Humanities and Social Science Elective
This course teaches future engineers to look beyond their specialized domains of expertise in order to understand how technology functions within human life, society and the biosphere. By providing this context for design and decision-making, students will be enabled to do more than achieve the desired results by also preventing or significantly reducing undesired consequences. A more preventively-oriented mode of practicing engineering will be developed in four areas of application: materials and production, energy, work and cities. The emphasis within these topics will reflect the interests of the class.