Engineering Commons^™

Digital Media Technology And Your Spiritual Life: An Uneasy Alliance, Laurel Dovich

Christian Engineering Conference

Digital media technology has become a part of our everyday lives, filling a substantial portion of the constructive minutes and hours of our days. This technology was created by engineers, and is being further perfected by engineers with each successive generation. As engineers, should we not be at the forefront of learning how this technology is changing our culture and be leaders in teaching responsible use?

Science has documented that technology use is changing how our brain functions. Its use creates new neural pathways and causes cognitive overload in the area of our brain that controls decision-making, impulse control, attention, …

The Engineering Of A Microscale Niche To Test A Novel Anti-Cancer Agent, Dominic M. Halsmer, William Ranahan, Alexander C. Mills

Christian Engineering Conference

Cutting-edge biomedical research often relies on innovative tools from the field of engineering. Some of these tools are designed to investigate or probe a niche, analyzing its characteristics and affordances. Other devices are engineered to create a niche in which a specific, unique interaction can take place, while the outcomes are carefully monitored. This paper will focus of the latter and, more specifically, the production of a niche for inducing promising interaction between cancer cells and certain types of fungi. Preliminary research suggests that when maintained in close proximity to breast cancer cells, mushroom mycelia secrete compounds which trigger the …

Safety And Its Ethical Challenges For The Christian Engineer In A Technological Society, Anthony C. Comer

Christian Engineering Conference

In every major corporation safety is a high priority and corporate policy statements stress the company’s commitment to keep people and the environment safe. However, safety comes at a cost. Corporations are in business to make profits by providing quality products and services for consumers at affordable prices. Engineers play a critical role in the design, construction, and operation of corporations across the globe and are constantly challenged to find new ways of doing things in order to reduce operating expenses in a competitive global economy. Companies must keep pace with the latest technological innovation or face the prospects of …

Engineering Through The Eyes Of Faith, David C. Che

Christian Engineering Conference

What is a biblical perspective of engineering? This paper seeks to answer some key questions related to the integration of faith and engineering. It is the second paper in a three paper sequel on this topic. It attempts to build from some initial concepts presented in a paper at the 2013 Christian Engineering Education Society (CEES) conference [1] and deepen the analysis on common grace and use new examples and present some new ideas on dominion mandate and its application to engineering and engineering education.

God is the Master Engineer. As an architect of His creation God presents wisdom as …

Shalom Seeking: Foundations Of Flourishing, Kevin Jay Timmer

Christian Engineering Conference

Jesus instructs us to seek first the Kingdom of God. Seeking first the Kingdom of God is no small task. It is a process of striving to show God’s love in every situation by showing love to our neighbors and to the rest of the creation. It is serving in a way that enables them to flourish. Seeking first the Kingdom of God is striving for true progress in all its wholeness; it is seeking shalom [1]. Shalom is an Old Testament word which refers to the restfulness, contentment, beauty, and harmony of a life lived in perfect obedience to …

An Engineering Program Built Around Work, Mark Nowack, Geoffrey Akers

Christian Engineering Conference

The College of the Ozarks began a four-year general engineering program in the fall of 2016. This is the first four-year engineering program at a federally-recognized work college. At the College of the Ozarks, all full-time students work in exchange for tuition. The campus is built with student labor, and college functions are largely conducted by students. The College work component provides challenges in areas such as student schedules and workload. However, the graded work experiences also provide opportunities to increase work maturity and ties between the program and the campus community. The regional and economic improvement focus of the …

The Craft Of Story-Telling In Engineering Education, Ethan Brue

Christian Engineering Conference

For all the efforts over the last decade or more to attract, retain, and engage more students in STEM education, the challenge remains. Most programs have focused on creating gateway programs that attempt to sell the content of engineering as fun and entertaining. While there is little doubt that the task of engineering will be existentially pleasing, it is not a re-casting of the content alone that will attract and keep students in STEM disciplines. In both industry and education, the challenge of engineering is rarely one of content, but rather one of underlying motivation and purpose. History demonstrates that …

Observations On Things Measured In The Bible, John S. Tixier Jr.

Christian Engineering Conference

As a new engineering professor at a Christian university that allows an extra five minutes in each class for spiritual and devotional instruction, I thought it would be interesting in the Engineering Technology Measurements Laboratory classroom sessions to focus our devotions on the topic of Measurements in the Bible. This included terms of measurement, things that are or can be measured, and insights into measureable subjects. In general, observations were made systematically based on daily Bible reading, starting with the first words “In the beginning…” and continuing through the Pentateuch during the semester. However, general observations from New Testament …

Engineering Analysis Of The Fire Miracle On Mount Carmel, Charles Baukal

Christian Engineering Conference

The fire miracle on Mount Carmel in 1 Kings 18 is one of the most spectacular in the Bible. Elijah called fire down from heaven which consumed not only a bull on an altar but also the altar itself made of twelve stones and twelve pots of water poured on the offering. The bull was probably one year old (Lev. 9:3) and likely weighed approximately 250 kg assuming it was similar to the breeds currently common in Palestine. The stones were likely made of limestone because Mount Carmel is in a limestone ridge and were probably the size that could …

How Developing Electrical Technologies Can Meet Human Needs With Christian Compassion, Harold R. Underwood

Christian Engineering Conference

Having students work on service-oriented projects that meet basic human needs has become a popular strategy in engineering education; such active learning motivates students and prepares them for professional practice. While conventional engineering service project teams often implement a solution that meets human needs on the spot, exploratory technology development service projects, such as I address here, take time to reach proof of concept maturity, before wider application may occur. Whether implementing or developing, a Christian Engineer following Jesus finds solid ground by establishing links between objectives of a service-oriented project and the counsel of Scripture. Hebrews (13:3) calls Christian …

Beyond Voluntourism: Examining The Motivations And Roles Of Engineering Student Groups In International Development, Thomas S. Soerens

Christian Engineering Conference

Each year, nearly 300,000 US college students study abroad and many more go on short-term service trips. The ethic of using engineering skills to serve developing communities abroad is strong in the engineering field. For Christian students and Christian colleges, this service can also integrate with their mission to serve God by serving and evangelizing others, whether motivated by charity, philanthropy, or scriptural mandate. These service programs have impacted students profoundly, often changing the life course of a student. But do they positively impact the targeted communities? Is it efficient to spend $30,000 in travel money to send an unskilled …

A Brief Survey Of The Biblical Integration Of Engineering And Missions With Emphasis On Appropriate Technologies, Frederick G. Harmon

Christian Engineering Conference

A Biblical foundation for the integration of engineering and missions, an overview of appropriate technology in a Christian context, a survey of projects at other Christian engineering programs, and proposed engineering projects are discussed for remote areas and developing countries. At the core of the Biblical integration of engineering and missions is the desire to use engineering skills and resources to assist others, especially those in the Christian family, improve their lives, help them obtain Biblical information, and encourage personal responsibility. Engineering topics are proposed that will help people gain access to information, improve agricultural methods, improve their health, and …

Integrally Christian Engineering Scholarship: A Case Study, Justin R. Vander Werff

Christian Engineering Conference

Engineering programs at Christian colleges typically focus primarily on undergraduate education. Likewise, faculty members drawn to Christian engineering education tend to have a strong desire to disciple young men and women in what it means to be faithful Christ followers in engineering. Consequently, engineering faculty tend to work long and hard to provide a solid education experience, leaving little time for anything else. However, institutional demands on faculty typically extend far past teaching, and one area that inevitably pops up in growing Christian engineering programs is research and scholarship. What is the place of research in a Christian engineering program? …

Institutional Differences In The Education Of Engineering And Computing Students About Ethics And Societal Impacts, Angela Bielefeldt, Madeline Polmear, Daniel Knight, Christoppher Swan, Nathan Canney

Christian Engineering Conference

This study explored the extent to which faculty report teaching engineering and computing students about ethics and societal impacts (ESI) in courses and via co-curricular activities. The research questions were to determine if there were differences in the topics, teaching methods, assessment methods, and satisfaction with ESI instruction between faculty from religiously-affiliated (RA) and non-religiously affiliated (NRA) institutions. A national survey was conducted, with about 1400 responses. This included 122 faculty from 60 RA institutions (across 17 denominations/faiths). Chi-square tests evaluated statistically significant differences (p

Philosophy Of Teaching And Student And Peer Mentorship: A Christian Perspective, Scott J. Anson

Christian Engineering Conference

As Professors our students have the multifaceted status of being 1) our customers, 2) our product and 3) our future colleagues. In addition as Christians, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ or those we influence for His glory. As customers they have a choice where to pursue their education and have expectations. Some expectations are reasonable, some we need to recalibrate for them. As our product, their professional growth and abilities are to varying degrees a result of, and to a very large degree, a reflection of us and our institutions. As graduates employed in an industry we …

Theology And Engineering Practice: Models Of Reality, William M. Jordan

Christian Engineering Conference

To a Christian engineer both faith and engineering practice are very important. As we work through what we believe about God and how we practice engineering, we find that they have something important in common. Both systematic theology and engineering practice are approximations in our attempts to understand reality.

When theologians attempt to systematize the faith, they are coming up with human models of how they see God acting in human history. When engineers design a new product, they use models of how materials act when they have various forces applied to them.

For example, in discussing end times theologians …

Twenty-Five Years Of Christian Engineering: A Literature Survey, Steven H. Vanderleest

Christian Engineering Conference

This paper surveys the complete set of over one hundred published papers that have appeared in the previous proceedings of this Christian engineering conference, identifying the themes, questions, and issues that have been explored thus far. Major themes include Biblical principles and virtues, design norms, the great Biblical directives, vocation/calling, and attributes of God. Next, a taxonomy is proposed to organize the concepts into an overall structure. Finally, the paper identifies open questions and topics that deserve further discussion.

On The Significance Of The Biography And Thought Of Pilgram Marpeck For A Responsible Engineering Perspective, Karl Heinz Kienitz

Christian Engineering Conference

In the general scope of an aspirational approach to engineering practice and ethics, this article follows the paradigm of learning from biography and presents Pilgram Marpeck, an engineer and Anabaptist reformer of the 16th century, as a possible early role model for the engineering professional. A biographical review of his life and all-encompassing participation in the society of his time is followed by a self-contained summary of his thought on selected topics. When considering the bearing of these on engineering ethics and practice, Marpeck's thought and several of his concerns are found of current relevance.