities or undergraduate engineering students interested in ECD projects, graduate students rarely translate their results into formats and languages understandable by different audiences.
For the process of formation, we will outline how graduate students in the Humanitarian Engineering and Science (HES) Program at Colorado School of Mines (Mines) receive education and mentoring in epistemic decolonization where they learn to question the assumptions, knowledge, and methods that engineers from the Global North have used to engage communities from the Global South and the processes through which students frame their research questions, methods, and community engagement. For the process of translation, we will review the literature on “research translation” and propose models for research translation specific to the community contexts in which they are working: recyclers of electronic and construction waste, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) communities, and houseless communities in need of clean water. For the process of extension, we will review the literature on graduate-undergraduate mentoring related to engineering design projects and propose curricular opportunities for involving other engineering students in community development generated from the graduate student research and translation activities.
With an increasing number of ECD-related graduate programs appearing in the horizon, there will be an increasing need for effective models for formation, research translation, and extension like those proposed in this paper. This paper hopes to contribute to these emerging needs and the future development of these crucial areas of graduate engineering education.
AU  - Juan Lucena
AU  - Sofia Schlezak
AU  - Emma Chapman
AU  - Mateo Rojas
AU  - Jaime Elizabeth Styer
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Bringing it down from the ivory tower: Translating Engineering-for-Community-Development (ECD) graduate student research into community engagement and undergraduate student learning
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41881
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41881
ER  -