2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

There is a growing need to equip engineers with sociotechnical skills that integrate technical expertise with an understanding of social and contextual factors to effectively address design problems. Although ABET and national reports highlight the importance of accounting for social and contextual factors, these skills are often underemphasized in engineering curricula. The Social Engagement Toolkit (SET) was developed to provide students with the skills needed to identify and address social and contextual aspects of engineering work. The SET includes instructional materials on a wide range of topics and the content is grounded in research that incorporates recommended socially engaged engineering design practices and strategies. This work has received funding from the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program.

This study implemented several SET modules in a two-semester mechanical engineering senior design course and examined how these modules influenced students’ capstone design projects. Several modules including those focused on design requirements and specifications, design interviewing, concept generation and development, and concept selection and prototyping were used to provide instruction. To understand how these SET modules informed students’ project work, we drew on student reflection assignments collected throughout the semester. These reflections asked students to identify how each module influenced their design projects. Students described that the design requirements and specifications module helped them have guidelines for their design projects and supported communication with stakeholders. The design interviewing module provided guidance on developing structured conversations with stakeholders for information gathering and building rapport with stakeholders. The concept generation and development module aided them in considering diverse concepts that can be shared with stakeholders and synthesizing multiple concepts into their final design. The concept selection and prototyping module supported design iterations with their stakeholders. Using multiple SET modules to complement the learning objectives in a senior capstone design course provided valuable support for mechanical engineering students working on their projects to leverage recommended design approaches and incorporate sociotechnical thinking