Developing Changemaking Engineers – Year Four
This paper describes progress to date resulting from a National Science Foundation (NSF) IUSE/PFE Revolutionizing engineering and computer science Departments (RED) grant at the University of San Diego (USD). Specifically, this paper focuses on curricular development to support a redefined “engineering canon” that teaches technical skills within a contextual framework that includes humanitarian, sustainable, and social justice approaches. This broader perspective of engineering practice will produce graduates who can address a wider range of societal problems bringing new perspectives to traditional areas. We highlight examples from a range of engineering courses throughout the undergraduate curriculum. Some of these efforts incorporate modules in traditional engineering classes including Electrical Circuits, Materials Science, Operations Research, and Heat Transfer. We have redesigned our User-Centered Design class to more explicitly engage with these topics. In addition, we have developed innovative new courses that integrate a sociotechnical view of engineering throughout the course including Engineering and Social Justice and Engineering Peace. We have also replaced our external evaluator team with an external advisory board (EAB) of experts in engineering education and change management. Our EAB have begun to help us reimagine how we can be more effective at meeting the objectives of the grant and truly revolutionizing engineering education.
Rick T. Olson is Associate Dean in the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering at the University of San Diego. His research interests lay in engineering student persistence, and applied operations research. He is active in outreach activities targeting underrepresented populations and has received NSF funding to support U.S. military veterans, community college transfer students, and innovative engineering education. He has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and M.S. in Industrial Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with emphasis in Operations Research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Susan Lord is Professor and Chair of Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego. She received a BS from Cornell University in Materials Science and Electrical Engineering (EE) and MS and PhD in EE from Stanford University. Her research focuses on the study and promotion of equity in engineering including student pathways and inclusive teaching. She has won best paper awards from the Journal of Engineering Education, IEEE Transactions on Education, and Education Sciences. Dr. Lord is a Fellow of the IEEE and ASEE and received the 2018 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. She is a coauthor of The Borderlands of Education: Latinas in Engineering. She is a co-Director of the National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI).
Michelle M. Camacho is Professor of Sociology at the University of San Diego. She began her career at UC San Diego in 1999 as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for US Mexican Studies, and later as a UC Faculty Fellow in Ethnic Studies. In 2015-16, she returned to UC San Diego as a fellow of the American Council on Education. As a bilingual/bicultural Latina, Camacho has 30 years of experience in higher education advocating for underrepresented groups and first generation college students. For over a decade, her work on institutional transformation has received funding from the National Science Foundation to examine and address inequities in higher education, specifically as they relate to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). She served the NSF ADVANCE grant initiatives as a co-Principal Investigator, working to improve practices to recruit and retain women of color in STEM and enhance institutional climate at USD. Other current research grants support pathways for veterans in higher education, and the NSF program called, “Revolutionizing Engineering & Computer Science Departments.” Her co-authored books include The Borderlands of Education (with Susan Lord), Mentoring Faculty of Color, and Beginning a Career in Academia: A Guide for Graduate Students of Color. She is past-Vice President (2017) of the Pacific Sociological Association, and an appointed consultant to the American Sociological Association’s Departmental Resources Group. Fluent in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, her research uses theories from interdisciplinary sources including cultural studies, critical race, gender and feminist theories. Central to her work are questions of culture, power and inequality. She is affiliated faculty with the Department of Ethnic Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Latin American Studies.
Ming Huang received his MS in University of Rhode Island and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently professor and chair of mechanical engineering department at USD. His research interests are coordination and computer aided design optimization of of robotic mechanisms, theory and practices of inventive problem solving and engineering pedagogy.
Dr. Leonard Perry (ISE) has research interests in the area of system improvement via quality improvement methods especially in the area of applied statistics, statistical process control, and design of experiments. Dr. Perry consults, instructs, and collaborates on quality improvement projects with representatives from biotech, health care, defense, and traditional manufacturing institutions. He has been an instructor for the Six Sigma Black belt training at the Six Sigma Institute for three years. He is a UCSD Certified Six-Sigma Master Black-Belt and an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer.
Bre Przestrzelski, PhD, is a post-doctoral research associate in the General Engineering department in the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, where she innovatively integrates social justice, humanitarian advancement, and peace into the traditional engineering canon.
Before joining USD in August 2017, Bre spent 9 years at Clemson University, where she was a three-time graduate of the bioengineering program (BS, MS, and PhD), founder of The Design & Entrepreneurship Network (DEN), and Division I rower. In her spare time, Bre teaches design thinking workshops for higher education faculty/administrators at the Stanford d.School as a University Innovation Fellow, coaches a global community of learners through IDEO U, and fails miserably at cooking.
Chell A. Roberts is the founding dean of the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering at the University of San Diego. He assumed his duties in July of 2013. He was also recently appointed as the Associate Provost of Professional and Continuing Education.
As an engineering dean at USD, Dr. Roberts has led the development of a new school of engineering, developing innovative engineering space, growing a world class faculty, and creating a base of industry and community partners. He also led a team to win a $2 Million NSF Grant to revolutionize engineering education. The award focuses on creating “Changemaking Engineers” and seeks to transform the engineering mindset to infuse sustainability, social justice, peace, and humanitarian practices in the context of and professional skills of engineering.
Before joining USD, Roberts served as the Executive Dean of the College of Technology and Innovation at Arizona State University. While at Arizona State University, Dr. Roberts also had the opportunity to design an engineering program from a clean slate based on the study of best models of undergraduate engineering programs in the world.
Dr. Roberts received a PhD in Industrial Engineering from Virginia Tech, an MS Industrial Engineering degree and BA Mathematics degree from the University of Utah.
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