Behind every engineering feat is a human story. Students will learn to examine this often-overlooked perspective of engineering and its implications for engineering work. Engineering is at its core a human activity geared at helping to attain human goals, which requires the integration of many viewpoints, technical and non-technical. Drawing on perspectives from humanities and social science disciplines (e.g., sociology, anthropology, psychology, history, and political science) students will explore aspects of the human condition as it relates to engineering work: particularly the complexity of individuals, the contexts in which they operate, and how this shapes collaborative work. They will develop an appreciation for and skills to engage in the interdisciplinary work that engineering entails by examining conceptions of engineering, as well as the humanities and social and their intersections with engineering. Students will integrate these themes in projects that investigate the human stories behind various technologies.

Complementary Studies elective

This course investigates the cognitive and psychological foundations of effective leadership. Students will explore current theories driving effective leadership practice, including: models of leadership, neurophysiological correlates of leadership, and psychodynamic approaches to leadership. Students will learn and apply skills, including: mental modeling, decision-making, teamwork and self-evaluation techniques. This course is aimed at helping Engineering students to gain practical skills, which will enhance their impact as leaders throughout their careers.

Humanities and Social Science elective

Many disciplines have explored happiness - philosophy, anthropology, psychology, sociology, neurobiology, film, art and literature - to name a few. Why not engineering? During the first part of the course, we will play catch-up, examining the scholarly and creative ways that people have attempted to understand what makes for a happy life. Then we turn our attention to our own domain-expertise, applying engineering concepts like: "balance", "flow", "amplitude", "dynamic equilibrium", "momentum" and others, to explore the ways your technical knowledge can contribute to a deep understanding of happiness. This course is designed to challenge you academically as we analyze texts from a variety of disciplines. It is also designed to challenge you personally, to explore happiness as it relates to yourself, your own personal development and your success and fulfillment as an engineer.

Humanities and Social Science elective

This course offers an introduction to relational, authentic and transformational leadership theory, by focusing on narrative and the power of storytelling. Students will practice storytelling techniques by: learning about the mechanics of stories; improve their public speaking by engaging in regular storytelling practice; explore their personal history by reflecting on their identities; and develop critical thinking skills regarding the stories (meta-narratives) that surround us; particularly as they relate to engineering problems/ethics. This is a highly experiential course with a focus on reading, discussion, practice and reflection.

The primary objective of this course is to help engineering students navigate the ambiguous world of engineering ethics and equity using case studies drawn from the careers of Canadian engineers. This course tackles complex ethics and equity challenges by focusing on multiple levels of practice: from design work to organizational practice and governance. By applying a systems lens, students will learn to develop the knowledge and skills needed for short-term and long-term action strategies. In addition to being exposed to a range of ethical theories, the PEO code of ethics, and the legal context of engineering ethics, students enrolled in this course will engage in ethical decision-making on a weekly basis.

Engineers are taught to think in systems, but often these are limited in scope to the technical realm. Yet, many of today’s “wicked problems” are as much dictated by social and environmental considerations as by any technical considerations. System mapping is a system thinking tool frequently used in fields such as public health and environmental policy to describe complex, multi-stakeholder problems. Students will apply system mapping techniques to describe complex problems with technical, social and environmental aspects. Students will explore fields outside of engineering critical to these challenges, including: public policy, sociology, and law. Students will complete a team project to develop a system map of a complex problem. The emphasis will be on problem definition, not problem solution, though it is expected maps will point to potential paths for solution.