(49a) How We Incorporate the Impact of Engineering Solutions in Global, Economic, Environmental and Social Contexts

In order to meet ABET student outcomes (2) “the ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental and economic factors” and (4) “ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgements, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental and social contexts” our department has incorporated various assignments and projects into our required courses so that our students the opportunity to demonstrate that they have achieved these outcomes.

In this presentation, we will provide examples of homework assignments, quizzes, and projects (with grading rubrics) which have been added to our sophomore and junior level core classes. These assignments provide students with the foundation they need to complete larger scale projects during their senior year, in three capstone courses (Process Control, Safety & Ethics, and Process Design). In the Process Control course, students complete a Global Project in which they collaborate with a foreign organization to become acquainted with a problem in that foreign country. The students then analyze the problem and propose a solution for the challenge. Students in the Safety & Ethics course are required to attend a three-hour class on the Deepwater Horizon incident (which is given by one of our faculty members who served on the flow rate estimation team and also surveyed a multitude of reports on this incident). Each student team must then report on the technical, ethical, economic, global, environmental, and regulatory aspects of the Deepwater Horizon incident and the related efforts to stop the leak, clean up the spill, and prevent similar occurrences. In addition, each team must attend a three-hour lecture related to a storage tank explosion and then describe the technical ethical, social, cultural, global, economic, and environmental impacts of such an incident as they design simple strategies to prevent a re-occurrence of this fatal incident. And finally in the Process Design class, students are required to complete a design project over the course of the semester, which includes process synthesis, equipment design, process optimization & control, and economic analysis of their chemical plant. Students propose a location for their plant, and are also assigned a second location in a different continent, and compare and contrast the impact of their design in a global, economic, environmental, and social context for the two different locations. Details of these four projects will be shared, as well as examples of student work.