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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Are Engineering And Social Justice (In)Commensurable? A Theoretical Exploration Of Macro-Sociological Frameworks, Jon A. Leydens, Juan C. Lucena, Jen Schneider
Are Engineering And Social Justice (In)Commensurable? A Theoretical Exploration Of Macro-Sociological Frameworks, Jon A. Leydens, Juan C. Lucena, Jen Schneider
Jen Schneider
The degree to which engineering and social justice as fields of practice are (in)commensurable remains an open question. To illuminate important dimensions of that question, we explore intersections between those fields and two macro-sociological frameworks. Those theoretical frameworks—structural functionalism and social conflict—represent contrasting perspectives on how society should be organized. Specifically, we reveal conceptual alignments between structural functionalism and engineering/engineering education and between social conflict and social justice. Those alignments suggest some salient potential catalysts for tensions between engineering and social justice and provide a useful ideological mirror for reflection by all who are committed to the engineering profession and/or …
Making The Human Dimensions Of Sustainable Community Development Visible To Engineers, Juan Lucena, Jen Schneider, Jon A. Leydens
Making The Human Dimensions Of Sustainable Community Development Visible To Engineers, Juan Lucena, Jen Schneider, Jon A. Leydens
Jen Schneider
Recently, engineers – particularly those working on sustainability-related initiatives – have increasingly turned their efforts towards under-served communities. This paper summarises the findings in Engineering and Sustainable Community Development (Juan Lucena et al., 2010) aimed at a diversity of these efforts which are grouped here under the term ‘engineering to help’. These initiatives often exist under names such as community service, humanitarian engineering, and engineers without borders or activities such as the Institution of Civil Engineers' co-sponsored workshop ‘Helping local communities to help themselves’. Although there has been a blossoming of engineering-to-help-related programmes around the world, there is a …
Putting Partnership First: A Dialogue Model For Science And Risk Communication, Jen Schneider, Roel Snieder
Putting Partnership First: A Dialogue Model For Science And Risk Communication, Jen Schneider, Roel Snieder
Jen Schneider
In April 2010, the New York Times reported that Vattenfall AB, an energy company owned by the Swedish government, had built one of the first coal-fired power plants designed to capture ~90% of the CO2 it produced, with plans to sequester that CO2 underground in geologic repositories near its plant in Brandenburg, Germany (Voosen, 2010). By most measures, if the plant's operations were proven to be successful, it could have served as a model for other carbon capture and sequestration plants worldwide.
Innovations In Composition Programs That Educate Engineers: Drivers, Opportunities, And Challenges, Jon A. Leydens, Jen Schneider
Innovations In Composition Programs That Educate Engineers: Drivers, Opportunities, And Challenges, Jon A. Leydens, Jen Schneider
Jen Schneider
Recent developments in engineering education have shaped the nature of composition programs at institutions or programs that emphasize engineering and science. Among these developments are revised accreditation guidelines and a curricular debate with a long history. Such developments highlight collaborative opportunities between technical and humanities/social sciences faculty. This multi-case study investigates how composition programs have responded to such drivers, opportunities, and challenges. The study draws from historical, observation, document, and interview data, and particularly interviews with composition program administrators at six institutions with significant technical emphases. Findings indicate shifts in historical emphasis on culture and utility, and three contemporary responses. …
Engineering To Help: The Value Of Critique In Engineering Service, Jen Schneider, Juan Lucena, Jon A. Leydens
Engineering To Help: The Value Of Critique In Engineering Service, Jen Schneider, Juan Lucena, Jon A. Leydens
Jen Schneider
Given the fairly recent and dramatic increase in the number of "engineering to help" (ETH) programs in the developed world, we seem to be observing a theme that resonates with engineering students and faculty. Within this context, this article has two goals: first, it positions ETH programs within a history of the U.S. engineering profession generally. We argue that the emergence of ETH programs represents a shift in how some engineers and engineering educators are re-imagining and re-framing their profession and engineering education from a constraining concept of "service" to include a broader notion of "helping." Second, we want to …
Engineers, Development, And Engineering Education: From National To Sustainable Community Development, J. Lucena, J. Schneider
Engineers, Development, And Engineering Education: From National To Sustainable Community Development, J. Lucena, J. Schneider
Jen Schneider
In October 2007, Norman Borlaug wrote in Science magazine that ‘more than 200 science journals throughout the world will simultaneously publish papers on global poverty and human development – a collaborative effort to increase awareness, interest, and research about these important issues of our time’. Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and father of the green revolution, was demonstrating that the scientific community is at last taking questions seriously of sustainability and development. Borlaug's own contentious role in the history of ‘development,’ however, points to the complexity of the term and the contested role scientists and engineers have played in that …
Where Is ‘Community’?: Engineering Education And Sustainable Community Development, J. Schneider, J. A. Leydens, J. Lucena
Where Is ‘Community’?: Engineering Education And Sustainable Community Development, J. Schneider, J. A. Leydens, J. Lucena
Jen Schneider
Sustainable development initiatives are proliferating in the US and Europe as engineering educators seek to provide students with knowledge and skills to design technologies that are environmentally sustainable. Many such initiatives involve students from the ‘North,’ or ‘developed’ world building projects for villages or communities in the ‘South.’ Sustainable development projects in engineering education are being lauded for meeting multiple educational outcomes and providing students with important international training. This paper argues that such programmes need to educate students to think critically about their role as development professionals, to understand and value the role of community in development projects, and …