In France, some institutions seem to call for the engineer's sense of social responsibility. However, this call is scarcely heard. Still, engineering students have been given the opportunity to gain a general education through courses in literature, law, economics, since the nineteenth century. But, such courses have long been offered only in the top ranked engineering schools. In this paper, we intend to show that the wish to increase engineering students' social responsibility is an old concern. We also aim at highlighting some macro social factors which shaped the answer to the call for social responsibility in the French engineering "Grandes Ecoles". In the first part, we provide an overview of the scarce attention given to the engineering curriculum in the scholarly literature in France. In the second part, we analyse one century of discourses about the definition of the "complete engineer" and the consequent role of non technical education. In the third part, we focus on the characteristics of the corpus which has been institutionalized. Our main finding is that despite the many changes which occurred in engineering education during one century, the "other formation" remains grounded on a non academic "way of knowing", and aims at increasing the reputation of the schools, more than enhancing engineering students' social awareness.

https://philpapers.org/archive/DIDSRI.pdf

Social Responsibility in French Engineering Education: A Historical and Sociological Analysis

Essentially any published paper that addresses either the engineering curriculum or deficiencies in the skills of practicing engineers includes conclusions regarding the need to improve capabilities in written and oral communication. In the Report of the Committee on Evaluation of Engineering Education published in 1955, the Committee considered insistence upon the development of a high level of performance in the oral, written, and graphical communication of ideas an essential element of the engineering curriculum.

/pdf/writing-and-undergraduate-engineers-a-continuing-problem-50us9dwrka.pdf

Writing And Undergraduate Engineers A Continuing Problem

There is a growing awareness that professional engineers need a substantial acquaintance with a variety of subjects traditionally taught within the humanities. This argument reflects the claim put forth on many fronts that modern, scientific technology poses many challenges that can only be addressed by the insight of the humanities. This radical change of direction forced various engineering educators to respond more adequately to the ‘technoscience’ challenges and to introduce subjects in engineering  such as ethics, literature, philosophy, culture, history of technology and aesthetics which can be called ‘engineering humanities’. The purpose of this paper is to explore the indispensable need of inclusion of humanities in engineering education for regaining the human factor in technological questions. This paper argues that due to the perception that engineering profession is ‘hard hat’ technical in nature, it requires application of broad knowledge of human affairs in engineering practice.

/pdf/lending-human-touch-the-role-of-humanities-in-engineering-avsiu0mtwd.pdf

Lending Human Touch: The Role of Humanities in Engineering Education

The project presented in this paper is designed to draw connections between engineering and the creative arts, especially for high school students in 9 th through 12 th grades. The idea is supported by the literature of the time that states that the current generation of students both in high school and college are no longer looking simply for a technical education. They are looking to pursue engineering with an ever increasing focus on creativity and the liberal arts. A number of years ago an abstract for a paper espousing the use of liberal experiences to further engineering studies began with “Variety's the spice of life that gives it its flavor." These lines in "The Task, I" by William Cowper (English poet 1731-1800) reflect an attitude that must he fostered in the minds of engineers. No man is an island, and no field of study can divorce itself from the activities, interests. and positive reinforcement of divergent areas of instruction. Many activities in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University have been pursued to foster liberal activities within engineering from poetry writing to novel production. It was thought and has been shown to have a positive effect upon the students and their studies from freshmen through graduate students. When carrying on casual conversations with these engineering students, especially when their guard is down, one can discover a wealth of information about their technical interests and abilities; but one can also learn about their interests in wider ranging fields such as art, music, and literature. In these more comfortable times, the ties to acting in plays, writing poetry, and creating works of art is evidenced. With these conversations, an idea was born in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Michigan State University to utilize these interests to help engineering students move through their education. A variety of activities involving poetry and novel writing, musical composition, and art projects were investigated. These projects were highly successful with the undergraduates, providing many with both relaxation and actual valuable interest in better text production. While these were good activities, there was a concern that we were only making contact with the students already in the College of Engineering and not addressing their counterparts in high school, students good in math and science, possibly aiming toward engineering, but possibly more interested in the arts. The immediate thought involved capturing the attention of the high school students through art and not directly through math and science. This paper describes a novel approach that involves students in two local high schools being introduced to engineering, especially automotive engines and energy, through their own efforts to create personal impressions of technical areas. The students worked through a semester art class, producing a wide range of paintings depicting their impressions. Their reactions to the experience, a survey given to undergraduate and graduate students on their assessment of pursuing humanities oriented areas in engineering will be presented, along with educational literature aimed at the furtherance of engineering and arts and letters collaboration.

/pdf/promoting-an-interest-in-engineering-through-art-mbz1toswhp.pdf

Promoting An Interest In Engineering Through Art

The University of Dayton requires all first year engineering students to enroll in a design course that is composed of several standalone modules. Included in the first generation of this class was a module on civil and environmental engineering, the topic of this manuscript. The goals of this module were to define civil and environmental engineering, illustrate the interrelationship of all engineering disciplines, show the integration of technical and non-technical issues, and introduce the design process. To achieve these goals, case studies and panel discussions were presented and a laboratory exercise conducted. The laboratory exercise consisted of two components. In the environmental engineering component, students designed a filtration/contact unit to treat polluted water. The civil engineering component required building a structure to hold the filtration unit. These exercises integrated technical and non-technical issues. The technical components were the open-ended design problem associated with cleaning polluted water and the construction of the process support structure and the non-technical issues included related social considerations, teamwork, technical writing, ethics, and finance. Students' assessments of the module have revealed that the objectives of the module were largely achieved.

First Year Civil and Environmental Engineering Design Experience

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