DEI Curriculum Challenge Highlights Archive

Highlights & Updates
 

Cumulative Submissions Spring 2021:

Cumulative Submissions Fall 2020:

Highlights from Fall:

• The lesson plan by Anuj Pradham for MIE 597AV — Vehicle Automation Systems — asks students to consider if the benefits of vehicle automation and advanced in-vehicle technologies are equitable for all segments of the population. It then asks them to apply Universal Design methods and principles to consider what designers, engineers, manufacturers and policy makers can do to ensure these transformative technologies are beneficial to all, especially those with specific challenges with mobility. The lesson plan includes focused readings, in class discussions, and incorporation of a diversity and accessibility component in individual semester projects and presentations.
• The lesson plan by Sarah Perry for Engin 110 — Introduction to Chemical Engineering — asks students working in groups to research a compound and share details on its manufacture, uses, and history. Specifically, it challenges the students to think about social and/or environmental justice concerns associated with the compound and industrial process, as well as how the process might be altered to address these concerns. The reviewers commended this plan for how “it asks students to look at the decisions they may be asked to make in the workplace, and the repercussions they have in ethics.”
• The lesson plan by Omar Adelrahman for ChemE 444 — Chemical Process Design — focuses on the relationships between process design, chemical accidents, and environmental justice, asking students to investigate biases in how processes are designed. The reviewers commended this plan for how “it asks students to both learn about how systemic racism hurts people "in real life" and to incorporate what they've learned into their own designs.”
• Sarah Perry submitted another lesson focusing on Frances Arnold, the first Chemical Engineer to win a Noble Prize, also the first women to win the prize in Chemistry.
• The lesson plan by Casey Brown for CEE 462/597 — Water Resources Engineering and Sustainability — discusses the concept of sustainability and focuses on decision making approaches for siting infrastructure projects using dams as an example. It specifically introduces different ways to measure the distribution of benefits and costs. The reviewers commended this plan for showing “how an engineering solution might benefit a nation but bring ruin to a community,” and for asking students “to re-evaluate how they design” in an area that “has preexisting racial, cultural, religious, and gender biases.”
• In the lesson plan by Yanfei Xu for MIE 375 Manufacturing Processes, and larger class project on manufacturing solar cells, students will address how changes in solar manufacturing processes could make it more equitable. The reviewers felt that this plan “did a good job of giving students a glimpse of what it's like to be an ethical engineer working to solve a real-life design,” and that it includes “excellent resources and specific articles” that it “directly connects … to engineering design and process, which is great!”
• In the lesson plan by Cathal Kearny BME 330 — Quantitative Physiology — the students investigate how data in this field may be skewed by racial and gender bias. Student reviewers noted that the lesson plan “…paves the way for more conversation on the topics of data bias throughout the course without the need to individually implement many different lesson plans… this is a more integrative approach rather than a "one-and-done" lesson,” and appreciated that it tackles “… a relevant and crucial part of … engineering design and how it's implicitly flawed, and does a good job of asking students to consider it deeply.”
• The lesson plan by Chaitra Gopalappa Industrial Engineering 290H — Simulation Modeling for Disease Prevention — uses systems thinking to formulate models to inform HIV prevention strategies. Students consider upstream root causes leading to high-risk behavior, such as abuse and poverty, and consider the role of a range of interventions, such as housing assistance. Student reviewers appreciated that this lesson plan “…touches upon the necessity of engineers to understand fundamental human factors in different communities...”
• The lesson plan by Yubing Sun in Mechanical Engineering 210 Statics integrates a critical analysis of gender and racial bias with CAD modeling through a study of the FIU-Sweetwater Bridge Collapse. Student reviewers appreciated that this lesson plan “looks at the challenges of engineering and the broader impacts of engineering work…” through “…a real-life case of gender discrimination in engineering.”
• The lesson plan by Jungwoo Lee for ChemENG 575: Tissue Engineering consists of an interactive lecture and group discussion on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in biomedical research, focused three specific examples; including the lack of research on sickle cell anemia, a disease that primarily impacts the Black population. Student evaluators liked that it “gives concrete case studies explaining the history of inequity in biomedical research,” but also “presents positive steps being taken to address these issues…” thus empowering students to take action and advocate for improvements in their field.
• In the lesson plan submitted by Nick Tooker for Engin 111: Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering, students are asked to examine their semester project of designing a building from the perspective of sustainability along with structural, geotechnical, transportation, and environmental &water resources engineering. They specifically discuss differences and similarities in their personal backgrounds and experiences, and how this impacts design preferences. Student evaluators liked the inclusion of resources (an article and a podcast) that allow the students to “critically examine their field.” They noted that the lesson plan is “explicitly impactful in racial biases in STEM.”
• In the lesson plan submitted by Peter Beltramo for ChemE 297A: Special Topics — The Business of Chemical Engineering the students use the Flint water crisis to examine engineering solutions to real world problems, policy and environmental regulations and the disproportionate impact of failures on marginalized groups and communities. The lesson plan combines technical content on lead exposure and engineering of water purification systems with reflections on racial bias. Student evaluators noted that the lesson does a “good job of taking a problem that was created by flawed engineering based in systemic racism—pertinent to the class and geared towards DEI concepts,” and that it “addresses important engineering issues while also tying in social and economic justice issues seamlessly into the lesson plan.”
• Mike Zink submitted a lesson plan that uses of a data set from the current COVID-19 pandemic to track its correlation to race.
• Tilman Wolf submitted a lesson on the digital divide.
• Other noteworthy lessons included a discussion on batch processing in chemical engineering that highlights the role of the first woman to get a PhD in Chemical Engineering; a class that includes breakout discussions from both a technical and social viewpoint of how discrimination effects security engineering; a discussion of how diversity influences patient outcomes, how this informs material design process, and the role of engineers in addressing healthcare inequalities; and the use of a case study to explore DEI indicators for system performance.

Congratulations to all our faculty for bringing DEI into the curriculum in thoughtful, impactful ways!