Engineering - Other (59) The objective of this project is to develop a course to help engineers to become comfortable in a variety of roles, not just as technology leaders, but those who can integrate innovative developments from non-engineering fields and find ways to focus the energies of the different disciplines to ensure the effectiveness of interdisciplinary teams. Due to increasing complexity and the scale of systems-based engineering problems, there is a growing need for engineers who have an understanding of the complexities associated with a global market and social context. To meet this need, this project is developing a course that actively teaches students structured methodologies and principles of emergence in social systems. In this course, students are participating on multidisciplinary teams in social experiments and simulations conducted via a wireless handheld computer mediated communication system. This system facilitates the modification of experimental parameters, the collection of data, and the presentation of results in real time. The course incorporates cultural evolution, behavioral game theory, and judgment and decision making course materials with experimentation, data collection, and hypothesis testing to examine social dynamics. Through its collaborative nature, this project is not only advancing student training in multidisciplinary teams but is also contributing to the professional development of the faculty involved. This course is initially being offered through a Bioengineering course but it could be extended to programs in the decision and social sciences at a future time.
