 |
Rensselaer Hosts NSF Funded Interdisciplinary Design Workshop Focused on Increasing Engineering Enrollment
 |
| Photo courtesy of Frances Bronet |
The Schools of Architecture and Engineering recently hosted an interdisciplinary design workshop, bringing together faculty from seven countries, to "Design an Instrument That Increases the Likelihood of High School Students Entering Engineering." The projects developed are aimed at increasing student awareness and understanding of engineering principles, and theory, with a focus on hands-on applications.
Participants from universities in the United States, Canada, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Korea, and China — with expertise in planning, engineering, architecture, landscape, and psychology — created proposals using integrated design concepts related to technology that offered hands-on experiences. For example, they proposed creating a "community garage" staffed by juniors, seniors, and graduate students working with neighborhood children, and also proposed developing a reality television show in which technical problems would be solved by community residents aided by a design response team brought in via helicopter.
"
 |
| Photo courtesy of Frances Bronet |
While many faculty become experts in their area, we live in a world with complex problems that cannot be solved using one discipline alone," said Frances Bronet, professor of architecture, who led the team of workshop facilitators including faculty from Rensselaer, the University of Colorado, and an educator from Rensselaer's Archer Center for Student Leadership Development. "The workshop provides opportunities for artists, architects, engineers, social scientists, and other designers to work across boundaries in order to seek solutions. We are developing creative strategies to engage students in the learning process and encourage team-building, in this process we show them that there is more than one way to solve a problem."
The workshop was supported by a research education grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) aimed at increasing the number of faculty, graduate students, and courses that integrate multiple disciplines. Gary Gabriele, director of the engineering education and centers division at NSF, and former dean and vice provost of undergraduate education at Rensselaer, was a co-principal investigator on the NSF proposal. This is the third year Rensselaer has organized the program. Following each workshop, participants are given one year to create an elective course in collaboration with faculty in the engineering department. In the past, the projects have ranged from designing a device for kitchen waste and recycling to creating devices to improve the fitness of unlikely exercisers. |
|
|
Next 