Session: 09-03-01: General Topics on Engineering Education

Paper Number: 113635

113635 - Teaching Design Justice Principles in Engineering Courses to Create a Broader Appreciation of Design 

One of the primary tasks that engineers have to undertake is design.   Engineers design and develop solutions that are supposed to satisfy human needs.   Engineers also, through their work, intend to change the life of everyone for the better.  While all around us we see numerous examples of cases/design solutions that have improved our lives, there is also another side of this story.   Every new weapon system that is designed results in more efficient ways to destroy human lives.  For example, development of nuclear weapons during the second world war led to its use to destroy cities and innocent lives, and a perpetual threat of the possibility of nuclear holocaust.  Even today when we are designing solutions, we quite often do not consider the possibilities of the harms that it may cause, and we often exclude the voices of the very people who are affected by our design.   The Design Justice movement is a network of design practitioners, design instructors and others from a variety of different backgrounds who want to change the design landscape into a more inclusive ecosystem [1,2].

Some may argue that in engineering curriculum perhaps the same principles are discussed using different terminology, for example, engineering ethics.  It is true that most engineering programs have some coverage of engineering ethics and Design Justice, and a code of ethics are both frameworks for guiding design practice, but they have some key differences.  A code of ethics is a set of principles or guidelines that outline what is considered ethical behavior within a specific profession. In the field of design, a code of ethics may outline how designers should conduct themselves professionally, such as by avoiding conflicts of interest or protecting the confidentiality of clients.  Design Justice, on the other hand, is a broader framework that looks at ways in which design practices and decisions can perpetuate or challenge systemic injustices. It goes beyond the narrow scope of professional conduct and focuses on creating equitable outcomes for marginalized communities. Design Justice centers the voices and perspectives of those who have been traditionally underrepresented in design decision-making, and seeks to ensure that design is accessible, inclusive, and equitable for all.

Research shows [3], while typical engineering programs have plenty of design content, the concepts of design justice arerarely taught.   This paper talks about the experiences of introducing some of the concepts of design justice into a number of undergraduate courses.  It was done through a case study of a section of an interstate that was built in the 1950s cutting across a thriving neighborhood that was eventually decimated.  This case has been in recent news, since federal government money is being used to revive parts of the neighborhood.  In the assignment students were asked to review this case through the lens of deign justice using the principles of design justice [2].   Also, they are then assigned to pick a design situation that they are familiar with and use the same set of guiding principles to analyze their chosen example.  The results learned from this assignment will be reported in this paper.

References

1.     https://designjustice.org

2.     https://designjustice.org/read-the-principles

3.     Madhurima Das, Anastasia K. Ostrowski, et.al., “Auditing design justice: The impact of social movements on design pedagogy at a technology institution,” 13^th Design Thinking Research Symposium, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, March 22-24, 2022.

Presenting Author: Shuvra Das Univ Of Detroit

Presenting Author Biography: Shuvra Das started working at University of Detroit Mercy in January 1994 and is currently Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Over this time, he served in a variety of administrative roles such as Mechanical Engineering Department Chair, Associate Dean for Research and Outreach, and Director of International Programs in the college of Engineering and Science. He has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and Master’s and Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from Iowa State University. He was a post-doctoral researcher at University of Notre Dame and worked in industry for several years prior to joining Detroit Mercy.

Dr. Das has taught a variety of courses ranging from freshmen to advanced graduate level such as Mechanics of Materials, Introductory and Advanced Finite Element Method, Engineering Design, Introduction to Mechatronics, Mechatronic Modeling and Simulation, Mathematics for Engineers, Electric Drives and Electromechanical Energy Conversion. He led the effort in the college to start several successful programs: an undergraduate major in Robotics and Mechatronic Systems Engineering, a graduate certificate in Advanced Electric Vehicles, and thriving partnerships for student exchange with several universities in China.

Dr. Das received many awards for teaching and research at Detroit Mercy as well as from organizations outside the university. His areas of research interest are modeling and simulation of multi-disciplinary engineering problems, engineering education, and curriculum reform. He has worked in areas ranging from mechatronics system simulation to multi-physics process simulation using CAE tools such as Finite Elements and Boundary Elements. He has authored or co-authored five published books on these topics.

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