Drones for good: interdisciplinary project-based learning between engineering and peace studies

• Autores: Gordon Hoople, Austin Choi Fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Reddy
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 35, no. Extra 5, 2019, págs. 1378-1391
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Engineering practice is inherently interdisciplinary. Current curricular structures, however, provide engineering students with fewopportunities to work across disciplinary boundaries. In this article we report on a project-based course where students from aSchool of Engineering and a School of Peace Studies were brought together to design a drone that would have a positive impact onsociety. The course learning objectives focused on students’ abilities in relationship to broader contextual issues (process), abounded technical challenge and its social implications (project), and their role in the process (reflection). A key goal for the coursewas to help students recognize how their disciplinary identity shapes the way they approach problems and to recognize the value ofperspectives from other disciplines. We present an analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data to explore whether the coursemet these objectives and to reflect on the opportunities and challenges such a class provided for our students. We determine thatwe have developed the basis of a promising model for engaging students from multiple schools and background and we concludeby proposing future scholarship.