Increasing the Perspectives of Engineering Undergraduates on Societal Issues through an Interdisciplinary Program

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_B06729B525B7
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Increasing the Perspectives of Engineering Undergraduates on Societal Issues through an Interdisciplinary Program
Journal
International Journal of Engineering Education
Author(s)
Holzer A., Vonèche Cardia I., Bendahan S., Berne A., Bragazza L., Danalet A., Casoli A., Feige J., Gillet D., Isaac S., Le Duc I., Preissmann D., Tormey R.
ISSN
0949-149X
Publication state
Published
Issued date
01/2016
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
32
Number
2
Pages
614-624
Language
english
Abstract
To tackle the challenges of the 21st century, future scientists and engineers have to understand the interplay between societal challenges and technical solutions as early as possible in their education. They also have to develop the communication and the teamwork skills required to be effective professionals. To address this issue, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) introduced a new Global Issues program to all 1800 first year engineering students. In this paper, we present this novel program and reflect on our experience. Our results suggest that student who showed positive attitude towards teamwork, benefited the most from the course and increase their perspectives on societal issues as measured by their moral reasoning after the course.
Keywords
engineering education, soft skills, global issues, interdisciplinary approach, teamwork, communication, climate, food, energy, health, mobility
Create date
29/03/2016 16:23
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:19
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