Many thanks, Robert. The individual interest level is the ultimate attraction that allows us to reach unprecedented depths in their engagement with their engineering studies. It has also spurned a heightened level of self-efficacy and professional identity.

Many thanks, Sarah. In fact, it has also been a learning opportunity for us on the other side as faculty. For example, we have learned that some of the challenges that we felt were restricted to a particular demographic are actually also shared by others alike. It is reallt amazing hearing the students identify these issues and, more importantly, relating with them in empathetic ways.

Thank you for the feedback, Kwame. The course is currently a pilot. We have learned enough from this exercise to know that it ought to become an integral part of engineering education. We anticipate that we would be able to institutionalize it as a staple for the engineering majors and computer science.  

Thanks a lot, Christine. Sincerely, we have learned as much as the students have in the course of this project. At least, I can say that I am now more in-tune, from different social perspectives, with the tenets of human-centered design thinking, storytelling, and a true sense of civic engagement inspired by empathy. As you rightly identified, it is an outcome of having diametrically different areas of expertise working together. Frankly, this speaks volumes about one of NSF's Big 10 Ideas, Growing Convergence Research: "The grand challenges of today -- protecting human health; understanding the food, energy, water nexus; exploring the universe at all scales -- will not be solved by one discipline alone. They require convergence: the merging of ideas, approaches and technologies from widely diverse fields of knowledge to stimulate innovation and discovery."

So a question - when you talk about storytelling, have you incorporated storytelling as a basis for the reason for design, the marketing ideas to sell it to potential people, or both (or any other areas as well)?

 

Great question, Christine. Storytelling is not a core characteristic of the regular engineer. In fact, it is not even a part of the curriculum. However, running this program has revealed to us that it is an innate, but dormant quality of many engineering students that requires the right impetus to activate it.

Our idea of integrating storytelling is a combination of both rationales you have stated. On the one hand, allowing the students to tell their stories (many of which were quite personal) allowed them to unravel their empathetic persona that, in turn, allowed them to showcase the dire need to develop solutions to some societal problems. On the other hand, the premise of storytelling also challenges the students to articulate their reasoning about the solutions in ways that a layman could appreciate. For example, the students in one of the cohorts were able to decipher that the term "homelessness" has some negative connotations that bear some perceptions of societal stigma. So, they coined the term, "unhoused." In fact, in scaling the hurdle presented by how to tell the story surrounding the solutions they came up with, they identified that both terminologies are not necessarily synonymous, and thus proceeded to generate potential solution strategies to the issues. This is just an example of how tasking students in technical fields to embrace social science constructs, i.e., storytelling, could help shed additional lights not only on the empathy associated with problem recognition, but also the acumen required in coming up with solutions to the problem.

Thank you, Nonye. Your question is at the heart of our project. You are right, engineers are innovators. In fact, the word engineering comes from medieval Latin, "ingeniare" meaning to devise. However, the engineering education curriculum rarely exposes students to the opportunities in social innovation such as helping to address the many different ramifications of the marginalization of minority populations, disparities in social benefits such as healthcare, the challenges confronting the unhoused and homelessness, etc. Thus, the students are often unconsciously insulated from the awareness of some of these challenges or they are not challenged to develop a sense of civic engagement. This is because the engineering curriulum focuses less on building students' capacity in the use of their engineering skills and knowledge to address these civic challenges. On the contrary, the engineering curriculum emphasizes the economic opportunities that engineering degrees will open to graduates. Note, we are not postulating that this is less than optimal. Nonetheless, we note that many of these students anticipate careers where the effect of their knowledge is readily seen or observable in their immediate environment through human impact.

Injecting a sense of civic responsibilty requires students to learn new skills. In fact, many engineering students are nescient of the tools of human-centered design and rarely demonstrate the empathy that is often required for addressing social challenges. We are seeing preliminary outcomes that support our main hypothesis that a curriculum addendum with service learning to address societal challenges will increase the engagement of the students in their learning with significant benefits to the society. A corrollary of this outcome is that students' confidence in engineering is being strengthened as they develop the capacity for social innovation.

In terms of practices, our two-segment seminar series has students working together on case studies  and service learning projects that accord them the oportunites to develop and apply techniques from engineering, ethnographic research, design, and entrepreneurship. We are collecting evidences of their learning (or unlearning) in class sessions, vlogs, surveys, and their collaboration with external organizations. 

LOL... your excitement is palpable, Nancy. Questions are required to unlock further answers, and these ones you have asked are just on point!

Is this course currently an elective? 

 

Currently, the courses are run as seminars and they are electives.

How do students learn about this course?  

We post numerous fliers across the engineering school, and we also go to speak about the courses in their regular/current classes. Sincerely, many students are quite interested, but the curriculum barely has any room to accomodate yet another course. Also, because we targetted sophomores (spring semester) for the first seminar and expect them to return in their junior year (spring semester) for the second segment, we are finding that many are scheduled for study abroad opportunities. Another major challenge, which is tightly connected to the limitations in the curriculum, is in finding the right time to run the sessions.

Do you have a more diverse group of students taking this course versus other engineering courses? 

We have focused strictly on engineering and computer science (CS) students. The CS department is housed in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at GW. Perhaps we could open this up to other disciplines across the school in a future opportunity.

What feedback are you getting from students? 

The feedback have been largely positive. In fact, many wish these courses were made staples for the engineering curriculum. We have seen noticeable increases in their perceptions of themselves as engineers, i.e., self-identity, and their anticipatory cognition in the use of their extant knowledge appears to have also increased.

Are there other engineering faculty who are interested in learning about the course or teaching it? 

Hmm... good question. While we have not received any direct or formal interests, we are quite optimistic that should we reach out, many would jump on the wagon. 

Do you think this course could have an impact on the types of students who select engineering as a major? 

Well, the target disciplines are engineering and CS. Perhaps when/if we open this program beyond the frontiers of engineering, we might be able to determine this impact.

Is this course only open to engineering students or can students from other majors take it?

Currently, it is only open to engineering and CS students only.

Many thanks, Nancy, for your questions -- in my opinion, these are operationalization questions and it speaks volumes about your interest. Thank you very much.

This group also has a video here. Check them out: https://stemforall2022.videohall.com/presentati...

 

And, I found another one connected to empathy. You all should put your heads together!

Thank you, Jennifer.  Yes, I love their project and video.  We are incorporate storytelling but this work reminds me that "storyfinding" is just as important – locating the story in the problem early is a great way to make the human-centered design approach even more accessible.  In design we often use the "user journey" to think through a problem diachronically while centering a perspective and lived experience.  Narrative work has the added benefit of connecting intentionally with underrepresented groups, brilliant.

Thank you, Anna, for your comment. We are aware of related programs at other universities such as the VIP program at Georgia Tech. However, the premise of our program and the implementation approach are fundamentally different. While ours focuses on inculcating the tenets of human-centered design and empathy, theirs exemplifies the practical application of technical knowledge. The alignment we share is in addressing societal challenges in the process of nurturing the future engineer. 

Oopsss... I have been sidelined from this for a few days by commencement activities.

Many, many thanks, Anna. This is invaluable. Please, I would like to have a follow-on discussion with you related to this potential opportunity. My email address is: eshittu@gwu.edu. I could also send you an email once I figure out what your email address is. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chris, for the heads-up about the issues with the Innovation Center website that you emailed to us about over the weekend. The problem has been addressed. Thank you!

You raise some important questions, sir. We allowed problem identification to evolve organically. First, we challenged the students to identify problems. This task allowed them to dig-in and provide some based on their own lived experiences. To meet them at their situated problem domains, we also invited partners into the fray. Sincerely, we did not pre-plan what problems or what domains the students would be working in. However, in genuflecting to the students choices, we find that their freedom to reflect truly activates their empathy. 

Your point on the distinction between the three design paradigms is sacrosanct! My opinion here is that much of what we have tried to do entails either "design for" or "design with" paradigms. It is my belief that the third paradigm, "design by" is exclusive to commercial ventures. I will read your article, soon, to learn a bit more about these concepts.

Your penultimate paragraph is loaded! One way to unload it is to share with you that the first segment of the seminar actually includes cases on how individuals could be change makers in their organizations. One of the readings in the semester is titled, "The Tempered Radicals: How employees push their companies – little by little – to be more socially responsible," by Debra E. Meyerson. The article was published in Stanford's Social Innovation Review. On the employment and interviewing aspects, we have other offices dedicated to those at GW. However, the Innovation Center is equipping the students with readily explainable opportunities at any interview. Frankly, I doubt our students would ever be found wanting on what to say that is not in their resume. 

The center is evolving... our hope is that projects like this will continue to make the center flourish. 

Thanks Ekundayo, great references.   We'll follow up.

Thank you, Lisa.