David DiBiasio, Kristin Boudreau, Leslie Dodson, Paul Kirby, Joseph Cullon, Curtis Abel, John Sullivan, John Bergendahl, Laura Hanlan, Glenn Gaudette
WPI
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A team of WPI humanities and engineering faculty piloted an interdisciplinary two-course sequence in “Humanitarian Engineering†using role-playing and immersive, transdisciplinary pedagogy to teach complex engineering problems in context. Cited by the National Academy of Engineering as one of twenty-five “exemplary education activities and programs†combining ethics and engineering, this course introduces students to the multiple perspectives and disciplines needed to solve complex, open-ended problems. Students learn to identify answerable questions and select and evaluate solutions, work effectively on teams, research and use sources, communicate effectively with appropriate evidence, understand and articulate different points of view, and navigate diverse values concerning engineering problems.
In the first course they role-play a historic 1890’s urban sanitation project from Worcester, MA. They discover the context of labor dissatisfaction, social inequality, rapid urbanization, and cutting-edge engineering practices of the day. Asking whether and how to mitigate the extreme pollution in the Blackstone River, they explore the social, environmental, and economic difficulties surrounding professional engineering practices.
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The following term, working in teams to design engineering solutions to current-day sanitation problems, they consider the trade-offs between economics and social and environmental well-being. A team might design a sanitation station (laundry, toilets) for a Namibian village, combining engineering technology with sensitivity to cultural practices.
Taking a particular perspective and mastering the information behind it, students learn their subject matter deeply, teach and learn from classmates, and experience the world as ambiguous and complex, not clear-cut like a textbook problem. As they determine the scope of the problem, design, communicate, and assess solutions, they learn that contextual issues (economic, ethical, social, legal, cultural, political, and geographical) matter as much as technical considerations.
Our presentation will detail the course philosophy, pedagogy, and instructional design, and present assessment results.