We seek to address the urgent need to re-examine how engineering curricula incorporate deep understanding of the coupling between technology, society and the future, in order to equip future engineers to thrive in a world that is markedly different to that of the past. We propose the Design the Future Activities (DFA) framework to address this need. Although somewhat simplistic, it can be surmised that current approaches to engineering education are based on a negative feedback model which assumes that “engineering solution space”—the conceptual space within which engineers operate—is dynamic, and that engineering solutions to emergent challenges arise sufficiently rapidly to damp down and ultimately reduce to the point of insignificance the long-term adverse consequences of actions taken. This is a model that has worked well in the past. But it is one which depends on three factors in particular to succeed: (i) engineering innovation time scales being substantially shorter than those associated with emergent consequences; (ii) loose coupling between applied solutions and emergent challenges; and (iii) minimal resource constraints. All three are interconnected, and all three are increasingly in question in the near future. Although engineering education research is concerned with preparing future engineers, the integration of future trends of technology with the engineering curriculum has been limited. We propose the Design the Future Activities (DFA) as a framework for systematically identifying and integrating emerging areas of research and technologies, such as artificial intelligence, into the teaching of engineering design. Because these technologies will change the nature of the future, we seek to engage with the ongoing discourse on the relationship between the content (for design education) and pedagogy, through the pedagogical content knowledge conceptual framework. Through a scholarship of integration that breaks the boundary between disciplines, we propose a three-level framework: (1) Understanding technology analysis and system integration (to allow students to identify what is the best solution given the new technology); (2) Making a value chain (or how is this the best solution); and (3) Creating responsible innovations (or why is this the best solution). While engineers continue to be creators and influencers of such technologies, the lack of understanding of the impact of their own technologies continues to cause an imbalanced innovation landscape, in education and in the workplace. We conclude that a new design approach to the engineering curriculum should be attempted, assuming that groups of educators will systematically anticipate the future and calibrate the curriculum.

Design the Future Activities (DFA): Framework to Develop Case Studies to Incorporate Deep Understanding of the Coupling Between Technology, Society and the Future

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.