Beyond Prototypes and PowerPoints
Engineering programs must not only teach design principles but also prepare students to make a lasting impact.
By Khanjan Mehta
Over the last two decades, numerous academic programs and student organizations have engaged engineering students in addressing the needs of low-resource communities in the US and around the world. Humanitarian engineering, development engineering, engineering for developing communities—there are many names for these efforts, but they share a common focus: sustainable solutions that benefit disadvantaged individuals, their communities, and larger markets and systems. The rigorous integration of an entrepreneurial approach has helped transform engineering design and service-learning programs into incubators for high-impact social enterprises that can transform communities and markets.
By engaging in these meaningful, authentic projects, engineering students develop 21st-century skills and expand their accomplishment. They develop confidence, agency, and self-efficacy and find their sense of purpose and belonging in the world. Students conduct original research and publish in peer-reviewed journals; develop novel technologies and field-test them with partners; build scalable technology-based enterprises; work to integrate research-based insights into policies; and champion social movements that can influence and improve the lives of millions of people.
Content knowledge is infinite, and specific skills might be obsolete by graduation. Hence, such impact-focused programs emphasize personal transformation and externally validated accomplishments beyond narrowly-focused learning outcomes. How are students advancing knowledge and contributing solutions not in some distant future but in the present? How do these immersive experiences lead to personal growth and professional recognition? Preparing the next generation of global problem solvers drives the philosophy, pedagogy, and operations of such programs. Learning is a beautiful rainbow on this long journey to sustainable social impact. What matters more is students learning how to learn, ask the right questions, engage with others, create value, find their place in the world, build organizations and systems, and get stuff done.
While such endeavors are usually well-meaning, creatively designed, and enthusiastically deployed, they do not necessarily result in positive long-term change. What makes projects more likely to succeed? How might we build courses and curricula that immerse students and faculty in global grand challenges and enable them to develop innovative, practical, and context-appropriate solutions? What kinds of partnerships do we need to build to realize these ambitious sustainable development goals?
These were the kinds of questions that led us to curate a special issue of Advances in Engineering Education on impact-focused education. We invited articles from faculty on courses and programs that 1) engage students in real-world technology projects related to social innovation and global sustainable development, and 2) prioritize (or at least give equal importance to) long-term outcomes rather than focusing on and designing programs around student learning outcomes.
The seven articles in this special issue describe proven academic models, student-centered pedagogies, and operational practices from innovative programs that, for example, strengthen water systems and integrate fuel-efficient cookstoves in Guatemala or educate refugees and street youth in Jordan and Kenya. A common theme across the programs is the emphasis on trust-based partnerships, and hence two of the articles specifically focus on practical frameworks and rubrics to develop equitable and meaningful partnerships that minimize harm for all stakeholders.
Legitimate questions have been raised concerning the relevance of higher education in the 21st century. Impact-focused education provides a philosophy and framework that address these questions and the evolving demands of students, prospective employers, and the world at large. A university is an institution where students find their place in the universe. Higher education has always been about expanding opportunities and transforming lives. The singular focus on making a real difference for disadvantaged populations provides a gateway for students’ personal and professional development as productive scholars, proactive innovators, and engaged citizens. Engineering educators around the world must lead higher education to articulate its rightful place as the epicenter of not only knowledge creation but also societal transformation in the 21st century.
Khanjan Mehta is the inaugural vice provost for creative inquiry and director of the Mountaintop Initiative at Lehigh University, as well as the lead instigator for several academic programs that engage faculty and students in ambitious, interdisciplinary, multiyear, impact-focused ventures.
Access the special issue of AEE at https://bit.ly/3N05Ld4.
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