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Despite an emerging emphasis on the role of engineers in achieving the SDGs, there is still a lack of agreement on which competencies should be prioritised to prepare them to tackle future sustainability challenges. By formulating a theoretical framework of key sustainable competencies based on prior studies, this study investigated engineering students’ subjective views on which competencies they considered as the most important to support them in becoming sustainable engineers/designers. Using Q methodology, views were collected from 26 master students in a Sustainable Design programme in a Danish systemic problem- and project-based (PBL) context. Three key competencies were identified: collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and systemic thinking. Competences within the ‘doing’ and ‘being’ dimensions were represented the strongest. There is a hierarchy between the competencies, with collaboration being the highest level, as it demonstrates that it is transversal to the others. These results emphasised the role of PBL in developing competencies for sustainability and in reinforcing the value of Education for Sustainable Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering education is pivotal in driving sustainable development forward, yet many engineers encounter hurdles stemming from insufficient preparation for sustainability challenges. A major factor contributing to this is the lack of a structured and practical framework to guide the integration of sustainability into engineering education. This study addresses this gap by presenting a system-based framework tailored to ‘engineering education as sustainable development.’ The framework outlines a dynamic and inclusive organisational system, incorporating inputs from key stakeholders, a value-and-belief subsystem, throughput processes, and resultant outcomes. These outcomes encompass the cultivation of a new cohort of engineering graduates equipped with sustainable development knowledge, skills, and values/attitudes, thereby fostering the sustainable well-being and prosperity of all stakeholders involved. Additionally, the study examines the intricate relationships, including feedback loops, among system components and concludes by offering insights for practitioners to consider for future action and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human world and the biosphere which we inhabit with all other life on earth is a complex socio-ecological system. It is essential to think about the sustainability problem by considering the interventions necessary to achieve our objectives within that system. The paper describes how the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be placed within a systems configuration. In this paper, I outline the development of a dynamic model to explore this system and its plausible trajectories over coming decades and centuries. The results echo the findings of other studies, indicating that urgent action is required to avoid declining average global living standards in the coming century. The key policy interventions required to avoid this are described. The present institutions are insufficient to re-structure the global economy in the timeframe required, meaning that our profession must be elevated in the public discourse, and our voices must become louder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of diversity in engineering and perpetuation of inequities through engineering designs have motivated the rise of new curricula centred on the integration of traditional technical content with social aspects of technology. However, the 'revolutionizing' of curricula has primarily been spearheaded by junior faculty, women and faculty of colour. This article uses an autoethnographic approach to explore the development of social justice-oriented curricula within engineering from the perspectives of junior women and faculty of colour. Drawing on feminist and critical race theory, we discuss how power dynamics within the school, university and engineering more broadly have shaped the development and teaching of justice-oriented engineering. Through the lens of our experiences, we show that, despite the support from some institutional allies and administrators, stereotypes, hegemonic norms and microaggressions can undermine efforts for social and structural change in engineering education, even as such changes are supported and promoted by the institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities throughout the world are realigning engineering education by integrating the impact and importance the profession has on humanity, society and the natural environment. Amongst western universities it is common practice for the engineering programs to have ethics and sustainability embedded within most professional practice courses. Western universities are now understanding the important role cultural, social and emotional intelligence play in producing holistic 21st century engineers. Universities are supporting and fostering fieldtrips to resource-constrained communities, exposing students to real-world problems and finding solutions not necessarily typical in western environments. This, to a certain degree, has helped promote the concept of the Humanitarian Engineer. However, many activities run the risk of disempowering communities and incorrectly promote neo-colonialism as a positive concept to students: the exact opposite of what universities should be striving to achieve. This paper explores the concept of voluntourism and the need for holistic and sustainable solutions for universities to produce culturally, socially and emotionally intelligent engineers with a strong depth of technical knowledge. The paper provides case studies of different programs, highlighting different methods of service-learning and community empowerment. The paper provides a framework to assess program suitability to produce holistic 21st century engineering graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade and prompted by the United Nations (UN) 2030 Framework, significant engineering bodies have been calling for education directed towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this paper, the authors reflect on progress to enable SDG knowledge and skills in engineering studies, overviewing key examples of efforts within the global professional engineering and education community, including Australia and the United States of America (the US). Acknowledging differences in language and guidance around the world, the authors discuss the need to provide clear and concise language regarding: 1) statements for desirable graduate attributes, 2) required knowledge and skill (i.e. competency) development, and 3) commentary/guiding elements and indicators. The paper concludes with recommending accreditation bodies and professional societies and colleges make use of current international review processes underway by the International Engineering Alliance (IEA) and the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO), to update accreditation and supporting documents to ensure graduates have capacity to deliver solutions for 'thriving humanity and planet' in the twenty-first century. The authors also challenge educators to review and renew their institution's desired graduate attributes and program offerings to ensure curriculum develops capacity for achieving the UN SDG goals, targets and indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering design activities are a common way for teachers to incorporate engineering into their science classrooms, as called for by current science policy documents in the United States. However, little is known about how teachers prioritize different learning objectives during engineering design lessons. Understanding teachers' thinking on this subject is important for teacher educators because teachers' beliefs about learning goals influence their teaching practices. This study presents elementary teachers' views on what their students learned during engineering instruction, most of which was in the form of design activities, over the course of a semester. The teachers were participants in a teacher education and professional development project aimed at supporting elementary science and engineering instruction. The results indicate that most teachers described student learning in terms of developing design skills and practices, whereas very few discussed their students' learning of engineering concepts. Interestingly, teachers also frequently discussed students' learning of the nature of engineering, suggesting that they highly prioritized this outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyse some of the main challenges evidenced in the insertion of sustainability in engineering courses, according to the view from a sample of Brazilian students. Through a systematic literature review, a set of 10 challenges were structured to base the research instrument (questionnaire). These challenges were evaluated by 91 engineering students who participate in sustainable action programs promoted by Enactus Brazil. The collected data were analysed in terms of the averages assigned and via the multi-criteria decision technique TOPSIS, which allowed ranking the challenges. The averages were higher than 5.0 on the scale used, indicating that the students notice the existence of the challenges in the courses in which they are enrolled. The ranking via TOPSIS presented the most evident challenges: 'Sustainable issues debated only in specific disciplines in a limited extent'; 'Difficulty to integrate disciplines for the broad teaching of sustainability'; 'Lack of practical and real examples of how sustainability can be embedded in the specific context of the course'; and 'Activities and examples presented focus exclusively on environmental issues'. The results presented here may be useful for course coordinators to improve their curriculum; educators to enrich their disciplines from the findings reported here; and researchers interested in the subject can use these findings as a starting point for proposing new teaching techniques. No similar publications were found in the literature, which indicates its originality and contribution to the knowledge base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterizing sustainability as a ‘super-wicked’ problem alerts us to issues beyond where current thinking about problem structuring enables engineers to deal with the merely wicked. Time is running out, no one authority is in control, we are the cause of the problem anyway, and we inherently discount the future in our everyday decision-making. When these are added to the usual definitions of wicked and messy problems, which only now are we addressing in engineering education, what are the potential limits and opportunities for the methodology of engineering in sustainability? Some modest extrapolations are discussed, based on the results from a recent research project in addressing energy planning in a city development zone. An analysis from another case study is also presented, which provides some triangulation of the ideas developed in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability issues are increasingly important in engineering work all over the world. This article explores systematic differences in self-assessed competencies, interests, importance, engagement and practices of newly enrolled engineering students in Denmark in relation to environmental and non-environmental sustainability issues. The empirical base of the article is a nation-wide, web-based survey sent to all newly enrolled engineering students in Denmark commencing their education in the fall term 2010. The response rate was 46%. The survey focused on a variety of different aspects of what can be conceived as sustainability. By means of cluster analysis, three engineering student approaches to sustainability are identified and described. The article provides knowledge on the different prerequisites of engineering students in relation to the role of sustainability in engineering. This information is important input to educators trying to target new engineering students and contribute to the provision of engineers equipped to meet sustainability challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2001, the International Institute of Women in Engineering (IIWE) at EPF, Ecole d'ingenieurs generaliste, Sceaux, France, has conducted a 3 week short course for culturally and discipline diverse, recently graduated and final year engineering students. The aim of this course is to introduce young engineers to broad global concepts and issues relating to their future professional practice, through intercultural learning. The initial course programme provided examples of engineering practices in various countries throughout the world. However, to achieve an intercultural, multidisciplinary learning outcome, a specific course theme and a project focussing on sustainable engineering and the inclusion of a variety of industrial visits were introduced in 2006. This paper will discuss the success of the strategies used to engage international students in the IIWE course activities, and after consideration of the results of participant surveys, the curriculum initiatives that followed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to developing deep knowledge of a single discipline, engineers must also be able to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries and develop interdisciplinary expertise to successfully address the complex challenges of the contemporary workplace. While numerous descriptions of interdisciplinary courses and projects appear in the literature, educators still lack rigorous research about learning barriers, outcomes, and concrete interventions to support this interdisciplinary development. This paper addresses that gap by pairing a review of the literature with a case study of students in a sustainable engineering program to identify the key challenges to success in interdisciplinary contexts. The findings suggest that students (1) lack the ability to connect interdisciplinary subjects to their own more narrowly defined fields of expertise, and (2) fail to identify and value the contributions of multiple fields to complex problems. This paper concludes with possible teaching interventions to address these barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights from the article: In their analysis, the authors review educational data mining methods and algorithms to determine which can be used in predicting students' graduation factors. The authors specifically explore the relationship between classroom assessment practices and students' learning-orientation. The authors suggest that instructors should align their assessment practices with current learning theories and literature, recognize ways student internalize and interpret assessment, and develop a clear assessment strategy that promotes deep learning behaviours.