Contextualizing a New General Engineering Curriculum in the Liberal Arts

Chen, Diana; Hoople, Gordon D.

doi:10.18260/1-2--28073

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The emergence of innovative degree programs that allow engineering students some flexibility, embed interdisciplinary perspectives, and explicitly combine the social with the technical suggest that changes are underway. Examples include general engineering for developing change making engineers (Chen & Hoople, ; Roberts, Huang, Olson, Camacho, & Lord, ), Engineering Plus (Forbes, Bielefeldt, Sullivan, & Chaker, ), and the Computer Science Professionals Hatchery (Anderson, Xu, Jain, Winiecki, & Salzman, ). If the tendency to create such innovative programs propagates, it will enrich the ecosystem, creating niches for engineering students with more diverse perspectives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond pipeline and pathways: Ecosystem metrics

Lord

Ohland

Layton

et al. 2019

J of Engineering Edu

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Background: Pipeline and pathways models influence persistence metrics used to study how students navigate engineering education. Purpose: This study presents pipeline, pathways, and ecosystem models and their associated metrics, compares and contrasts these models using an intersectional approach to explore persistence, and advocates for use of an ecosystem model. Design/Method: This study presents a quantitative perspective of engineering student outcomes disaggregated by discipline, race/ethnicity, and sex. It includes 111,925 engineering students from 11 U.S. universities, including first-time-incollege and transfer students who ever majored in the most common engineering disciplines: chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering. Contemporary data visualization methods are used to display quantitative data and clarify their complexity. Results: This work captures the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, sex, and discipline with metrics that are new or little used, such as stickiness (retention by a discipline), migrator graduation rate, and migration yield (attraction of a discipline). Using these metrics, we uncover information about the success of students who migrate between and among the top five engineering disciplines. Conclusions: Stickiness, migrator graduation rates, and migration yield metrics coupled with contemporary data visualization methods provide insights into the student experience not afforded by the conventional pipeline and pathways models.Considering engineering education as an ecosystem tells stories of complexity and nuance, opening possibilities for new research. K E Y W O R D S ecosystem, engineering pathways, engineering pipeline, retention, underrepresentation

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond pipeline and pathways: Ecosystem metrics

Lord

Ohland

Layton

et al. 2019

J of Engineering Edu

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“…As instructors, we learned that deeply impacting students' mindsets about the sociotechnical nature of engineering is difficult to achieve in a single semester and will likely require follow-on courses that continue to drive this point home. Fortunately, this User-Centered Design course is the first of many in our program where engineering students grapple with these realities [2,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. Despite this, we saw that our students began developing a critical consciousness, even if it was not explicitly tied to the engineering design (and so did not lead to our specific desired outcome for this project).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Balancing Complex Social and Technical Aspects of Design: Exposing Engineering Students to Homelessness Issues

2020

Self Cite

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This paper describes the development and implementation of a classroom experience involving problem-based and project-based learning with community engagement in an engineering design context. While most User-Centered Design courses ask students to critically analyze and synthesize user needs, particularly of users who they see as “not like them”, our version is unique in having students wrestle with concepts of power, privilege, and oppression alongside developing prototypes that address sociotechnical aspects of engineering design that are rarely discussed in engineering courses. The course project described in this paper was developed to integrate issues of homelessness with engineering design. To achieve this goal, we partnered with a local non-profit organization that provides access to safe, mobile showers for our unhoused neighbors. Considering the context and needs of people who experience homelessness, students built solar water heater prototypes that integrated with the mobile shower units of our partners. Our goal with this course is to demonstrate to students that technical solutions are often insufficient for solving sociotechnical problems. In this case, the partnership with the non-profit organization was critical to conveying to students that engineering alone cannot solve homelessness.

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“…The history behind the creation of these courses stems from being at the forefront of institutionwide transformation, including the inauguration of a new university president, the implementation of a new University Core curriculum, the award of an NSF RED grant, and the creation of a new General Engineering department [11]. The University of San Diego is a majority undergraduate, private four-year [12], faith-based institution that embraces Catholic social teaching in its mission.…”

Section: Institutional Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revealing the Invisible: Conversations about -Isms and Power Relations in Engineering Courses

Mejia¹,

Chen²,

Dalrymple³

et al.

2018 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Diego. His current research investigates the funds of knowledge of Latinx adolescents, and how they use these funds of knowledge to solve engineering problems in their communities. Dr. Mejia is particularly interested in how Latinx adolescents bring forth unique ways of knowing, doing, and being that provide them with particular ways of framing, approaching, and solving engineering problems. Dr. Mejia's primary research interests lie at the intersection of engineering education, literacy, and social justice. He is particularly interested in engineering critical literacies, Chicanx Cultural Studies frameworks and pedagogies in engineering education, and critical consciousness in engineering through social justice.

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Contextualizing a New General Engineering Curriculum in the Liberal Arts

Abstract: His research interests lie in microfluidics, rapid prototyping, genomics, engineering ethics, and engineering education. He earned his MS and PhD in mechanical engineering from University of California, Berkeley and a BS in engineering from Harvey Mudd College.

Cited by 15 publications

References 4 publications

Beyond pipeline and pathways: Ecosystem metrics

Beyond pipeline and pathways: Ecosystem metrics

Balancing Complex Social and Technical Aspects of Design: Exposing Engineering Students to Homelessness Issues

Revealing the Invisible: Conversations about -Isms and Power Relations in Engineering Courses

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