Panel discussions on new technologies and their intellectual and social impacts are conducted by the students. TCC 101 or ENWR 101 or permission of instructor Readings and discussion of selected works in the classic writings of engineers and scientists from the earliest records to the Renaissance. TCC 101 or ENWR 101 or permission of instructor Overview of advances of technological knowledge through the ages. TCC 101 or ENWR 101 or permission of instructor Explores the ways scientists and inventors think, using concepts, theories and methods borrowed from several disciplines, but focusing especially on psychology. Topics include experimental simulations of scientific reasoning, a cognitive framework for understanding creativity and modeling discovery on a computer.
Students read and discuss articles and excerpts in class and conduct a short research project.
The goal of this course is to help students understand the way in which technology is created and improved, and also to make them into better designers. Creates a collaborative learning environment, in which multi-disciplinary teams invent and design several modules that emulate problems like the invention of the telephone or the design of an expert system. Readings from psychology, history, computing, ethics and engineering accompany the modules. Students keep design notebooks, present the results of team projects and write an integrative paper in which they discuss invention and design and reflect writing and speaking requirements. Cross-listed as PSYC 419 .