Introduction
The Engineering Studies major here at Lafayette College can be best compared to a hidden gem within the prestigious engineering department. For the past 50 years, our mission as a major is to foster an understanding of engineering that goes beyond the technical groundwork and redefine engineering as a liberal art. The technical skills students learn within the major are supplemented with substantial humanities and social science coursework that can be commonly applied in careers in and beyond the technical profession engineers are typically found within. Students within the major commonly cite it as an interdisciplinary spin on the traditional engineering track, and upperclassmen in the major praise the skills and methodology championed by this branch of the engineering department that is not taught by any other major on campus. The unique blend of technical training engineers receive, combined with the liberal arts components that focus on communication, context, policy, and social aspects is something unique and incredibly useful for engineers to know about in the 21st Century and beyond. The curriculum taught to EGRS students encourages ‘going beyond the blueprints’, and challenges students to reflect upon contextual solutions based upon the various communities that they serve.
A first-year Engineering major regardless of the branch, they are required to take an introductory course to learn about engineering through the lens of two different branches of engineering. Each lens, or module, would take place through the course of seven weeks where students would learn about the type of work engineers of that branch typically do. A chemical engineering module, for example, would have students work on creating biofuel and teach them about chemical bonds, energy, molecules, and how to calculate the amount of energy burned by a certain type of catalyst compared to another. At the end of seven weeks, the module would conclude, and the second module would begin, with the students being taught engineering through a different branch of study, (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, etc.) The main purpose of these modules is to be able to introduce the core concepts of engineering to students of course, but also be able to get students excited about what they are learning and doing.
Engineering Studies major in the past has been a major with less representation and notoriety within the engineering department compared to their traditional counterparts. Our team conducted a small survey amongst our nineteen Engineering Studies peers in the 2022 graduation class through GroupMe’s polling function, asking about how everyone found out about and decided to pursue the major. A whopping 64% of seniors within the major transferred into it from another major after learning about it during their time at Lafayette, while only 21% of seniors started their Lafayette College education as an Engineering Studies major. 15% of EGRS Majors had paired this major with a different field of studies, such as economics or psychology. One of the largest takeaways from this small survey was that the majority of the seniors within the Engineering Studies Major, the people who have learned about and now champion the ideals of engineering as more than just a technical discipline, had no idea about this major’s existence when starting at Lafayette College.
With that being said, it is necessary for incoming engineering students to at the very least have the opportunity to learn about what the Engineering Studies major has to offer through an EGRS focused ES 101 module. Through this module, students would receive an earlier glimpse into the major and how it differs from the other majors that are typical of the Engineering Division, in addition to getting freshmen students excited about the opportunity they have available to them. To grab the attention of the student’s interest, we would have to raise and answer the following questions: “What is Engineering Studies? What are the core values that make Engineering Studies unique from the other engineering disciplines offered at Lafayette? How can we introduce this major to students in a way that gets them interested and excited about Engineering Studies?”
In efforts to answer these questions thoroughly and effectively, we propose creating an ES 101 module educating the students on what the Engineering Studies major at Lafayette fully entails and then training them to look for solutions through an EGRS lens. This course would take the form of a seven-week module explaining the ins and outs of the Engineering Studies Major. Consisting of three different integral parts, the course would aim to answer any questions the student had about the major and hopefully would cause more students to want to study Engineering Studies at Lafayette. The first part of the course would be a thorough introduction to the history of the Engineering Studies major at Lafayette and how it has evolved to stay relevant to the field of engineering. We feel this is a great way to set the groundwork for the rest of the course while explicitly showing students the tradition they are a part of. The second part would consist of introducing the three main and required courses students would have to take if they decided to enroll in the Engineering Studies major. Therefore, there would be brief introductions regarding the EGRS 251- Engineering and Public Policy, an introductory course to the governance of science and engineering, EGRS 261- Engineering Economics and Management, a course that addresses the concepts and analytical techniques of engineering economics and management, and EGRS- 451 Engineering and Society, our capstone seminar that focuses on how engineering impacts society as well as how society impacts the practice of engineering. We intend to spend a week on each of the listed courses. In the given week, the goal is to introduce the students to the concepts, themes, and points of emphasis from the higher-level class, at a simpler level that first-year students in their first month of college will be able to grasp. Dispersed throughout these weeks are class discussions and group work, giving them practice at communication and teamwork. This will give students the skills they need to prepare for the final project. The last part of the course would be a final project. These projects would require students to work amongst their peers to prove their understanding of what was taught throughout the seven weeks that the course took place.
Our enticing course description “Humanitarian Engineering” should encourage students down the EGRS path. Also, because the Engineering Studies major is a foreign concept to many incoming and current students, it will be hard to fully explain what the major is in the short period of seven weeks. In addition, though we intend for the course to be thorough despite the limited time, there is still a chance that a student does not understand what the Engineering Studies major truly is after completing the course.
To thoroughly understand and outline the need for our proposed course, we must examine the social and political aspects of engineering and its relation to engineering education. Engineering education is constantly being revised and improved to meet the social influence of the time, and we intend to mimic this in the module. For instance, in our course, we will be examining what social issues come into play regarding the issue and what existing conditions are in place that helps contribute to the problem.
In our report, we will break down the social contexts on a national and community level, as well as the political contexts in which this module proposal exists. Once this has been established, we will then introduce the syllabus, and explain in detail what the potential plans for a seven-week course period would entail.
To read our Social Context section, click here!