2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Nature and people require a drastic change in how we educate engineers. Social and
Environmental Justice should be a fundamental pillar in engineering education. Both the
complexity of our current problems and the social and environmental injustice that most
people endure demand engineering to go beyond the technical problems, question the
impact of our engineering solutions, and incorporate other ways of doing and being in
engineering. Engaging in engineering, and engineering education without awareness of
other beings and the Ecosystem, leads to immense harm, especially to underrepresented
people and their ecosystems. In this article, I present my first thoughts on an engineering
education framework that hopefully will guide educators and students through the
relationships and interconnections between three levels: individual, people, and the
Ecosystem. To illustrate these interconnections, I use the biological concept of mycorrhiza
as a simile of these invisible connections. Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between
fungi and plants that cycles nutrients to improve the whole ecosystem. The Mycorrhiza
framework aims to raise awareness of the effects of engineering education and work,
incorporate social and environmental justice in engineering education, and move closer to
helping people freely and fully develop in a sustainable world.