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Equipping students in software development with socially engaged engineering and design skills

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

June 26, 2024

Conference Session

Software Engineering Division (SWED) Technical Session #1

Tagged Division

Software Engineering Division (SWED)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--47328

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47328

Download Count

98

Paper Authors

biography

Jin Woo Lee California State University, Fullerton

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Dr. Jin Woo Lee received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Binghamton University. Dr. Lee's research focuses on design theory and methodology, product design, and engineering education.

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Paul Salvador Bernedo Inventado California State University, Fullerton

biography

Erika Mosyjowski University of Michigan

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Erika Mosyjowski is the Research and Faculty Engagement Manager in the Center for Socially Engaged Design within University of Michigan College of Engineering. She earned a PhD and MA in Higher Education from Michigan and a Bachelor's in Psychology and Sociology from Case Western Reserve University.

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Abstract

There is an increased awareness that designers who develop technologies often do not possess the skills to successfully engage with communities, identify context-specific needs, and create solutions that address those needs. Not properly considering the context can lead to technologies that harm people directly or degrade social systems. Well-intended designs aiming to address social problems often suffer from minimal adoption and abandonment as there is a disconnect between technology designers and the needs of individuals who are the intended targets for technology adoption.

To address this gap, the Center for Socially Engaged Engineering and Design at the University of Michigan developed the Social Engagement Toolkit (SET), a library of training on various topics related to socially engaged design practices. At a minority-serving institution, several workshops from the SET were implemented to support a semester-long, extra-curricular project experience for students majoring in Computer Science who aimed to design software solutions to address real-world problems. SET workshops on a number of topics, including an Introduction to Socially Engaged Design, Crafting Need Statements, Ecosystem Stakeholder Mapping, Interviews, User Requirements and Specifications, Idea Generation, and Concept Selection and Prototyping were used to provide scaffolding for students’ design projects and teach critical skills that are not often emphasized by the traditional curriculum.

Student reflection and exit survey data examined student learning experience along with the challenges of implementing skills they have learned. Students described the benefits of learning an effective design process to plan their projects, engaging with stakeholders to gather important information regarding their needs, and creating prototypes before coding. On the other hand, students perceived finding and interviewing appropriate stakeholders to be a challenge. This study demonstrates the overall process of implementing the SET to support students engaging in software development and examines students’ experiences.

Lee, J. W., & Inventado, P. S. B., & Mosyjowski, E. (2024, June), Equipping students in software development with socially engaged engineering and design skills Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47328

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