Expanding Engineering Limits: Culture, Diversity, and Equity

This course investigates how culture and diversity shape who becomes an engineer, what problems get solved, and the quality of designs, technology, and products. As a course community, we consider how cultural beliefs about race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, abilities, socioeconomic status, and other intersectional aspects of identity interact with beliefs about engineering, influence diversity in the field, and affect equity in engineering education and practice. We also explore how engineering cultures and environments respond to and change with individual and institutional agency. The course involves weekly presentations by scholars and engineers, readings, short writing assignments, small-group discussion, and hands-on, student-driven projects. Students can enroll in the course for 1 unit (lectures only), or 3 units (lectures+discussion+project). For 1 unit, students should sign up for Section 1 and Credit/No Credit grading, and for 3 units students should sign up for Section 2 and either the C/NC or Grade option.