2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

An interdisciplinary perspectives course on the topic of the Interactions of Science, Engineering and Public Policy was taught with the goals of: convincing engineering students of the importance of involvement with policy making decisions impacting engineering solutions; exposing policy students to contemporary technological issues and the importance of understanding technology in the policy creation process; and increasing future involvement of the students in the policy making process. The course was co-taught by a Political Science faculty member and an Engineering faculty member to 18 students enrolled in the University Honors program, including 8 engineering students, 7 students in science majors and 3 students majoring in other disciplines. The majority of students were in their first or second year of study.

After being introduced to formal decision making theory and a realistic discussion of how decisions are made in politics, students examined multiple case studies of public policy and engineering interactions including the Volkswagen emissions scandal, the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Students examined the policy making process and identified strengths and weaknesses of the resulting policies.

Interleaved with lectures on policy were lectures introducing students to the scientific method and the engineering design process. Students were able to draw parallels between engineering design steps and the creation of public policy, particularly through failure analysis and the resulting redesign.

For the final course project, students were assigned one of three controversial bills passed by the state legislature. Students critically examined the problem and created an alternative policy by following an engineering design process including: needs identification, stakeholder analysis, problem definition, concept development, and concept selection through a failure mode and effects analysis.

Student responses to a pre and post-survey indicated an increase in their knowledge of both the policy making and engineering design processes. Their estimation of the overall importance of a knowledge of science and engineering to the policy making process increased, but not their estimation of the importance of a knowledge of the policy making process to engineering design. Students indicated an increase of their knowledge of both state and federal policy issues. However, their inclination to be involved in policy making decisions or politics in the future was unchanged.

Future goals of the course include addition of direct observation of the policy making process at the local government level and facilitating participation in summer internships in local government offices for interested students.