Constructive Technology Assessment as Engineering Pedagogy

• In Event: Sustainability & Transformation in Engineering Education - I: Overcoming Disjunctures in the Cultivation of Professional Skill Sets

Abstract

This presentation will explore recent initiatives in the Centre for Engineering in Society (CES) housed in the Engineering and Computer Science (ENCS) faculty at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec to integrate the “Professional skills” outlined in the new Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) accreditation requirements into ENCS Capstone courses.

Borrowing from the literature on technology assessment, CES set out to integrate these “Professional skills” into the research and design practices taught in capstone courses by asking students to think through constructive technology assessment methodologies. More specifically, we adapted the four-step process described in the constructive technology assessment method “Real-time Technology Assessment” to operate as a pedagogical device in the undergraduate classroom. The assessment model hopes to “provide an explicit mechanism for observing, critiquing, and influencing social values as they become embedded in innovations.” This presentation will share the experiences (in the form of quantitative and qualitative data) of CES in trying to implement this strategy into the undergraduate engineering classroom.

Author

• Brandiff Caron, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada