Category: Fall 2015

By Waleed F.

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s engineering major, I never expected any class that would even remotely relate to Social Change. My advisor this semester asked me how all my classes are going and I said they are going great, but later she asked what about ENME 467 (Engineering for Social Change), and I replied, “It is probably the most different and interesting kind of class I have taken since I’ve been to college.”

To be honest, I actually did not even know what philanthropy meant before I took this class. For me philanthropy was a concept only thrown around my adults when they are in there fifties where they can actually afford to give generously to charities. As an undergrad in college, I never even thought that I would be exposed to this kind of notion where I would have to make a decision of which organization to choose for to give ten thousand dollars in grant. When we started this class and the professor was explaining us the process of choosing an organization, it seemed straightforward. But the closer we got to our decision, the more complicated and difficult it became. Now that we are left with last two organizations, it is even harder to make a final decision since we will have to live with that decision for the rest of our lives hoping if our 10K grant did anything to create social change in the lives of other people.

Another interesting aspect of this class was the privilege to hear from different speakers that heavily influenced the way I looked at engineering. I always thought that engineering is all about solving problems, but never thought that Engineering is actually to make a positive change in the lives of other so they can live a more meaningful life. Overall, Engineering for Social Change was a class that taught me different aspects of being an engineer that I never had thought before and it made me appreciate even more my choice of choosing engineering as my major.

By Freddy P.

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ngineering for Social Change is unlike any engineering class I have ever taken. It brings the human aspect to engineering, which is usually not taken in full consideration. Throughout the semester, we had remarkable speakers that talked about different relevant themes, such as renewable energy, the future of technology, water on Earth, and so on. In my opinion, one of the most fascinating speakers we had this semester was Smeeta Hirani. She talked about her career and how she found her greater purpose in life when she started working directly with social change causes. Ms. Hirani mentioned a relevant quote by H. Thurman, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive”. This made me take into perspective my life goals with respect to engineering.

Another important lecture we had was with Dr. Shelby of USAID, who talked about co-design and its importance. This, linked with some of the readings about philanthropy made me realize that sometimes what we might think is a great solution to a problem may not be the most optimal because the target is not taken in proper consideration. Also, when doing any type of social change involving the people directly with the cause will give them a sense of belonging and this will enhance the success of the project. This was taken into consideration when working with the Ideas for Social Change Challenge, because we already had the solution, solar energy. However, coming up with the appropriate way to implement this solution and create a tangible social change was the real challenge.

Moreover, having the opportunity to directly impact people has been one of the more rewarding experiences I have ever had in my life. Our class chose water crisis to be the theme for our $10,000 grant—which I should add that is incredible that we even have the chance to work with this amount of money and make a perceivable impact. The grant process has taught me a lot about critical thinking and asking the right questions because sometimes the organizations or people that claim to be so helpful are in reality not what they seem to be. Therefore, by digging deeper, and asking what we really want to know, we were able to accomplish great things.

I believe it is our mission as Millennials to be the generation that stops beings so self-centered in their goals and to become the one that starts working for social issues, especially in the engineering aspect. Taking this class has opened my social activist side, and I now find myself thinking of ways in which I can help my home country, Venezuela, once I graduate. I consider this is a class that every engineer should take during their time at the university because it shows the importance of social change not only for the rest of the world but also for oneself.

By Lorenzo C.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hroughout my time in the Mechanical Engineering department, I have struggled with the lack of connection most classes have with one very important thing: people. We learn about many complex concepts and the theory behind how they operate, but very rarely have I received information on the connection to the people who these concepts effect. Engineering for Social Change has allowed me to take an engineering class in which I can focus on this connection, and explore engineering’s relevance to those who may not be engineers.

I think some of my perspective on this issue comes from being a double major with Government and Politics. In that department, people are essential. Government is truly the study of the organization of people, and thus the human aspect must be considered with any topic or theory. On the other hand, with engineering is so easy to focus solely on the math or physics behind concepts, and ignore how humans interact with the concept.
In this class we have explored many ways in which to bridge this connection. Through the ISSC projects we have been able to focus on how engineering can be a solution to social and political issues. My group has tackled the water crisis in Syria and the surrounding region – this has made relevant for us how engineers are instrumental during political upheaval. I think usually, the engineering in these types of situations is ignored. People want to know what the politicians are saying and doing, and what the militaries are saying and doing. The impact of engineers is swept under the rug and ignored.

The same can be said of the grant process. We could have focused on the math and physics of the projects that we considered. Instead, this class encouraged us to think differently: instead of asking how much water does a pump produce, ask how many people can drink from well. This context allows for a much better understanding of solution.

Unfortunately, due to the many different aspects of the class, it was difficult to delve much past the surface of any of these issues in the class. We were not able to discuss the 2nd and 3rd degree impacts of our decisions; all the class had time to discuss was the immediate impacts we would be making. It became difficult to appreciate the discussion when the impacts we discussed tended to boil down to just one question: how many people are we impacting. This became very clear the last days when the slides we looked at for making our final decision emphasized making a qualitative judgment on the projects based on the number of people impacted. In my mind, social change and social impact is much more nuanced then that. If you have a huge impact on a few people, it can be so much more powerful then a slight impact on a large group of people. I understand why the decision was made to simplify this understanding, but it did expose the lack of depth the class was able to reach.

Finally, a comment of the students in the class. I believe that this class draws in a certain group of people; those that already consider the social impact of their decisions to some degree. This makes it possible to delve deeper into topics, but it also misses all the engineers who do not make these considerations because they would not be interested in this class in the first place. Instead, this class needs to be mandatory.

By Christofer B.

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]ngineering for Social Change is a class I knew would be different, but I had no idea what to really expect. Most engineering classes have the same mantra: to make something bigger, better, faster, stronger, etc; however, this class taught me to pay more attention to the impact of everything we make. Any and everything we make not only makes tasks easier and more efficient, but socially change society for better or worse.

The ISCC project put us in a place to identify an issue and fix it, like any other project. However this project showed me that catering to group in question, the customer, is the most important aspect of the task. No matter what kind of performance numbers the product can pull, in the end, if it doesn’t cater to the customer at hand, the product is useless. Several guest speakers attended our class to remind us of this fact every week. One of our guest speakers drilled it home when she requested us to cater our products to a single persona, a person with a real issue, a family, even a name. And, this exercise really allowed us to have a stronger understanding of the problem and more empathy for the people we’re trying to help, far more effective just reading statistics. Taking it further, we vowed to speak and interact with people that pertained to our ISCC project. Within my group’s ISCC project, we had to find a solution to improve access to water for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. While we couldn’t get the chance to talk to a Syrian refugee, simply talking to someone from Lebanon about the issue granted us a wealth of understanding in a way that random articles couldn’t convey. Simply hearing their story let me know that all of these engineering problems are more than a set of numbers.

Beyond that, this course showed how incredible technology could send society towards a bad direction. The constant increase of automation could show a huge shift in the labor force around the world, and that it’s up to the engineers to make sure the world doesn’t head in that direction. That lecture quickly made me rethink what I thought of self-driving cars. Before, I only thought of the positives of the concept, but the possibility of putting the entire driving force; taxis, buses, and trucks; is a huge deal since it covers over three million people. Taking the idea further, I began to think about how each and every product I owned affected change in myself. One small example included how I missed making mixed CDs and sharing with my friends, but the invention of MP3 player removed the necessity of the CD altogether, reducing overall social interaction. Something so small had a larger effect on how often I interacted with people, and larger products can carry a much higher social impact with them.

I enjoyed this class to the point that I couldn’t believe that it was just an elective. Having an eye opening class like this in the roster should be experienced by everyone. If all the engineers have a responsibility on their shoulders to make sure the world doesn’t fall apart, then every engineer needs to take a class like this.

By Travis A.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his class has been such an enriching experience for me. I did not know what to expect from this class when I enrolled in it; however, I had heard really good things about it from some peers of mine. This class broadened my views on how engineering can be used in creative philanthropic ways in order to spur social change. It is imperative to understand just how one’s philanthropic venture will affect the target beneficiary community. As an engineer, the best answer or the most efficient solution does not always correlate to what is best for the community you are attempting to help.

I believe that this type of class is extremely important for engineering majors to take. The large majority of classes engineering majors take involve set problems that the students are then taught the exact methods to solve them. However, in terms of philanthropy, the problem is known but there is no cookie cutter method to solve them. This is where the engineer must make his own decisions on how to tackle the problem. However, without the knowledge gained from this course on how to evaluate the proposed solution in multiple perspectives — beyond just the engineering perspective — the engineer can easily follow an ineffective path. I plan on strongly recommending this class to my fellow peers who will have the opportunity to take it.

This class is set up in such a way where we are learning these important engineering philanthropic skills, while simultaneously putting them into practice with our ISCC group project and the overall class grant donation. I think that this is a great way to learn any concept, because you obtain the theoretical knowledge on the topic, and then see it put into action. This builds a deeper understanding on how to apply the theoretical skills that are being expanded upon in class. The only thing that I would advise to be done differently is to be timelier with assignment notification. What I mean is that oftentimes assignments or readings would be assigned last minute which is not fair to students that have multiple other classes’ responsibilities they have to set time for. With earlier notice, it will allow students to manage their time well enough so that they will not have to miss important readings. So as to not end on a negative tone, perhaps my favorite aspect of the class was the numerous guest lecturers that gave us insight onto their real life philanthropic successes, with my favorite of those being the lecture by Smeeta Hirani.