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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Opportunities And Barriers Faced By Early-Career Civil Engineers Enacting Global Responsibility, Shannon Chance, Inês Direito, John Mitchell
Opportunities And Barriers Faced By Early-Career Civil Engineers Enacting Global Responsibility, Shannon Chance, Inês Direito, John Mitchell
Articles
The term ‘global responsibility’ projects a holistic sense of ethics, sustainability, and obligation. To achieve the long-term viability of human life on Earth, civil engineering must be conducted in increasingly responsible ways, and civil engineers must value and enact global responsibility in their work. Interviews conducted with nine civil engineers in London provide insight regarding engineers’ familiarity with the term, how they learned about it, what opportunities and barriers they face, and what might be done by professional and educational institutions to help them practice more responsibly. Results indicate: the term itself is novel but underlying concepts are not; continuing …
Integrating Emotional Attachment And Sustainability In Electronic Product Design, Alex Lobos, Callie W. Babbitt
Integrating Emotional Attachment And Sustainability In Electronic Product Design, Alex Lobos, Callie W. Babbitt
Articles
Current models for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products encourage frequent product replacement with newer versions that offer only minor incremental improvements. This pattern, named planned obsolescence, diminishes user experience and shortens product lifespan. This paper presents the conceptual basis for a two-part integrated approach to combating planned obsolescence in ICT devices. First, design for emotional attachment, which creates products that users enjoy, value, and use for longer. Second, technological adaptability, which anticipates product upgrades and repairs as new technologies emerge. A model interdisciplinary design course in industrial design and sustainability, also described herein, trains students to apply this approach …