Although engineering is commonly understood as a "technical" enterprise -- many associate it with electronic devices, high performance materials, and modern infrastructure, for example -- equally important is an understanding of the many social contexts in which engineering is practiced, and the related social impacts. This project engages students (both undergraduate and graduate) and faculty in deep experiences in which they directly consider social, ethical, and global issues (SEGIs) as essential aspects of their educational, research, and career development activities. As a result, it empowers participating students and faculty to function in novel and non-traditional settings and roles, using a combination of traditional and non-traditional skills and sensitivities. Example outcomes include: an undergraduate student choosing a service-learning elective to enhance her engineering design project; a graduate who works as a professional engineer playing the role of honest broker to mediate between a community and a large developer; a graduating student founding a non-profit organization to create new technologies for use in a "developing country" a researcher deploying his or her knowledge and skills to design a research project that addresses a specific social, regional, or community need. In these and other ways, this project engages traditionally under-represented populations and marginalized communities, particularly from Puerto Rico, Haiti, and several other countries from Latin America. And, reflecting this international orientation, this project deploys four languages: Spanish, English, French, and Haitian Creole.
The concept of Responsible Wellbeing (RW), particularly as articulated by Robert Chambers, combines with a virtue approach to ethics to unify, philosophically and normatively, this project's activities. Essentially, this approach holds that both personal happiness and societal wellbeing converge at a point between scarcity/poverty and the extreme/unlimited pursuit of material and monetary wealth. Reaching such a point requires exercising self-imposed moderation. In the context of engineering it can be realized through making conscious choices in engineering design and research applications while drawing on key principles such as Appropriate Technology (AT), Value Sensitive Design (VSD), and Human Capabilities (HC). The four activities sponsored by this project integrate RW throughout the educational and research missions of the College of Engineering through (1) development of new teaching materials, case studies, and strategies for intermediate and capstone courses in the College of Engineering; (2) delivery of a series of seminars, workshops, and conferences that introduce participants to the principles of RW, AT, VSD, and HC, all of which are encapsulated in a general reader made available to all participants; (3) support of several independent research projects that respond to a specific societal or community context, and embed the concepts of RW, AT, VSD, and/or HC, together with alternative career fairs that assist participants with their pursuit of opportunities that meaningfully engage with SEGIs; and (4) execution of an innovative developmental assessment plan that guides and tracks overall project progress, using a framework of five stages: awareness, evaluation, integration, anticipation, and value realization. The PIs are collectively experienced with several prior projects in engineering ethics, engineering education, and appropriate technology upon which this project builds.
