2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

“Learning from Engineering Disaster”, an online undergraduate course taught to both engineering and non-engineering majors by the presenter at Stony Brook University for the past 12 years, has proved to be a successful method for teaching ethics as well as the broader societal implications of engineering processes and technological design. A combination of lectures, case studies, laboratory demonstrations, interviews, video site visits and team-based collaborative analysis of engineering failures and their implications (societal, environmental, economic, legal, psychological) has proved successful in teaching the role of engineers and engineering in society, as well as the importance of engineering ethics and value sensitive design. In this presentation, we will discuss recent evolution of the course to fulfill not only the University undergraduate requirements for examining significant relationships between Science or Technology and the Arts, Humanities, or Social Sciences (STAS), but also the newly implemented requirement for courses which examine the importance of Respecting Diversity and Fostering Inclusiveness (DIV). Using the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) model for curriculum development, we have redesigned the course with input from a Quality Assurance advisory group, selected to better ensure that content on diversity and inclusivity is well-integrated into the course in a meaningful and effective manner. This content includes interviews with industry professionals who themselves can effectively represent diverse perspectives; readings selected from texts on engineering failures resulting from a lack of inclusivity (“missing voices”) in design, and case studies on the impact of locating high risk technologies and facilities in socio-economically disadvantaged areas (often correlated with large minority populations). Students are asked to reflect on factors which impact their own values as well as those of engineers who design, site and implement technologies.
DIV learning outcomes to be achieved via the course revision include (1) analyzing the impact of power and privilege on society in the context of diversity and inclusion, (2) examining how human and cultural similarities and differences influence structural and institutional inequities, and (3) critically reflecting upon how one’s own personal and cultural presuppositions affect one’s values and relationships.
In addition to discussing the methodology of curriculum and educational material development to meet these objectives, we will present student feedback, via responses to assignments, resulting from the first implementation of the redesigned course, and the implications of this information for further enhancing course effectiveness. The methodology used in ensuring integration of diversity, ethics and inclusion learning outcomes may also provide a model for building these concepts into other engineering courses.