ENGR 2984G Special Studies: U.S. Engineering in a Global Context

Instructors: Kristen Koopman and Dr. Rob Emmett

(counts as 3 credits towards Pathways 7 requirements)

Course Description

Engineering work is increasingly global and interpersonal in scope. The successes and failures of engineers working in the U.S. have distant and far-reaching consequences. This course uses a case study approach to train global competencies in three core areas:

  1. engaging equity and identity in the U.S.
  2. intercultural communication, and 
  3. ethical judgment in a global context. 

Case studies will show how issues of identity and power operate within engineering contexts, from the hierarchies of the workplace to the disparities in education and access to engineering fields. These imbalances and dynamics will then be analyzed in a global context with international case studies and comparisons.  You will gain direct, practical experience working across cultures in global teams and participate in sustained reflection on the interdependencies of technology, culture, and engineering practices and identities in a variety of synchronous and asynchronous online learning activities. As you gain an informed perspective on U.S. engineering in a global context, you become better prepared to enter the workforce and lead in socially responsive ways

Learning Objectives

Having successfully completed this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Apply critical frameworks to evaluate engineering practices in the United States in terms of equity and identity 
  2. Interpret common challenges faced by engineers in today’s global workforce
  3. Describe the interactions of communication and engineering identities (using an intercultural praxis, process-oriented model) 
  4. Differentiate social and technical factors that influence engineering work in the U.S., other nations, and in multinational organizational environments
  5. Evaluate the impact of cultural and social context on ethical judgments in global engineering work
  6. Analyze a project’s operating environment in terms of how the social factors of identity, equity and diversity in the U.S. interact with technical requirements