NSF Award
2022271
Today’s world faces emerging economic and environmental challenges. From a historical perspective one of the most effective ways the nation has addressed such challenges is through investing in the development of new technologies. Such investment is not just in machines and methods, but also includes investing in people through educating engineers who can both understand complex challenges and develop effective technological solutions. Yet as challenges grow in complexity so do the technologies needed to address them and the demands on education to prepare the next generation of engineers. This project seeks to better prepare engineering students to address “convergent” problems whose solution requires expertise from many different areas. Examples of such problems include many of the latest medical breakthroughs as well as infrastructure like advances communication networks that change how citizens go about their day-to-day affairs. To better prepare the next generation of engineers to address such problems, this project will integrate convergent problems into undergraduate courses, expand students’ technical and professional skillset, and change grading practices to develop the abilities students will need to face tomorrow’s challenges. The project brings together experts from multiple disciplines to help faculty develop the skills needed to better integrate societally important problems in classes. By educating students to address societal-scale convergent challenges students will be better prepared for, and attracted to, engineering careers and able to capitalize on emerging career opportunities. <br/><br/>A key hypothesis of this project is that by addressing convergent problems in their undergraduate degree program students will be better prepared to address these problems later in their career and more likely to choose careers aligned with societally important challenges. Since convergent problems draw from multiple domains of expertise, the project fosters skill development in communication across disciplinary boundaries and students’ ability to consider diverse stakeholder perspectives. To build the needed breadth of perspective, the project adopts Sen’s development as freedom framework to draw from students’ own experiences. To support development of personally relevant functionings and capabilities, the project will expand student pathways through the engineering curriculum by modifying grading practices and introducing learning opportunities that develop student agency and intrinsic motivation. The project will examine barriers to student autonomy and seek to change structural elements of the curriculum and institution including grading practices, curation of student work, and the uses of technology in the classroom. Changes to students’ experiences and learning are analyzed through phenomenographic and social cognitive career theory lenses. Faculty development is supported through communities of transformation which cut broadly across disciplinary boundaries. To stimulate more wide-spread change in the engineering education ecosystem case studies of the project effects are targeted to administrative, faculty, and policy audiences.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
