Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Journal Title
Sustainability
Volume Number
12
Issue Number
15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/su12155917
Version
Publisher PDF: the final published version of the article, with professional formatting and typesetting
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a CC BY License.
Disciplines
Engineering
Abstract
This paper describes the development and implementation of a classroom experience involving problem-based and project-based learning with community engagement in an engineering design context. While most User-Centered Design courses ask students to critically analyze and synthesize user needs, particularly of users who they see as “not like them”, our version is unique in having students wrestle with concepts of power, privilege, and oppression alongside developing prototypes that address sociotechnical aspects of engineering design that are rarely discussed in engineering courses. The course project described in this paper was developed to integrate issues of homelessness with engineering design. To achieve this goal, we partnered with a local non-profit organization that provides access to safe, mobile showers for our unhoused neighbors. Considering the context and needs of people who experience homelessness, students built solar water heater prototypes that integrated with the mobile shower units of our partners. Our goal with this course is to demonstrate to students that technical solutions are often insufficient for solving sociotechnical problems. In this case, the partnership with the non-profit organization was critical to conveying to students that engineering alone cannot solve homelessness.
Digital USD Citation
Chen, Diana A.; Chapman, Mark A.; and Mejia, Joel Alejandro, "Balancing Complex Social and Technical Aspects of Design: Exposing Engineering Students to Homelessness Issues" (2020). School of Engineering: Faculty Scholarship. 53.
https://digital.sandiego.edu/engineering_facpub/53