Embedding social impact in engineering curriculum
- Publication Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Citation:
- 45th SEFI Annual Conference, 2017, pp. 935-945
- Issue Date:
- 2017
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| Filename | Description | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Embedding social impact in engineering curriculum_FINAL SUBMISSION_no comments.docx | Accepted version | 196.75 kB |
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The prospect of having a positive social impact motivates many students to study engineering. However, this motivation is largely ignored in engineering curricula, which have traditionally focused on the transmission of content knowledge. The growth of humanitarian engineering education in recent years is part of a trend towards addressing social impact in engineering education and appealing to this student motivation. For example, many Australian universities now offer the Engineers without Borders (EWB) Design Challenge, humanitarian engineering research projects, or even entire degree specialisations. However, despite the success of these programs, what is lacking is a way of embedding social impact in all engineering curricula. At Swinburne University of Technology, this lack is being addressed with a new curriculum being co-designed with industry partners, grounded in education research, and built around work-oriented pedagogies including project-based learning. Projects will be aligned with 4 Pillars: Emerging Technologies, Entrepreneurship, research & Development, and Social Impact. In this paper, we will report on the development of our new Social Impact curriculum pillar, drawing on research from the fields of social science, engineering education, and humanitarian engineering, and from real-world case studies of how engineering has been used to achieve lasting positive social impact.
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