Engineering Students’ Concepts of Humanitarian Engineering and Their Identity Development as Humanitarian Engineers

Abstract

Humanitarian Engineering extends engineering practice to provide a focus on addressing social inequities and contributing to sustainable development for all. This study investigated undergraduate engineering students’ concepts of Humanitarian Engineering and motives to be Humanitarian Engineers as they acquire knowledge and skills and build a professional identity as engineers who can work in complex socio-technical sustainability contexts. Qualitative data were collected from an open-ended survey of 46 engineering students followed by semi-structured interviews with ten students at a U.S. university. Survey data provided individual characteristics that conceptualized and guided interviews to explore key relationships among participants’ concepts of Humanitarian Engineering and motivations. A central idea of a “Humanitarian Engineer” identity emerged, influenced by various motivations. Students envisioning themselves as Humanitarian Engineers were associated with socio-cultural background, motivation to practice engineering skills, and desire to travel. A value-related motivation, the desire to help others, appeared as a strong catalyst for developing students’ professional identities and empowering a possible future self as Humanitarian Engineers. To support sustainability education in engineering demands, initial motivation factors associated with student Humanitarian Engineer identity development are researched to support potential future practice and career development.

Proposing a Multi-Stakeholder Lens to Examine Global Community-Based Design Projects

“…While technical details can be the emphasis of many design projects, in humanitarian engineering, the emphasis is to design for socio-cultural realities [20] and the "human element" [21]. Students situate themselves in a global reality, recognizing their social responsibility, connectedness, and sustainability [7].…”

“…Research indicates that student engagement increases when they are involved in authentic design projects as opposed to canned problems [3,4], and motivation increases further when the project is for a service-learning course [5]. Some students choose to study engineering due to their desire to help others [6,7], and community-based projects provide an opportunity to cultivate and fulfill this ambition.…”

Research Thesis for Undergraduate Engineering Programs in the Digitalization Era: Learning Strategies and Responsible Research Conduct Road to a University Education 4.0 Paradigm

“…This is how engineering students spend much of their time in: (i) performing mathematical, statistical, chemical, and physical calculations, (ii) studying technical methodologies to solve certain problems, both theoretically and in the laboratory, (iii) developing skills to estimate costs, (iv) understanding the implementation of tools to formulate and manage investment projects, and (v) learning to use software for modeling real phenomena. Although engineering undergraduate programs offer humanistic courses, these are a minor percentage of the number of credits in the curricular plan and do not fully encourage students' writing and speaking skills, in comparison with students from Social Sciences, Languages, and Humanities (SSLH) scientific areas [6].…”

Work in Progress: A Trio-Ethnography on Professional Identity Development of Internationally-Trained Minoritized Women Early-Career Researchers in Canada

“…In their study of new professionals transitioning from graduate preparation programs to full-time work, [6] highlighted professional identity development as a major challenge [5]. Recently, other studies have explored different aspects of graduate engineering students' professional identity development such as academic identity development [7] [8], doctoral engineering attrition and persistence [9], doctoral advisor matching process [10], and doctoral engineering education [11] [12]. While there are some studies that examine the impact of intersectional identities on graduate students' experiences [13] [14], most are situated in the US context [15], with few located in the Canadian context [16].…”