Development of a Peace Engineering Initiative within a First-Year Engineering Program

Abstract

The first-year engineering program, CoRe Experience, at Michigan State University (MSU) has a long history of embedded service-learning projects within its Introduction to Engineering Design course. Service-learning projects were incorporated into the course beginning spring semester 2011 with teams of students designing and building working prototypes of assistive aids for blind, deaf and physically disabled university students and employees as well as members of the local community. The projects then migrated spring semester 2015 to a collaboration with the MSU Engineers Without Borders student organization for the design of a water filtration and heating apparatus for communities in the Dominican Republic.

Since fall semester 2018, the MSU College of Engineering has partnered with the MSU Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) Program on Sustainability in Costa Rica to have first-year engineering students and some arts and humanities students collaborate to develop designs for community-based projects in Costa Rica. Since, its founding in 2008, RCAH has focused on community engagement as an important element of the arts and humanities.

The semester-long design project is then followed by a humanities course, Transcultural Relations, where students whom had developed designs the previous semester learn about Costa Rican history and culture, ethical theories for sustainable development and civic engagement skills. The course includes an embedded one-week education abroad experience where students travel to Costa Rica to assist local communities in the implementation of designs developed the previous semester.

The introduction to engineering design community-based project work and the transcultural relations course with the education abroad component form the basis for the MSU Peace Engineering Initiative.