2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Over the past few years, many universities have promoted initiatives to embed justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) into their undergraduate curriculums. While the need to educate the incoming workforce on JEDI related issues is significant, it can sometimes feel like a daunting task to embed this knowledge into courses which traditionally contain highly technical content. The development of activities for specific engineering courses can create a plug-and-play opportunity for faculty who are not sure where to start.

This paper outlines such an example, using a hairdryer design activity to consider both thermodynamics and the importance of diversity in design and teaming. A hairdryer provides a relatable example of many thermodynamic principles including conservation of mass, flow energy, and open system energy analysis. It is also a tool that everyone has heard of, however it is used primarily by female consumers. It allows students to consider the difference between how a tool works technically versus how it is used by the customer.

Originally piloted in 2019, the activity has been run for four years, with iterations due to remote learning and lessons learned from previous experiences. The overall structure includes a team design activity where students discuss how a hair dryer works from a technical standpoint and then consider design alternatives. Teams are structured to have various compositions including, all-female, all-male, and co-ed. After the activity there is a time for reflection and discussion of what the students observed, including how the gender composition of the team may have affected the proposed design changes.

The activity was part of a larger NSF funded study with the goal of using course embedded activities to promote inclusive engineering identities within undergraduate students. As part of this multi-institutional initiative, surveys were developed to assess how students identify with engineering and their perceptions about diversity in engineering. The survey was given to the students at the beginning of the class, and then again after the completion of the activity. Survey data was analyzed for overall trends of the student responses and changes in answers before and after the activity.

Along with the survey data, student reflections were analyzed for themes, common language, and overall understanding of the importance of diversity in both design and teaming. Overall, the reflections and survey data indicated that after completing the activity all students held a base understanding of the benefits to diverse team compositions and the importance of understanding user needs during the design process.