Sustainable Development Needs a Transformed Engineering Education

Abstract

Engineering educators have an ethical responsibility to develop coming generations of critical and innovative thinkers to be the problem solvers for the grand engineering challenges facing humankind. Our engineering graduates must be the developers of innovative technologies, products and processes addressing sustainable development goals. In this paper, we propose a paradigmatic shift in conventional engineering education curricula, transforming out of conventional chalk-and-talk lectures only accompanied by limited assessment methods of problem sets and exams. This paper suggests engineering programs need to implement changes to update and upgrade curricular and programmatic approaches, ensuring the programmes will graduate transformative thinkers and creative problem solvers. In this paper, we propose several pedagogical approaches be integrated into engineering curricula to be relevant to sustainable development. First, Project based learning (PBL) pedagogies must be incorporated into each course. The PBL should be implemented through Service Learning (SL), requiring projects be communitybased and socially beneficial. The PBL approach should utilize open ended design (OED) thinking in implementation and execution of projects, which must address needs and challenges faced by community members around the engineering institutions’ communities. Most critically, awareness of ethics in engineering should be integrated into all courses. From the government’s policy perspective, they should mandate that government funded and private engineering and technology educational institutions require students complete a community-based service project as part of graduation requirements. This completes the circle and integrates engineering education into sustainable development policy and practice. This paper will outline PBL, SL and ethics in engineering, while describing some of these projects that have served to demonstrate sustainable development through community-based student-driven projects. Keywords— Engineering, Education, Pedagogy, Project Based Learning, Service Learning, Sustainable development, Open Ended Design, Ethics in Engineering, Policy