Welcome!
This page was created for professional engineers hoping to expand their understanding of who engineering is for and the consequences of human created designs. The content here is based on the course MCEN 4/5228 Design For Inclusion though modified for the stated audience; there are readings, videos, and activities for you to peruse.
It’s not expected that all of the information is viewed in the order it’s been presented, though beginning with the content in the first section, Setting the Stage, will be beneficial as the two readings establish a context for the subsequent content.
The additional sections of this page include: Engineering as a Built and Biased Artifact, Contextual Listening and Learning from Small Stories, Bias in Modern Technology, and Wisdom from Guest Lecturers. Each section ends with a discussion page where you’re welcome to leave questions and comments.
If you’d like more reading materials or discussion questions, see our book club and feel free to contact me!
I. Setting the Stage
Read Winner (1980), “Do Artifacts Have Politics?”
Explore the socio-economic and political consequences of human-designed artifacts.
Read Leydens & Lucena (2018), “Social Justice is Often Invisible in Engineering Education and Practice”
Read Chapter 1 of Engineering Justice: Transforming Engineering Education and Practice and understand the ideologies and mindsets taught to engineers that prevent seeing social justice.
II. Engineering as a Built and Biased Artifact
Journey Mapping
Chart your path through engineering; internally ask a question and analyze your answer over time. Ask, How much have you wanted to be an engineer? How much have you felt like an engineering? How hard has it been to be an engineer? Or choose your own question!
Revisit an Old Engineering Problem
Keeping in mind the barriers outlined by Leydens & Lucena, analyze an old engineering problem from school or work. Who defined the problem? Who and what are left in and left out? Can you envision an alternative problem definition to include different perspectives?
Read O’Connor, Peck, and Cafarella (2015), “Struggling for Legitimacy”
Follow the experiences of an underprivileged student through engineering school at a big university. Reflect on the rites of passage of engineering school and the curricular flowchart dictating progress through the degree.
Watch Nightline (1999)
Watch, Video Project (2010)
Discover the consequences of materialistic consumerism and its affect on the world.
Discuss engineering culture, power, and authority.
Uncover engineering norms and assumptions.
III. Contextual Listening and Learning from Small Stories
Read Leydens & Lucena (2009), “Listening as a Missing Dimension of Engineering Education”
Learn about the imperative of contextual listening in engineering education.
Read Pawley (2013), “‘Learning from Small Numbers’ of Unrepresented Student’s Stories”
The experiences of minority students in engineering.
Read Masta (2017), “‘I am exhausted’: Everyday Occurrences and Being Native American”
College at a large university through the lens of Native American students.
Listen 99% Invisible (2020)
Understand the exclusive design of American bathrooms and the actors working to achieve inclusivity.
Read Report of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission (2017), “The Flint Water Crisis”, Executive Summary
Read Denchack (2018), “Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need To Know”, Summary
Watch 60 Minutes (2021)
Watch American Society of Engineering Education (2019)
Discuss the value of small numbers in research.
Identify and evaluate stakeholders in designed artifacts.
IV. Bias in Modern Technology
Delve into various publications analyzing the consequences of data bias in the 21st century.
V. Wisdom from Guest Lecturers
Jenni Blacklock
Presented on listening to individual consequences of engineering.
Find Jenni on LinkedIn.
Lauren Hafford
Presented on the seductive reduction of other peoples problems.
Find Lauren on LinkedIn