Serve a Purpose
Some years ago, UNESCO and the German auto firm Daimler jointly sponsored the Mondialogo Engineering Award competition, in which engineering students from the United States and other advanced countries teamed up with partners from the developing world to design functional, environmentally friendly solutions to pressing problems in some of the world’s poorest regions (Prism, April 2009). While it lasted, Mondialogo offered a vivid example of an initiative outside the classroom that captured students’ interest in making the world safer and healthier. Now, as Thomas Grose reports in our cover story, educators like Wake Forest University’s Olga Pierrakos are working to encourage that same humanitarian impulse in the engineering curriculum with courses that combine project-based learning and community service. “They want impact; they want to do something that matters,” she says of the current generation of undergraduates, who grew up during the Great Recession and doubtless still witness glaring disparities between rich and poor. One sign that her effort reflects a trend is the surging growth of ASEE’s Community Engagement Division, which now tops 800 members.
If students benefit from service projects, Reinvention columnist Debbie Chachra points out that they also need to reflect on the difference between value propositions—as in costs and benefits—and values. She cites examples where engineers apparently failed to make the distinction and communities suffered grave harm.
In our Teaching Toolbox, Mary Lord reports on a successful effort to erase at least one disparity in engineering education: a deficit in spatial skills found among many female and under-represented minority students. It turns out that this can be corrected, as demonstrated by a series of workshops at the University of Colorado–Boulder.
If you receive the print version of Prism, you’ll see that October’s edition arrived in a plastic bag along with a special commemorative issue marking ASEE’s 125th anniversary. Inside is a close look at the past and future of engineering education, along with technological milestones, an educators’ Hall of Fame, and members’ testimonials about the Society. We hope you’ll find this special issue attractive and informative. Please read it at your leisure and share it with colleagues.
Mark Matthews
m.matthews@asee.org