(127e) Developing Awareness of Engineering Impact in a Graduate Student Research Skills Course with Social Justice Content

Engineering courses have traditionally been taught with a primary focus on the technical content and technical skills, dissociating advances engineers make from the impact those advances have on society, both intended and unintended. Engineering advances are not always inclusive of or accessible to all members of society, nor are they equally beneficial to all members of society. By removing that societal impact and context in engineering education, we devalue it, leading to engineering designs that don’t consider societal impact and potentially exacerbate inequities.

Almost 2 decades ago the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) identified 14 "Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century" meant to benefit humanity by addressing global issues of sustainability, health, security, and quality of life. The NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) has brought project-based learning opportunities to over 90 universities worldwide, challenging students to engage in work that develops social consciousness. While a goal for the GCSP is to change educational approaches, few of these programs have yet to hardwire social consciousness into curricula for all engineering students.

We believe engineering curricula should include instruction that improves engineers’ empathy, societal awareness, and exploration of societal impact. We developed a two-quarter professional development course for graduate students that centers critical reflections on social justice and anti-racism in engineering research and development. We selected graduate students as the target audience to pilot these curricular changes because their research and subsequent engineering advances frequently intersect with complex societal challenges aligned with the Grand Challenges.

Our study explores how two cohorts of graduate students engaged with social justice content within this professional development course. We investigate how students develop awareness of the societal impacts of engineering research through reflective assignments and assess their comfort and confidence in discussing social justice topics during class activities. Data sources include periodic course surveys and weekly journal reflections, which we use to assess the effectiveness of individual lessons in achieving course objectives.

We plan to use the results of this study to make recommendations on future graduate curriculum that includes social consciousness and social justice content. This study, which is a work in progress, will be conducted for another 2 years in order to track additional cohorts of graduate students.