http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8251-8425
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ABSTRACT
Despite calls to address global challenges through community engagement, engineers are not formally prepared to engage with communities. Little research has been done on means to address this ‘engagement gap’ in engineering education. We examine the efficacy of an intensive, two-day Community Engagement Workshop for engineers, designed to help engineers better look beyond technology, listen to and learn from people, and empower communities. We assessed the efficacy of the workshop in a non-experimental pre–post design using a questionnaire and a concept map. Questionnaire results indicate participants came away better able to ask questions more broadly inclusive of non-technological dimensions of engineering projects. Concept map results indicate participants have a greater understanding of ways social factors shape complex material systems after completing the programme. Based on the workshop’s strengths and weaknesses, we discuss the potential of expanding and supplementing the programme to help engineers account for social aspects central to engineered systems.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the university faculty, staff, and students who made the workshop possible. We also recognise the efforts of the various community groups that gave their time and expertise to help us develop the workshop.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on Contributors
Matthew Harsh is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Engineering in Society at Concordia University in Montreal. He is interested in how new and emerging technologies can improve livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. An engineer and social scientist, he uses tools from sociology, public policy and economics to understand the forces that drive innovation and technological development, and that determine who benefits from technologies. He works mainly in Kenya and South Africa and has focused on new biotechnologies for agriculture (genetically modified crops), nanotechnology, and computer science and information technologies.
Michael J. Bernstein studies interventions in science and technology policy for responsible innovation. His research has included an evaluation of Science Outside the Lab, an immersion programme in Washington, DC, for Ph.D. scientists and engineers to learn about the intricacies of science policy, and efforts by the U.S. Global Change Research Programme to organise for usable science.
Jameson Wetmore, as co-director of the Center for Engagement and Training in Science and Society, creates ways for scientists, policymakers, and the general public to think about the how science and technology may shape our future. The Center develops science museum programmes that examine the social impact of technological decisions, participatory technology assessment workshops to give members of the public an opportunity to debate the social aspects of emerging technologies, and training programmes in science policy for scientists and engineers. His research spans a broad array of topics and time periods, but most of it comes back to a recurring question: How do people design and create technological systems, and, in turn, how do these technological systems help to define, reinforce and propagate specific values?
Susan Cozzens, in addition to being a professor in the School of Public Policy, is Georgia Tech Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development. Her research is on science, technology, and inequalities, and she is active internationally in developing methods for research assessment and science and technology indicators. She has served as a consultant to various committees and offices responsible for science, engineering, and public policy, including the National Research Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Office of Technology Assessment.
Thomas Woodson specialises in science and technology policy and international development. In current projects, he is investigating the effects of technology on inequality throughout the world and the emergence of science and technology universities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to his doctoral research in public policy, he lived in South Africa for 18 months, working, among other capacities as a visiting research fellow at the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering. He holds a B.S.E. in electrical engineering from Princeton University.
Rafael Castillo is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Public Policy and a member of the Technology Policy and Assessment Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has also served as a Graduate Research Assistant for the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University. His work focuses on innovation for inclusive development, innovation intermediaries and capability building.