The feasibility study will be accomplished through three Tasks, which are intended to collectively guide recommendations for practical program and/or curriculum interventions by departments within and across the College of Engineering. Please see attached Project Narrative for additional details and information (Tables and Figures) related to these tasks.

Task 1: Assess availability and student engagement in existing education and training opportunities related to environmental and social justice. The feasibility study will initiate with assessment of the existing education and training opportunities - both formal and informal - that are available to engineering students. Formal opportunities include required or voluntary courses (e.g., sustainability, social impact, and ethics) offered for academic credit. Informal opportunities include extra-curricular activities that are sponsored or promoted by the University or student groups (e.g., DubHacks, Alaska Environmental Challenge). These opportunities will be summarized for purpose, scope, number of students in each department that participate, and reported learning outcomes. 

Task 2: Survey engineering students to evaluate sociotechnical and social justice perspectives, and unmet needs for education and training. The second task will be to survey COE students’ interest and current knowledge in engineering oriented toward environmental and social justice, and whether there is unmet need for training (see Figure 1, Project Narrative). The survey will be based on existing, validated survey instruments developed to assess sociotechnical and social justice perspectives for engineering students (Leydens et al. 2018, Johnson et al. 2019, Swartz et al. 2019, Leydens et al. 2021). The survey will be developed and implemented under appropriate review by the UW Institutional Review Board. Survey data will be summarized to identify student understanding and identified need(s) for training, and how these may differ across different departments or demographic groups (Johnson et al. 2019).

Task 3: Evaluate program models and curriculum interventions in other disciplines or institutions. The third task will evaluate models for program and/or curriculum interventions that can improve engineering students’ awareness of environmental and social impact training (see Table 1, Project Narrative). Interestingly, many disciplines outside of engineering have a long history of community-based practicum or structured programs that allow students to develop their technical skills in practice, often with public serving or community organizations (e.g., law clinics, public health practice). Across UW, there are multiple models ranging from purely curriculum-based changes (e.g., embedding social and environmental impact into technical courses) to practicum-based programs (e.g., matching capstone students with community projects). We have identified 10 programs that offer potential models for expanding students’ awareness or practical skills in addressing issues of sustainability, social justice, or community needs. We will conduct semi-structured interviews with directors of each of these programs to ascertain how programs are funded, the intended vs. realized student outcomes, and potential application for engineering students. The interviews will assess how the programs were initiated and are maintained (e.g., student registration, grant funding), department and faculty resources that are required, and administrative or cultural hurdles to implementation.