2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The growing importance of preparing engineering students to consider social, cultural, economic, environmental, historical, and ethical factors throughout their engineering education is widely recognized by educators, accreditation agencies, and professional codes of ethics. As artificial intelligence (AI) technology advances, these competencies are becoming increasingly essential for engineers. However, when program administrators collaborate with instructors to integrate these factors into the core engineering curriculum and courses, they often face challenges such as curriculum overload, the prioritization of technical content, resistance to change, and limited resources.

This paper presents the collaborative approach adopted by our Mechanical Engineering department to integrate diverse forms of awareness into core courses, including topics in thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, and dynamic systems. We aim to provide examples that inspire others to develop their own teaching materials and foster a sense of community across the mechanical engineering field. We believe that creating diverse teaching materials that influence future generations is best achieved through joint efforts with individuals from varied backgrounds, each bringing unique perspectives and stories. This collective effort, using personal experiences, helps students understand how diversity in race, gender, social background, cultural perspectives, economic status, and other differences can influence engineering decisions.

Our sample assignments use storytelling as a pedagogical tool. Assignments for thermal-fluid system problems, including topics such as COVID-19 vaccine refrigeration, economic and environmental trade-offs in clean energy, low-grade thermal energy recovery investments, and water access in rural villages. Additionally, we have created dynamic system problems related to wheelchair comfort, seatbelt safety, and prosthetic limb rotation control. These assignments employ stories to enhance engagement, illustrate relevance, and create emotional connections. These techniques guide students to extend their learning beyond their own experience, encouraging them to explore broader dimensions and engage with diverse cosmovision that enrich their understanding of the world.

This work-in-progress paper summarizes how awareness of ethical considerations can be integrated into core curricula. Our future research will focus on assessing the effectiveness of storytelling assignments in improving student attitudes and mindfulness of life factors. We will also examine faculty perspectives on balancing technical content with students' readiness to develop holistic solutions.