Center: Track 4: Creating a Teaching Engineering Equity Center

工程，作为一门旨在改善共同利益的学科，在其成果，教育和实践中应该是包容性和公平的。然而，工程学并不是在真空中发生的。社会中已知存在的偏见已经融入到技术和系统的应用中。一个例子是计算机算法的设计，使一个群体比另一个群体受益，无论是面部识别的准确性还是关于工作机会的决定。当工程师只代表一小部分种族、性别、能力、族裔和背景时，人口的需求就得不到充分考虑。此外，这些工程师工作的环境不太可能是包容性的，也不太可能没有抑制每个人发挥最佳工作能力的行为。 虽然工程学校必须提供将自然知识转化为技术所需的技术培训，但工程教育如果不包括如何将工作与伦理，社会科学，人文科学以及与多样性，公平和包容性相关的问题（DEI）等其他领域相结合，则是不完整的。密歇根工程学院正在采取以人为本的工程方法，使工程师成为社会技术专家，他们具有良好的能力和愿望，能够从多个角度评估他们的工作及其对世界的影响。该项目将创建教学工程公平中心，以提高工程学科的包容性和公平性。我们的目标是创造以公平为中心的价值观在技术内容和教学风格中存在的教学环境，从而实现工程教育，来自各种背景的学生将体验包容性和归属感，以及有助于缩小关键差距并提升所有人的工程解决方案。这项工作符合NSF的扩大参与工程计划的目标，以促进合作，支持多元化和准备好的工程队伍的专业发展，以及创新，如果不是革命性的，通过包容性和公平的工程学术经验的能力建设方法。这个项目将集中在三个具体目标，以解决这些挑战。项目组将：1。设计一个以证据为基础的框架，以创造一个公平的工程为中心的课程。该框架将集中于整合其他学科的基于公平的理论和概念，并纳入包容性的教学理念。它将包括克服DEI在工程中的文化障碍的方法，包括错误的假设，即工程是一个纯粹理性的奋进，技术考虑比社会问题更有价值，以及该领域的进步是基于优点。这些模块将被设计成纳入特定学科的技术课程。这样的整合避免了“附加”的方法，使DEI的内容似乎不太相关。这些模块将使教师能够展示社会关注和公平问题如何导致更有效的技术设计。3）开发可复制和适应性的培训和实施基础设施，使工程教师和导师能够使用学习活动。教师培训将建立在工程学与教研究中心的模块上，该模块是专门为融入DEI概念而创建的。该方法将包括非常成功的教师同行指导教学圈有效地使用从图书馆的模块。项目评估将集中在测试假设，我们的方法，嵌入DEI内容直接进入工程课程，这两个装备的学生和教师的战略，公平的工程实践和改善工程气候。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被视为通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，

Engineering, as a discipline that seeks to improve the common good, should be inclusive and equitable in its outcomes, education, and practice. Engineering, however, doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The biases known to exist in society are baked into the application of technologies and systems. One example is the design of computer algorithms that benefit one group over another, whether it’s the accuracy of facial recognition or decisions about job opportunities. When engineers represent a small percentage of races, genders, abilities, ethnicities and backgrounds, the needs of the population are not adequately considered. In addition, the environments in which those engineers do their work are less likely to be inclusive and free from behaviors that inhibit everyone’s ability to do their best work. While engineering schools must provide the technical training needed to convert the knowledge of nature into technology, engineering education is incomplete without incorporating how the work integrates with other fields such as ethics, social science, the humanities, and matters associated with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Michigan Engineering is taking a people-first approach to engineering, preparing engineers to be socio-technical experts who have a well-honed ability and desire to evaluate their work and its impact on the world from multiple perspectives. This project will create the Teaching Engineering Equity Center to improve inclusion and equity in Engineering disciplines. The goal is to create teaching environments where equity-centered values are present in both technical content and teaching style, leading to engineering education where students from a variety of backgrounds will experience inclusion and belonging, and engineering solutions that help to close critical gaps and elevate all people. This work aligns with the NSF’s Broadening Participation in Engineering Program objective to foster collaboration that supports the professional development of a diverse and prepared engineering workforce as well as innovative, if not revolutionary, approaches to building capacity through inclusivity and equity within the engineering academic experience.This project will focus on three specific objectives to address these challenges. The project team will:1. Design an evidence-based framework for creating an equity in engineering centered curriculum. The framework will center on the integration of equity-based pedagogies and concepts from other disciplines and incorporate inclusive teaching philosophies. It will include approaches to overcome the cultural barriers to DEI in engineering, including the erroneous assumptions that engineering is a purely rational endeavor, that technical considerations have more value than social concerns, and that advancement in the field is based on merit.2) Generate a library of DEI learning activities within specific engineering contexts and disciplines. These modules will be designed to integrate into discipline-specific technical courses. Such integration avoids the "add-on" approach that makes DEI content seem less relevant. The modules will allow instructors to demonstrate how social concerns and issues of equity result in more effective technical designs.3) Develop a replicable and adaptive training and implementation infrastructure to enable engineering instructors and mentors to use the learning activities. Instructor training will build on the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering’s modules created specifically for incorporating DEI concepts. The approach will include the highly successful Teaching Circles for faculty peer mentoring on effectively using the modules from the library.Project evaluation will be centered on testing the hypothesis that our approach, embedding DEI content directly into the engineering curriculum, both equips students and instructors with strategies for equitable engineering practice and improves the engineering climate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.