Liberal Studies in Engineering: Broadening the Path to the Profession. Phase I

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses an important need to seek a wider range of approaches toward broadening participation in engineering. The traditional pathway into engineering careers is based on a series of mathematics and science prerequisite courses that have proven to be a barrier for many interested and potentially capable engineering students. This project will explore the possibility of developing a version of the undergraduate engineering degree that is based on the perspective of the humanities, arts, and social sciences but also includes content from the traditional undergraduate engineering curriculum. A workshop will be conducted to explore opportunities to establish an undergraduate, pre-professional, bachelor of arts degree for undergraduate students interested in a career in engineering but who enter college uncertain about their degree of commitment to engineering. For these students a liberal studies in engineering degree might serve as an alternative, smoother pathway into engineering. Upon completion, these students could pursue options that include direct employment in technical areas, entreprenurial endeavors, and the pursuit of additional specialized training or advanced degrees in engineering, business, law, or medicine. In this workshop potential collaborator institutions will meet to clarify objectives, suggest content, and examine the structure such a program might take at their respective institutions. The workshop participants will develop a plan to move forward with program development. It is anticipated that a diverse group of approximately 50 educators from a variety of institutional types will participate in the project. This workshop is the beginning of a multi-phase process to explore and develop a potentially transformative step in broadening participation in engineering by offering a pathway into the discipline, and route to a degree, that is markedly different from the traditional path but still encompasses comparable content. Traditionally engineering education heavily emphasizes mathematics and science prerequisite topics for beginning students and addresses the broader social, economic, cultural, and ethical aspects much later in the curriculum and often in an indirect manner. The planned liberal studies in engineering degree envisions reversing the process, offering students an approach to the discipline from a humanistic, artistic, and social perspective. Specific issues to be resolved are aimed at advancing knowledge along pedagogical, epistemological, and sociological dimensions. Pedagogical issues to be clarified in this work include identifying the means for faculty to effectively collaborate in teaching across liberal arts and engineering in a mutually beneficial way. Epistemological topics will address the question of what must students know to successfully engage the engineering sciences that are at the core of the traditional engineering major. Sociological analysis will investigate the institutional and cultural values, beliefs, and norms that both guide and constrain the renovation of programs. Initiatives such as this workshop will identify the steps needed and challenges to be overcome in creating opportunities for individuals whose initial interests in engineering are different from those of the currently established demographic of the discipline. As such it holds the potential to provide a model for other STEM disciplines facing similar challenges.