Supporting Engineering Students’ Incorporation of “Context” into Global Health Design Processes

Grace Burleson; Kathleen H. Sienko; Kentaro Toyama

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) Technical Session 13
Tagged Division: Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44362
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44362
Download Count: 125

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Paper Authors

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Grace Burleson University of Michigan

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Grace Burleson is a PhD Candidate in Design Science at the University of Michigan. She earned a dual MS in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Anthropology and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University in 2018 and 2016, respectively. She was an ASME Engineering for Change Fellow from 2017-2021.

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Kathleen H. Sienko University of Michigan

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Kathleen H. Sienko is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan (UM). She earned her Ph.D. in 2007 in Medical Engineering and Bioastronautics from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology, and holds an S.M. in Aeronautics & Astronautics from MIT and a B.S. in Materials Engineering from the University of Kentucky. She co-founded the UM Center for Socially Engaged Design and directs both the UM Global Health Design Initiative (GHDI) and the Sienko Research Group. Dr. Sienko is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award and several teaching awards including the ASME Engineering Education Donald N. Zwiep Innovation in Education Award, UM Teaching Innovation Prize, UM Undergraduate Teaching Award, and UM Distinguished Professor Award.

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Kentaro Toyama University of Michigan

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Abstract

Incorporating relevant contextual factors, e.g., socio-cultural, environmental, and industrial considerations, during design processes is required to develop solutions that function appropriately in their intended context of use, particularly in global health settings. Prior work has determined that “lacking the contextual knowledge needed” is a common reason for the failure of engineering projects intended for use in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Our prior work has investigated which contextual factors engineering designers consider and how they incorporate contextual factors into their global health design processes. In this study, we extended this prior research to compare the design behavior of novice and experienced global health engineering designers. As part of this research, we conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen experienced design engineers who work on health-related technologies in LMICs. We also conducted semi-structured interviews and reviewed final reports from six mechanical engineering capstone teams working on global health-themed projects. While novices tended to aggregate many different “low-resource” contexts together, experienced global health designers exhibited a much more nuanced view of differences across unique LMIC contexts. We also identified that experienced designers regularly reframed their design problems and accounted for implementation decisions throughout their design processes, while novices viewed problem framing and implementation as largely outside the scope of their projects. In this study, we describe the preliminary conceptions of a framework that could support engineering design students during both curricular and co-curricular design activities. The framework guides students through multiple categories of contextual factors and provides examples and prompts for methods of incorporating contextual factors into decisions iteratively throughout their design processes in a curricular engineering design project. The findings from this work have implications for engineering design pedagogy and, ultimately, the potential to improve engineering graduates’ abilities to develop contextually suitable solutions.

Citation
Format

Burleson, G., & Sienko, K. H., & Toyama, K. (2023, June), Supporting Engineering Students’ Incorporation of “Context” into Global Health Design Processes Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44362

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Incorporating relevant contextual factors, e.g., socio-cultural, environmental, and industrial considerations, during design processes is required to develop solutions that function appropriately in their intended context of use, particularly in global health settings. Prior work has determined that “lacking the contextual knowledge needed” is a common reason for the failure of engineering projects intended for use in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Our prior work has investigated which contextual factors engineering designers consider and how they incorporate contextual factors into their global health design processes. In this study, we extended this prior research to compare the design behavior of novice and experienced global health engineering designers. As part of this research, we conducted semi-structured interviews with fifteen experienced design engineers who work on health-related technologies in LMICs. We also conducted semi-structured interviews and reviewed final reports from six mechanical engineering capstone teams working on global health-themed projects. While novices tended to aggregate many different “low-resource” contexts together, experienced global health designers exhibited a much more nuanced view of differences across unique LMIC contexts. We also identified that experienced designers regularly reframed their design problems and accounted for implementation decisions throughout their design processes, while novices viewed problem framing and implementation as largely outside the scope of their projects. In this study, we describe the preliminary conceptions of a framework that could support engineering design students during both curricular and co-curricular design activities. The framework guides students through multiple categories of contextual factors and provides examples and prompts for methods of incorporating contextual factors into decisions iteratively throughout their design processes in a curricular engineering design project. The findings from this work have implications for engineering design pedagogy and, ultimately, the potential to improve engineering graduates’ abilities to develop contextually suitable solutions.
AU  - Grace Burleson
AU  - Kathleen H. Sienko
AU  - Kentaro Toyama
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Supporting Engineering Students’ Incorporation of “Context” into Global Health Design Processes
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/44362
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--44362
ER  -