2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Our society has become increasingly aware of the environmental, public health, and socio-economic impacts driven by industrial processes. Promoting sustainable development is critical for maintaining societal well-being. Research underscores the necessity for engineers to comprehend social, global, and cultural dimensions as they transition into the workforce. ABET has updated its 2022-2023 Student Outcome 2 to reflect this by emphasizing “an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors”.
Engineers are uniquely positioned to research and develop solutions to global challenges. Integrating socio-cultural perspectives into their approach fosters more inclusive and equitable designs. This paper presents the redesign of the Chemical Engineering Senior Design Capstone course at Northeastern University aimed at embedding sustainability and social responsibility in engineering practices. The course emphasizes core engineering design principles alongside an entrepreneurial mindset, with a specific focus on projects centered around sustainable technologies and markets. It further introduces students to critical aspects of social responsibility by addressing global and environmental issues, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) considerations, and the necessity of sustainable technological innovations within chemical engineering.
Key topics include how instructors can inform student decisions making of: (1) social and environmental challenges specific to geographical locations, (2) DEI discussions of company practices and teamwork, and (3) Sustainable technologies, their necessity, and their implications for chemical engineering. The course's impact on student self-efficacy regarding these topics will be analyzed to demonstrate impact of project topic and course outcomes.