2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

More than 75% of PhD graduates in chemical engineering pursue careers in industry, contributing to technological innovation in areas such as pharmaceuticals, energy, materials, consumer products, electronics, and environmental protection. These fields directly influence human well-being and environmental sustainability. Given the societal and environmental implications of their work, engineering researchers must understand how their research innovations affect society, and how they are also are shaped by societal contexts. Traditional engineering curricula emphasize technical competence while largely separating scientific advances from their social consequences. This decoupling can obscure inequities in who benefits from and who bears the burdens of technological progress, reinforcing structural injustices in engineering practice.

To address this gap, we developed a two-quarter professional development course for incoming M.S. and Ph.D. students that embeds discussions and reflections on social justice, ethics, and anti-racism within the context of engineering research and development. We applied a contextualized framework for engineering and research that connects technical work with its societal, cultural, environmental, and political dimensions. The framework guides both course design and analysis of student reflections, emphasizing four dimensions: (1) understanding the context in which engineering research occurs; (2) awareness of both benefits and harms of technological developments; (3) engagement with affected communities; and (4) integration of this awareness into research decision-making. We applied the framework to analyze student engagement with these topics in their course deliverables.

Drawing on three years of student work, this work-in-progress paper reports on the ongoing implementation of this graduate professional development course designed to integrate societal context and social justice into engineering research training. We examine how graduate students articulate the relationship between their research and issues of equity, justice, and societal impact. Preliminary findings indicate that structured reflection anchored in social justice and contextual analysis supports students in developing a more holistic and ethically grounded view of engineering research. Ultimately, this ongoing study seeks to inform how engineering departments can integrate social justice and contextual awareness into graduate education. Embedding such reflection within professional development prepares future researchers to be not only technically proficient but also socially conscious contributors to an equitable and sustainable technological future