The newcomers: humanities in engineering education (original) (raw)
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He received his MS and PhD in mechanical engineering from Purdue University. He teaches mainly Materials Science, Machine Design, Capstone Design as well as various engineering mechanics courses and labs. He is also interested in the pedagogy of teaching and learning. He is a member of a campus group called Research Learning Community studying various opportunities and methodologies to engage students for improved learning. He is also the faculty advisor for the ASME student chapter.
The Role of Humanities and Social Sciences in Engineering Practice and Engineering Education
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The relatively poor standing of the engineering profession in the context of professional hierarchies in Australia and the inability, in general, for the profession to attract higher proportion of women as well as high caliber of young people has been of concern to both the profession and engineering education. This paper argues that this is due to the perceptions of engineering profession as one that is of “hard hat” technical in nature and which is at odds with the realities of the world of engineering practice which requires application of broad knowledge and understanding of the human dimension of engineering enterprise. These realities are not generally reflected by the engineering curricula at Australia universities. There is an excessive emphasis focused on highly technical matters in engineering curricula which not only excludes greater technical diversity but also skills and knowledge of human affairs necessary in engineering practice. An analysis shows that despite many re...
Engineering curriculum in India, by and large, focuses only on imparting education in the respective technical domain. While such a system has been producing reasonably competitive technocrats, it has not reflected much upon the concept of producing well- rounded engineers. An integration of different streams of knowledge- especially liberal arts, humanities and social sciences - in the engineering curriculum would add this missing dimension. Further, the changing contours of an engineer’s profession have made it necessary for one to broaden one’s outlook and to be able to connect with the rest of the disciplines. Educators world over have started recognising the importance of creativity and critical thinking which are an integral part of liberal arts, humanities and social sciences. In the western context, there has been a greater emphasis on including these courses in the engineering curriculum. In the Indian context, very few institutes have made some niche efforts in including humanities components in their course package. And often, courses in communication, technical writing, principles of management etc. are counted as the only components in humanities. It is very rare for Tech schools to either have open electives or compulsory credits in humanities. This article discusses how important it is for us academics in India to look beyond imparting mere technical education and to include courses in the areas of liberal arts, humanities and social sciences. Further, it looks at how courses in creative areas that integrate science and technology with liberal arts need to be designed and offered. The article draws from the authors’ experience of formulating and teaching such courses.
Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)
Mathematics and science knowledge/skills are most commonly associated with engineering's prerequisite knowledge. Our goals in this paper are to argue for a more systematic inclusion of social science and humanities knowledge in the introduction of engineering to K-12 students. As part of this argument, we present a construct for framing the humanistic side of engineering with illustrative examples of what appealing to the humanistic side of engineering can look like in a classroom setting, and opportunities for research that examines the dynamics the humanistic side of engineering introduces into engineering learning and teaching. The illustrative examples are drawn from interactions among student-teams from elementary classrooms engaged engineering activities that appeal to the humanistic side of engineering. Referencing these examples as well as other established engineering education programs, we will discuss opportunities for research in the education of K-16 students. These opportunities span understanding how students' attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions, particularly among traditionally underrepresented populations, to how students' engineering knowledge and practices develop in the context of a humanistic approach to engineering.
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The importance of a liberal arts education for engineers is articulated in both the CEAB and ABET accreditation criteria, but while these stipulate minimum complementary studies requirements, the degree to which faculties provide opportunities for immersion in the liberal arts varies across institutions. An understanding of the types of approaches that various faculties are taking to facilitate this immersion can provide useful models for successful integration of liberal arts opportunities. This paper will provide a survey of the intersection of arts and engineering across faculties in Canada and the US, in order to gain an understanding of both the methods of liberal arts integration and its perceived value
1993
The "HumEn" (Humanities/Engineering Integration) program developed at the Colorado School of Mines integrates humanities and engineering through reading and writing. Through integrative reading and writing engineering students are led to make appropriate connections between the humanities and their technical work, connections that will carry over into their professional lives. A thematic approach links an introductory chemical engineering course with a humanities course and examines such issues as: the methods used by scientists, engineers and humanists; the world view necessary to produce science and technology; the value trade-offs inherent in a technological society; and the technical questions faced by engineering professionals. The course emphasizes class discussion, open-ended design projects, teamwork, and a variety of writing assignments, including a semester-long journal. Students involved in HumEn courses find the experience both rewarding and broadening, based on data collected over 5 years. Engineering students are interested in the questions raised by the humanities and they particularly appreciate an opportunity to read and write about literature, history, philosophy, and drama in the context of their engineering discourse community. (The HumEn Integrated Course syllabus and four figures of data are included.) (RS)
2012 Dallas, Texas, July 29 - August 1, 2012, 2012
A learning module entitled, The Water Module, was created to provide an instructional method of integrating the humanities into engineering courses. An interdisciplinary Model Teaching Team was established to determine what skills students needed in order to make this integration. The team collaboration resulted in the development of five guiding principles of essential skills, and the Water Module was created as a way to incorporate these principles into an engineering course. This module was implemented into a freshman engineering course. Interviews were used to gather students' reactions to this module and to evaluate the module's success in teaching students this integration. A control group was used to compare other instructional methods against the module. The results indicate that the treatment group had a clearer understanding of how the humanities are imbedded in engineering practice.
Humanities Education As Way Of Forming Social Responsibility Of Engineer
The European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences, 2018
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported License, permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Humanistic Enhancement of Engineering: Liberalizing the Technical Curriculum
2003
Abstract—The increasing complexity of societal issues, environmental considerations, and technological progress means that engineers are being asked to make decisions that not only require technical expertise but also a keen understanding of broad, socio-humanistic contexts and considerations. However, the engineering curriculum in most academic institutions is generally not geared towards integration of the technical course work with these socio-humanistic issues in any rational way.