Wednesdays, 1:20-4:20pm, location TBA
Course Description
Engineers are often thought of as “problem-solvers” but seldom do we consider who defines engineering problems, how their solutions are chosen, and the knowledge and values that these problems and solutions embody. In this course, we will explore the engineering design process while thinking critically about the methods of engineering design with respect to history, society, and culture. The semester will be organized around three themes: (1) People define problems, (2) Problems and solutions define each other, and (3) Designed objects embody knowledge and cultural values. Over the entire semester, you will engage in the engineering design process through a single design project. Through various readings, activities, and reflections, we will define a specific “problem” of interest within the context of urban infrastructure. Throughout the semester, as a whole-class, we will design a solution to the problem. As we ideate, prototype, and testing our designs, we continually revisit and modify our problem definition.
Instructors
Nicole Batrouny (nicole.batrouny@tufts.edu)
Desen Ozkan (desen.ozkan@tufts.edu)
Nicole Batrouny is a sixth-year mechanical engineering doctoral candidate at Tufts University. She received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Denver and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tufts University. Her current dissertation research at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach focuses on engineering student decision making across contexts, including elementary engineering and undergraduate capstone design. Outside of research, she is a teaching assistant at the Bray Machine Shop. This is her second year teaching ENE010. She is also interested in biking, yarn crafts, sci-fi and fantasy writing, sustainable living, social justice, and the intersections of all of these.
Dr. Desen Ozkan is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) and the Institute for Research on Learning and Education (IRLI). Her primary focus is on interdisciplinary learning as it relates to broader institutional, political-economic, and historical contexts. Her recent research, funded by Tufts CREATE Solutions, has comprised a case analysis of economic and community impacts from different offshore wind foundation structures. She completed her PhD in engineering education at Virginia Tech and her bachelor’s in chemical engineering at Tufts. With the CEEO, she works on an NSF-funded sociotechnical engineering education project to integrate sociotechnical thinking into the first-year engineering course, ES-2 through Equity Learning Assistants (ELAs). Through IRLI, she has co-facilitated IRLI Start, IRLI Sumer Scholars, and a CELT Learning Community on Assessment and Equity. She has taught ENE-010, Deconstructing Engineering Design, STS-010, a reading lab on ‘Learning’ that centers on sociopolitical histories of STEM education, and is currently teaching CS-150 Data and Power: Deconstructing Surveillance.