2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

As transformations across societal, technological, and environmental systems continue to accelerate, engineers must be prepared to anticipate, analyze, and respond to uncertain futures. Design futuring, a practice that integrates methods from futures studies and design, offers a valuable framework for developing these critical competencies. This paper explores strategies for embedding design futuring into engineering education, emphasizing its potential to engage students in envisioning alternative futures while fostering critical reflection, ethical awareness, and systems-level thinking.

The paper adopts a hybrid methodology that combines a review of relevant literature with reflective analysis based on extensive experience teaching design thinking and product development to engineering students, as well as facilitating futuring activities in community-based workshops and participatory design events. Key recommendations include leveraging makerspaces as sites for exploratory learning, incorporating futuring tools into instructional practices, cultivating institutional support through communities of practice, and building interdisciplinary partnerships.

To evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches, the paper proposes preliminary assessment strategies including pre- and post-course surveys, guided reflection, and analysis of student-created artifacts to capture shifts in identity, creativity, and anticipatory competence. These strategies collectively aim to promote a forward-looking culture within engineering education.

By advancing discussion on pedagogical methods, institutional conditions, and evaluation frameworks, this paper contributes to an emerging discourse on the role of futures literacy in preparing engineers to shape more inclusive, just, and resilient futures.