Category: Spring 2015

By Daniel B.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his class has done more for me as an engineering student interested in social change, specifically through entrepreneurship, in all of my collegiate experience at this university. Normally you only get as much out of a class as you put in, but in this case your yield is far higher than what you put in.

What did the most for me were the Monday lectures held by guest speakers. Professor Kim showed us some of the great changes barreling toward us as we rise up to meet the future from events resulting from engineering changes and otherwise. Robotics are going to change the world, for better or worse is up to us still though. This lecture connected to others to follow such as the one on ethics and the economic impacts advanced autonomous systems have on the economy and job markets. This has the potential to widen a wage gap in the economy that may prove rather troublesome if handled poorly. Dealing with this change itself can be an act of philanthropy as we would be preventing this gap from pushing more workers toward joblessness, homelessness, and poverty.

It has also been made clear that we as engineering students have the responsibility to operate and design sustainably. That is to design for today and tomorrow without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same in their time. We can improve efficiency of machines and devices, eliminate waste, and reduce the size of our heavy footprints carbon and otherwise.

Of course, fields full of engineering in many cases yield profitable fruits. Engineers and engineering companies rake in income sometimes many standard deviations above the average for any given society. We may have the opportunity to directly support a cause with the money we as individuals or organizations earn. With this money, we must be careful to whom we give it to. Every person and group is looking for additional financial support to grow or sustain themselves today. A lesson well learned from the first few weeks of class is that it is a real concern that we do not cause any harm with the funds we appropriate. We do not want to make a bad situation worse by feeding the weeds, but rather want to see only good seeds grow. This makes the decision of who to benefit very challenging, as we learned from personally navigating the grantmaking process.

We found ourselves having to ask questions we did not imagine before of the organizations that responded to our request for proposals when the time came. With well over a dozen organizations, we had to probe and judge whether they were truly in line with our cause. Do they act sustainably? Do they really do what they say? How big is their impact on society? Do they serve fairly? Are they passionate about their work? Can we trust them to truly make good use of the funds we may endow upon them? Every one of them wants to answer yes to all of the above, so it came upon us to investigate over phone and in person. This hands on experience was very valuable as we learned to notice what we found important to our decision making process, and made it easier to visualize who and what would benefit from us. All of the aforementioned work, and lessons learned will certainly stick with me as I continue on to become a socially minded engineer and entrepreneur for the future.

By Sarah N.

“Social change” is not a phrase that usually comes up in engineering classes. Engineers are supposed to care about numbers, programming, and making things faster, stronger, and better – right? Well after this semester I can definitively say engineers need to be considering much more. Specifically, we need to be consistently conscious about all of the consequences of our work. Engineering, beyond the mechanics of what we do, revolves around design decisions and trade offs. Size, cost, efficiency, and accessibility are often inversely related, and these trade off decisions all have major repercussions. I did not realize it before, but all of the complex choices and design considerations come down to one concept – values. In fact, values are at the heart of engineering, philanthropy, and social change. Values motivate what we think, say, and do. They direct our time, resources, and pursuits. Even though we did not formally have a lesson about values until the end of the semester, I am now able to see that they played in integral role in every aspect of the class.

Throughout the semester, we had the pleasure of hearing from engineers from various academic backgrounds and industries. Despite the wide range of their experiences, studies, and interests, without fail values came up in every single lecture. One of the major areas covered by our guest lecturers was the future of engineering and how technology will change our daily lives. The ideas of automation and smart devices and machines were not new – but taking a careful look at their cultural, economic, and social implications was new. What will determine if these predictions come to be true? The values of those creating the future. If we care the most about efficiency, speed, and precision, then machines will likely out-perform people. However, if we care more about creativity, community, and tradition, many of these predications will not come true. Yes, technology sets limits on what is possible. But it is incredibly important to understand that the people behind this technology are driven, both consciously and subconsciously, by their values. Sustainability was another reoccurring engineering theme that relies on values. It was clear from our class discussion that our opinions on sustainability stemmed from the root questions “What matters?” and more importantly, “Why does it matter?” Again, these came down to personal ideals. When we had our formal discussion on values and ethics, the pieces of the class came together. Not only did I realize the common theme of the engineering talks, but I also saw the fundamental role values play in the grant process and in philanthropy as a whole.

I had never been on this side of the grant allocation process before. I have applied for cooperate and private grants, but this was my first time being a part of awarding a grant. From day one, we discussed and explored what was important to us through theme papers, lightning round sharing, and debates. From what we would focus on to how we made decisions, our values governed the entire journey. This class is unique because we had a lot of freedom. In general, engineering classes do not allow for much creativity because there is so much technical content to get through. The skills we learn enable us to innovate, but the classes themselves are often prescribed lesson by lesson. By putting authority in the hands of the students, we had the honor and responsibly of thinking for ourselves and asking hard questions. After college, engineers will have to know and act upon values, and this course was an excellent opportunity to practice.

Finally, what exactly is the role of engineering in social change? In a phrase – the commitment to thoughtful, responsible choices. We must carefully pick our values and understand the values of the other stake holders. Similarly we are tasked with understanding the implications of our actions, both good and bad. Time and time again this semester we saw the impact of unexpected consequences. Therefore, as engineers we must accept our inherent role in social change and act appropriately. I hope that more engineering students are exposed to these lessons and experiences – they are an imperative part of training ethical, dependable engineers.