The practice of engineering often involves problem solving in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. Undergraduate engineering students often are trained in disciplinary concepts and techniques of their specializations, but rarely given opportunities to reflect upon how they work with collaborators. Here, we discuss a course that brings students from engineering and non-engineering fields together to grapple with a technical and conceptual challenge: designing and building drones for humanitarian purposes. This paper describes an “Engineering Peace” course and discusses preliminary findings from surveys, focus groups, and observations regarding the course’s effects on students’ multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary skills. This material allows us to analyze the emergence of professional formation as engineers and non-engineers work together. While we understand this study to be limited in scope, the feedback provides preliminary evidence for collaborative research across disciplines and how professional skills are fostered in the classroom.
Elizabeth Reddy is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Division of Engineering, Design and Society at Colorado School of Mines. She is a social scientist, holding a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of California at Irvine.
Dr. Gordon D. Hoople is an assistant professor and one of the founding faculty members of integrated engineering at the University of San Diego. He is passionate about creating engaging experiences for his students. His work is primarily focused on two ar
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9044-5921
University of San Diego
[biography]
Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick is a writer and professor at the Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego. His work focuses on politics, culture, technology, and social change. He is the author of What Slaveholders Think (2017, Columbia) and co-editor of From Human Trafficking to Human Rights (2012, Pennsylvania). His newest book, Protest Tech, explores the ways tools and technologies are used to bring social change.
Michelle Madsen Camacho is Professor in the Department of Sociology & Faculty Administrator at the University of San Diego and is a former Fellow of the American Council on Education. Her research focuses on inequities in STEM education using quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and theories from interdisciplinary sources including cultural studies, critical race, gender and feminist theories. Her book, the Borderlands of Education, is co-authored with Susan Lord, Professor of Electrical Engineering. Camacho is affiliated faculty with the Department of Ethnic Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and the School of Peace and Justice.
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