Embracing Social Justice in Engineering Education

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Embracing Social Justice in Engineering
Educationwhat we aim to achieve at NUS

• ENG SOON CHAN
• Faculty of Engineering
• National University of Singapore

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The State of Engineering Education _at_ NUS

• We have been graduating engineering graduates
  skilled in specific disciplines, who are capable
  in analytical thinking and problem solving.
• We have broadened engineering curriculum over
  time to include increasing amount of
  non-engineering contents.
• We have given our engineering undergraduates
  increasing opportunities for overseas experience,
  such as SEP and NOC, and early research exposure,
  such as UROP.
• Our students could secure positions in MNCs, top
  Graduate Schools, other professions

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What Engineering seeks to offer students at the
National University of Singapore
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Nurturing students for the world

• GLOBAL-ORIENTED EDUCATION
• Student Exchange Programme / Summer Programme
• Joint Degree and Double Degree Programmes
• Global Engineering Programme (GEP)
• Overseas Industrial Attachment
• NUS Overseas Colleges
• Immersion in start-up companies study
  entrepreneurship-related courses at partner
  universities
• Technopreneurship Industrial Programme Business
  Trips
• International Community Service Projects

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OPERATION ORION A project led by Civil Engrg
Students _at_NUS
Singapore
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Operation Orion 2005 by Liu Qiulin, Special
Projects director Operation Orion 2005, the
fifth Overseas Community Service project
undertaken by the NUS Civil Engineering Club,
lasted from 26th May 2005 till 8th June 2005,
taking place in Balapitiya, Sri Lanka. This is in
light of the Tsunami disaster on Boxing Day, 26th
December 2004. There were two parts to this
project. The first part being the Service Project
in which we were to build 1 bed and 1 shelf for
each of the 131 families allocated to us. In the
Learning Project, we interacted with the kids
there through various activities
The language barrier could not prevent us from
sensing the gratitude of the people when we
hand-delivered the items to them. It was
heartwarming and filled us with a sense of
satisfaction while serving as a reminder to us of
how fortunate we are. We were further inspired by
the peoples bright and optimistic outlook
towards life as well as the way they cared for
one another. Children orphaned by the tsunami
disaster were not left to fend for themselves but
were cared for by one and all.
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What these student-led initiatives have reminded
us..

• Valuable outcomes in community service sense of
  social responsibility, appreciation of the
  complexity of real world problems, understanding
  the effectiveness of solutions, team work and
  passion in Engineering
• Instilling social values should be an integral
  part of the Engineering Education
• Mission to groom Engineers that serve society,
  raise the quality of life, transform way things
  are done, preserve core values !
• Working with stakeholders to derive solutions
• Opportunity for Frugal/Affordable Engineering

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Need to Transform Engineering Education

• Are the current learning outcome and learning
  experience sufficient enough to get our
  engineering graduates ready to deal with the much
  more complex and fast-changing world when they
  join the work force?
• Are we producing in our engineering graduates the
  correct set of key attributes which future
  employers and society are looking for?

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Maintaining the Balance/Differentiation in
Engineering Education

• How could we maintain depth in engineering
  fundamentals and embrace social values in
  engineering solutions ?
• How could we prepare our students to have a
  better hold on real world problems that tend to
  be multidisciplinary and complex ?
• How could we instill social values in the
  education ?
• How could we develop the concept of frugal
  engineering ?

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What would be needed

• Students need to be empowered to question the
  norm and able to ask the right questions
• Deep knowledge in Engineering fundamentals and
  skills in solving problems still important
• Students need to acquire many other attributes
  beyond technical depth

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• We hope to achieve these outcomes through a
  Design-Centric Curriculum (DCC), guided by
  overarching themes and for a multi-disciplinary
  group of students .

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The Design Centric Curriculumsome key features
Integrated solutions in the context of societal
needs
A Design Spine 3 - 3.5-year,
multi-disciplinary thematic project addressing
grand challenges from engineering fundamentals to
systems-level complexity
Engineering core modules, design centric modules
, enrichment programmes, self Learning, Design
Summer School, generational learning
multi-disciplinary team, research, industry
partnership.
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Overarching Themes

• A multi-year project and multi-disciplinary
  setting centred on grand challenges and broad
  themes, starting with (but not restricted to)
  three themes
• future transportation systems
• smart and sustainable cities
• engineering in medicine

Source shimz.co.jp
Source scienceray.com
Source washedit.com
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Why Multi-Year Project?

• Scope for addressing system complexity and
  opportunities for
• system design and integration
• The NUS Formula SAE project and the
• NUS eco-car project have produced
• engineering graduates highly sought
• after by the industry.
• The key appears to be the intensity
• of learning through the multi-year
• involvement in one project.

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Multi-disciplinary eco-system

• Students from different engineering disciplines
  will work on the same project in the same group
  for 3 to 3.5 years.
• Culture of working as a multidisciplinary team
• Ecosystem of research and education
• The breaking down of disciplinary walls a
  necessary step. This is a significant step for a
  well-established system with clearly-defined
  disciplinary lines.

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Unleashing the minds and culture of thinking
out of the box

• Important for students to learn how to ask the
  right questions, question the norm, understand
  the constraints, define the broad problem ---
  design thinking !
• We get them started early and
• expect them to continue with this
• mindset.

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Ability to make decisions breaking away from
the culture of being told what to do

• Students are empowered to make decisions.
• By the end of the second semester, they need to
  converge on a specific problem. They have to
  learn how to start with independent and sometimes
  diverse views but move forward with firm
  decisions guided by rigorous analyses and shared
  insight.

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Distributed Design Experience

• Working with Autodesk to develop a Distributed
  Design Platform .
• Students on overseas exchange programs and
  collaborators from partner Universities can work
  together on the project this is getting easier.
• Key features of this platform are
• Ability to discuss on-line in real time,
  preferably with video
• images
• Ability to work on the design software in real
  time

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Design Summer School

• Objective to create a platform for students from
  different schools/communities to work on problems
  that are unique to the region.
• Inaugural Design Summer School (Aug 2012) was
  centred on
• Design for Urban Environment An Asian
  Perspective
• Students from 11 countries and 17
• universities participated.
• Participants benefitted from interacting
• with peers with different cultural and
• social backgrounds.

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Summary
Design-Centric Curriculum (DCC) - A pathway
offering multi-year projects that students define

• solving problems which have societal impact
• e.g. new ways of recycling medical technology
  energy supply
• developing technologies that will transform the
  way things are done today
• e.g. next generation aircraft future phones
  intelligent household devices future
  transportation technologies

• Immersion within a culture that emphasizes
• personal ownership of project direction
• challenging of convention
• innovative design
• multi-disciplinary teamwork
• proactive self learning /research
• formulation of holistic solutions
• social values

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Students experience with DCC

• Early success in unleashing their minds and
  transforming their thinking.
• Some comments from the students
• .. has transformed my thinking
• . has definitely changed the way I think about
  the world
• has made me a systems thinker
• ..EG2201 (Design Thinking module) is a course of
  self-discovery
• I am now more able to look at things in a
  different perspective

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DCC _at_ NUS is still work-in-progress

• Since receiving its first batch of students in
  January 2010, the NUS Design-Centric Curriculum
  (DCC) has been a learning experience.
• There may be other pathways but this is worth
  pursuing !
• Need a committed TEAM that will walk the talk
• Success f (students, teachers, industry,
• international partners, IT
  tools)

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Acknowledgements

• WEEF organizing committee for the opportunity to
  share in this forum
• Colleagues at NUS for the materials especially
  Professors SC Lim and MP Tham
• Students who have contributed to the materials
  and also the development of DCC

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Thank You