2014.03.25, CDIO Asian Regional Meeting, Kanazawa, JapanReshaping Engineering Learningfrom a Social Design Perspective
Wen-Ling Hong 洪文玲
Science, Technology and Society (STS) Research Center
Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering 造船及海洋工程CDIO Syllabus
4, Conceiving, Designing Implementing and Operating Systems
in the Enterprise and Environmental Context
4.1 External, Societal and environmental context
4.2 Enterprise and business context
4.3 Conceiving, systems engineering and management
4.4 Designing
4.5 Implementing
4.6 operatingproducts, processes, projects, system, software and materials
How do we find what to “do”

Frustration with Pedagogical Strategies?
Top-down policy from Ministry of Education andother government agencies, through funded
projects, examples in Taiwan:
Employment Competitiveness (Higher Ed, 2013)
Bifurcating into Research / practice orientation in curriculum

Citizen Core Competency (Advisory Office, 2011)
Ethics, Democracy, Science, Aesthetics, Media
Encouraging Integrating the Core Competency into TechnicalCourses

Interdisciplinary / New Issues (Advisory Office, 2007)
Science, Technology and Society (STS),••••

Problem-BasedLearning, PBL
Multi-dimensional
curriculum map
Project-Based-Learning
Industry collaboration

How do we mobilize
the Engineeringfaculties andstudents?

Important Questions
WithinEngineering– What are the engineering/engineers like inour country, university, college anddepartment?
– What are the industries that are related toour fields and how are they operating?
– What is the engineering culture?

Putting Engineering Practices in a social context
How are we going to contribute to a better society using ourengineering practices?
－ pressing issues and visionary actions for our society
live stream created by student protester http://tw.pikolive.com/event/longson3000

the Overwhelming Presence of Engineering in
Higher Education / Science Education @ Taiwan
Science Majors

Health andwelfare
12%
Agriculture
2%Engineering,manufacturi
ng andconstruction
24% (F 14%)Services10%½ !
Science
10%More than 80% of venture capital

Education
Humanities
3%and arts
14%
Socialscience,business andlaw 25%,
(F 59%)
2011, 1.35 million undergraduates,
0.3 million in engineering

5Social design
Within the design world, social design is sometimes defined
as a design process that contributes to improving humanwell-being and livelihood
The term social design is also increasingly used to describe
design of the social world. This definition implicates aperception of a man-made reality, which consequently canonly be changed by man, and is changed by man all the time.
In this view social design is inescapable, it is there whether
people are aware of it or not.
The social reality is created as a result of the sum of all ourindividual actions~Wikipedia

designing a social world in engineering schools for
spontaneous development oftechnical competence andunderstanding of the real world problems.

Like coding:
Hardware－Physical Environment
Software－Engineering Context
Programmer －Resources (theorems, research methods,
studies, people) from all fields, e.g. Education, Sociology,
History of Science, Science Philosophy, Anthropology, ScienceTechnology and Society (STS)Actions• Carefully Created Workspace －
facilitate (to make easy) more discussions and teamworks, for students and faculty members

Kanazawa Institute of Technology, KITLibra

Student StudioMedia and Printing room

Yumekobo,夢考Subscribing Local News papers－
encourage and support students to stayconnected with their local community andindustries

Actions• Carefully Created Workspace －
facilitate (to make easy) more discussions and teamworks, for students and faculty members• Community-Based Engineering Projects －accessing theneeds from the citizens or communities, andcommunicating outside our comfortable domains

Intelligent mobility aids for the elderly
discuss ideas and innovation with people from different
disciplines, inside and outside of engineering with social
awareness
Intelligent robotic mobility aids maybe intimidating
and not financial friendly for some people.

http://history.n.yam.com/cna/computer/201109/20110907669996.html

Longtail Boats in Thailand
Perspective from scholars:• Noisy for bird-watching, leisure purposes• Concerns about fuel consumption• Low propulsion efficiency

Perspectives from locals:• Masculinity from the locals’ point of view
• Easy to maneuver in shallow water and swampy areawith flourishing water plants• Embedded in Thai culture of mechanization

Japanese Comic book by 倉科遼
about storied of 3 generation in a family teaming up to provide housing
solution for different needs

http://i.imgur.com/W0ggN.jpg

Actions• Carefully Created Workspace － facilitate more discussions
and team works, for students and faculty members• Community Based Engineering Projects －accessing the needsfrom the citizens and communication outside our comfortable
domains• Innovative Classes, Extra-Curriculum Activities, andEngineering Ethics and other inter-disciplinary coursesthat reflects

Shipmodel Contest• Student-ran domestic/international contest• Conceptual competition, and goal driven competitions• Presentations and communication skills with the judges andpeers• Judges from academia, industries and younger generationengineers
100+ teams
800~1000 people involved

Wooden Sailboat Building
Community’s plan in recreate ancient boats joined with modern
sailing trainers, supporting the wooden boat building class,• No experiences from the faculty and students about boatbuilding and carpentry• Translating, interpreting English manuals through discussions,making sense of the theorems previously learned• Expanding teams,+ wooden boats builders,+ science education

International Affairs••••

Foreign students in campus for short term visits and studies
Local students plan and host visiting programs
Regular training and work meeting outside of classroom
Looking for opportunities that motivates students to improve,with pressure and honors－ Taiwan International Boat showsScience, Technology andSociety

NCTU 交大STUT 南台

STS TeachingProjects

NCKU 成大Intro. to STS,
STS,Control
Technology andSociety

Engineering
Ethics,Engineering andSociety,
History ofTechnology

Intro. to STS,
Engineering
Ethics,EnvironmentalEthics,
Philosophy ofTechnology,

History ofEngineering

In Engineering School

NKMU 高海大OthersSTS,
Engineering,
Ethics andSociety,
Technical
Society andTaiwan Industry,
History ofMarine Industry

STSEthics
History
Society
Philosophy

Engineering Education Reform through STS

19

Any changes or inspirations?
－students’ self-reflection, coded
90.0

1.
2.
3.

81.2
80.0
70.0
60.0

59.6

Non-Traditional Teaching
Changes Thinking Patterns
Diverse points of view

50.0

A schl40.030.0

20.0
10.0

B schl24.1 22.5

C schl

15.6
9.6

8.0

5.8
0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0

8.0

9.6

3.10.0

Increase inreflectivethking

Increase in
Knowledge

Oberserving

Helpful tofuture

Nothing

Coded into categories

Integration of Gen. and Professional Competence
B, Eng., Ethics & SocietyC, Eng. & Society, special
topicsKanazawa Ins. of Tech.

Key• Expert System/ Power• Risk Evaluation,
Topics • Science Communication
Management,• Historical View
Communication• Appropriate Technology • Appropriate Technology• Ethical dilemmas• Ethic tests and guide

GoalSensitivity, Diverse
perspectives, holistic
thinking and practice

Cultivate the corecompetence of Eng. DesignSTS as a tool for Design
Engineer

Forster students who canthink, make wise
decisions, and act

Individual→ STS scholars
Inter-disciplinary courses
by individual faculty
members

Individuals with open minds
were recruited as seeds.
Mostly stay as Eng.
researchers

Applied Ethics Center forEngineering and Science(ACES)• Eng. Ethic / Eng. &Society as mandatory
courses for all dept. inEng.
• Regular Teacher’senrichment workshops

Ethics across thecurriculum:
Intro. To Eng.; JapanStudies; Sci. and Eng.
Ethics; Design courses;
Micro-Insertion

Institu • STS research Centertionali • Two courses in dept.
zation • Will promote as collegeelectives

https://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/

4SEASTSAPSTSN

Further Work
• More Engineering Study, collaborated between engineeringand social science, humanity scholars– Knowledge construction in industry and academia– Curriculum study• Connecting with the outside world– Communicating across disciplines (not only in Engineering), and socialclasses• Contextualize engineering in a modern society and thechanging environment– Engineering Ethics, Science Technology and Society and others

Co-Constructing
Social Norm in Engineering