This study seeks to understand the origin accounts of academic makerspaces targeted for engineering students at higher education institutions, as described from the perspective of those who played a formative role in the development of the university’s makerspace. The origin accounts of eight varied university makerspaces are investigated for their practices (or shared strategies) in the formation

ABSTRACT Engineering education is often decontextualized, even as it is suffused with metaphoric language and sociocultural norms and beliefs. Efforts to embed social context and sociotechnical content in engineering education are often met with resistance. We contribute to conversations about how to change dominant knowledge regimes by detailing the process by which a team grapples with efforts to

(2021). Benoît Godin (1958–2021). Engineering Studies. Ahead of Print.

Women engineers in Germany rarely reach the higher management levels of companies. The men-dominated work culture in engineering is regarded as one of the reasons for this. In particular, because there is a masculine ‘engineering habitus’, the women’s habitus conflicts with the field-specific rules. However, successful women engineers are able to deal with and adapt to the ‘engineering habitus’ to

(2020). Editorial for issue 12.3: Imagining a Different Past, Present, and Future. Engineering Studies: Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. 151-156.

ABSTRACT While the Maker Movement has grown over the past couple of decades, the normative understanding of what making is and who are recognized as makers has been largely defined by a limited perspective. This perspective threatens the very democratization that the Maker Movement has come to represent. To broaden the dominant narrative of making, this paper examines counter-stories in the form of

For the first half of the twentieth century, Thompson-Starrett and Co., a New York-based American engineering, construction, and contracting firm, dominated the building scene. In operation between 1899 and 1968, it was a leader in skyscraper construction and large-scale projects, and literally built the New York skyline. It designed and constructed the tallest skyscraper of the era, the Woolworth

(2020). Correction. Engineering Studies: Vol. 12, No. 3, pp. I-I.

The study evaluates the leadership capacity of students undertaking a master’s degree in mining engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. During the past four academic years, students undertook two self-perception questionnaires. The first used Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness (DISC) methodology to classify students according to two parameters: rational–irrational and

In this paper we analyze imaginaries about care robots using a set of interviews with roboticists. The study of imaginaries – from a notion close to that of Castoriadis’s radical imaginary – is used as a tool to unravel ethical, political and social concerns that care robots entail. From the analysis of the interviews, our results highlight that imaginaries regarding care robots are predominantly sustained

(2020). Guest Editorial – Exclusion and Inclusion in U.S. Engineering Education. Engineering Studies: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 79-81.

This paper examines students’ claims about who can become an engineer and what it takes in engineering culture to be successful. Through longitudinal interviews with 20 undergraduate engineering students, we found that participants’ descriptions of who can ‘do’ engineering were paradoxical. Participants simultaneously maintained that ‘anyone’ could do engineering and that individuals must also possess

This article uses document analysis to explore departmental messaging about electrical and computer engineering identity development for undergraduate students at an American research university in the Midwest. We found that these texts collectively produce an image of the ‘ideal’ electrical and computer engineer. This image depicts ‘ideal’ electrical and computer engineers as performing technical

The field of engineering continues to suffer from the underrepresentation of non-dominant groups despite concerted efforts towards change, particularly with respect to increasing women’s participation in the field. One way transformation in disciplines happens is through learning and the co-constitution of individuals and practices; as new students become engineers, they shape and transform the practice

(2020). Normal Science in the Time of Corona. Engineering Studies: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 1-7.

(2020). Thank You to 2019 Reviewers. Engineering Studies: Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 8-8.

The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) is one of the most important engineering institutions for Chinese engineers. The formal establishment of CAE, from its original conception in 1978 to its final birth in 1994, took almost 20 years. At present it has been in existence for two decades. Both the former decades-long emergence and the latter decades-long operation of CAE can be interpreted in terms

This paper demonstrates the coordinating roles played by decision-making concepts such as Technology Readiness Level (TRL) in industrial engineering practice, where technology development is increasingly complex, involving diverse stakeholders, engineering tools and sociotechnical objects. Such distributed practices demand coordinated efforts across specialized units with diverging interests and perspectives

The paper aims to build understanding of the recent growth of interest in engineering for international development as an emerging focus of new knowledge, practice, and community development. In the paper, we create a borderlands approach to studying the activities referred to as engineering for development and development engineering. These activities take place in ‘borderland’ spaces where new approaches

(2019). Guest Editorial – Men and Masculinities in Engineering: Volume 1. Engineering Studies: Vol. 11, Men and Masculinities in Engineering, pp. 169-171.

This paper emerges out of ethnographic scholarship on marginalization in present-day engineering education. I pursue a scholarship of integration to contextualize my own and others’ engineering education research with critical, cultural, and historical accounts of engineering. I structure the narrative around the ethnographic themes of masculinity, competition, and competition-as-masculinity. Within

Women engineers who graduated from college in the 1970s, a time in U.S. history when women’s entry into engineering seemed most promising but failed to gain traction, offer important perspectives on the challenges facing women engineers in the past and today. To that end, we surveyed 251 women engineers from that generation to understand their perspectives and experiences. We found that the challenges

In this article, we explore the identity work done by four male, working-class students who participate in a Swedish mechanical engineering program, with a focus on their participation in project work. A focus on how individuals negotiate their participation in science and technology disciplines has proven to be a valuable way to study inclusion and exclusion in such disciplines. This is of particular

(2019). History of Engineering (and Some of Its Uses) Engineering Studies: Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 77-82.

As STEM students come to populate undergraduate courses in the liberal arts to fulfill university distribution requirements, they outnumber their humanities counterparts. A history professor and archivist working at a university that predominantly produces STEM majors have partnered to teach these students by utilizing the special collections related to engineering, innovation, and discovery in classroom

This essay review evaluates recent contributions in the field of maintenance and repair studies with a focus on a special issue of Tecnoscienza on this research field and a volume edited by Ignaz Strebel, Alain Bovet, and Philippe Sormani entitled Repair Work Ethnographies: Revisiting Breakdown, Relocating Materiality. These two publications provide important insights into empirical investigations

By the mid-2000s, South Korea had become a dominant power in semiconductors, and by the mid-2010s, its worldwide market share of memory had climbed to over 60%. Many scholars have endeavored to discover the secret of the South Korean success but have usually emphasized the roles and contributions of the South Korean government and individual companies in the development of semiconductors, almost totally

This article details the history of college engineering competitions, originating with student concrete-canoe racing in the 1970s, through today’s multi-million-dollar international multiplicity of challenges. Despite initial differences between engineering educators and industry supporters over the ultimate purpose of undergraduate competitions, these events thrived because they evolved to suit many

(2019). Editorial. Engineering Studies: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1-4.

(2019). In Memoriam Chyuan-Yuan Wu (吳泉源) 1961–2018. Engineering Studies: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 5-7.

(2019). Thank You to Reviewers. Engineering Studies: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 8-8.

In an interdisciplinary project-based course, the topic of ‘drones’ served as an essential boundary object both for the students themselves and instructors. Instructors developed the course to facilitate productive exchanges between students from schools of engineering and peace studies involved. In this critical participation paper, we use an experimental reflection and analysis method to explore

If it is understood that engineers are ‘turning dreams to reality,’ then educators share the responsibility for supporting engineers in developing the capacities to consider the future impacts of their decisions. Yet even the most competent engineer's decisions can contribute to macro-ethical failures that arise from narrow problem framing, unevenly distributed risks and benefits, or design solutions

With a sample of 358 students of engineering management and 195 engineering managers, using an ad hoc questionnaire, the paper examines the importance of professional ethics as a constitutive element of the engineering management profession in Serbia. The results indicate that professional ethics is an essential element of constituting this relatively young profession in Serbia.

Medical devices are indispensable in the diagnosis, treatment and management of disease. To enhance the usability of medical devices, human factors engineering (HFE) has been widely applied. While it takes into account human capabilities and limitations, the use of HFE in the design of medical devices has challenges that render its implementation incomplete, resulting in its potential not being fully

(2018). Editorial for Engineering Studies Issue 10.2/3. Engineering Studies: Vol. 10, No. 2-3, pp. 85-89.

For decades, American researchers have brought intellectual, financial and labor resources to understanding minority underrepresentation in engineering, including through studies of persistent racial and gender discrimination in higher engineering education. This paper considers prevailing standards for legitimate and significant research in this area and the persistent stigma associated with the study

Gender bias is important in our society not only from the point of view of ethics and human rights but also from a pragmatic engineering point of view. Universities are aware of this issue and develop equality plans, some of them including specific actions like education in gender equality. We ask, how effective are these actions? And, are there any differences in the perception of gender equality

This article studies the production of a power grid across six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, known as ‘the backbone,’ which has been conceptualized as an answer to power outages. First it analyzes how experts working with and around the GCC Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) advance claims to a regional territorial imagination. Second, it shows that the construction of the grid not only

In many disciplines of engineering, the professional engineering license is an important credential for career advancement. To attain an engineering license, one must pass the Principle and Practice of Engineering (PE) exam after a set amount of time in practice (defined by the state granting the license). While the national pass rate for the exam is available to the public, pass rates based on gender

The practice of mathematics underwent a major transformation in the seventeenth century due to new procedures and concepts that also showed their utility for military architecture. The circulation of this knowledge can be found in several works. In this paper, we focus on an early work on Portuguese fortifications, Methodo Lusitanico de Desenhar as Fortificaçoens das Praças Regulares & Irregulares

(2018). New Editor-in-Chief Editorial. Engineering Studies: Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1-11.

This is a story of critical participation in engineering and applied science spaces that examines the challenges and opportunities of STS (Science and Technology Studies) experiments in relation to disciplinary identity, institutional values, and the power dynamics at work in the experiment. Comparing my experiences as an STS graduate student negotiating access in a research-oriented nanoengineering

The tension between academic and professional aims of engineering education is a remarkably consistent challenge facing engineering educators. Here, some historical roots of this issue are traced through the life and work of Carl Richard Söderberg (1895–1979), who emigrated from Sweden to the US for an illustrious industrial and academic career. While Söderberg was a proponent for a more science-based

(2017). Editorial Announcement. Engineering Studies: Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 161-163.

(2017). Thank You To Reviewers. Engineering Studies: Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 164-165.

There is a consensus that engineering design practice and education needs to change, to address the sustainability challenges facing the planet. This shift towards sustainability engineering requires illustrating successful design practices that embed sustainability values, particularly designs that move away from the current focus on input–output efficiency, towards eco-social and socio-technical

Rigor is the aspirational quality academics apply to disciplinary standards of quality. Rigor's particular role in engineering created conditions for its transfer and adaptation in the recently emergent discipline of engineering education research. ‘Rigorous engineering education research’ and the related ‘evidence-based’ research and practice movement in STEM education have resulted in a proliferation

In many engineering ethics classes, codes of ethics are presented as if they are self-evident yardsticks for gauging ethical decisions in engineering. In this article, we argue that focusing solely on the content of ethics codes without examining the professional contexts in which codes are created – and are made meaningful – misses important opportunities to understand the engineering profession's

As engineering fields strive to be more inclusive of women, focusing on perceptions of women's work is vital to understanding how women can succeed and the limitations they may face. One area in need of more attention is the connection between communication and women's experiences in engineering. This article examines the gendered nature of writing labor in engineering, focusing on case studies of

Engineering should include concern for people, communities, and societal welfare at the heart of the profession. Focusing on these helping attributes of engineering may help draw individuals, particularly women, into the field. However, are prosocially motivated individuals leaving engineering during college due to the lack of social responsibility (SR) typically portrayed in their education? Understanding

(2017). Guest Editor’s Introduction: Engineering Masculinities in Water Governance. Engineering Studies: Vol. 9, Engineering Masculinities in Water Governance, pp. 75-77.

The analysis in this article contrasts indigenous irrigation systems with modern water engineering in Peru to denaturalize and de-normalize the binary gendered associations through which the modern engineering water profession has come to be defined. We present evidence that suggests a gradual historical change in the main source(s) and bearers of water authority in Peru; from the divine to science

Beginning with colonial times and continuing to the present, irrigation engineering has been and is an important site for the construction of gendered power and hegemonic masculinities. The strong connection between masculinities and professional irrigation cultures provides one possible explanation of why hydraulic bureaucracies are so resistant to change: it makes behaviours and codes of conduct

In this article, using the Department of Irrigation in Nepal as a case study, we argue that professional performance in irrigation engineering and water resources development is gendered and normalised as ‘masculine’. In Nepal, the masculinity of professional performance in irrigation engineering is located in intersections of gender, class, caste, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality and disciplinary

By telling the story of an agricultural university in Peru, this article shows how a specific professional formation forges a strong linkage between engineering and masculine identities in water management. Although these identities come to be seen as self-evident or even natural, they are the outcome of diverse, repeated, and ritualized performances as part of the everyday life of the university.

(2017). In Memoriam: Ann Johnson 1965–2016. Engineering Studies: Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 1-2.

The use of science and engineering skills to address the novel challenges of modern society through innovative solutions is regarded as an essential strategy around the world. Many of the studies on innovators, however, are not specific to engineers. To address this gap, this study explored engineers’ views of innovation and the attributes of engineers who create, develop, and implement innovations

Women’s persistent underrepresentation in undergraduate engineering is a well-documented concern. One issue missing from many discussions on the topic, however, is that women are not equally underrepresented in all engineering majors. Furthermore, a significant portion of the research focuses solely on women’s experiences within engineering. We know far less about how key stakeholders, such as faculty

This paper is concerned with how engineers working in renewable energies in Germany and Austria position themselves and their professional activity within this relatively new field of engineering occupation by mobilizing a specific androcentric construction of engineering as a symbolic resource. Drawing on qualitative interviews, the argument unfolds in three steps: First, the paper reconstructs how