Engineering Education: Moving toward a Contemplative Service Paradigm

The present work seeks to develop and implement a new paradigm for engineering education, one based upon a contemplative pedagogy in conjunction with service learning. The nexus of the two paradigms seems to hold great promise in developing the skills in engineering students the National Academy of Engineering has described. Such a paradigm has been utilized in a combined senior capstone design and engineering ethics sequence. Introduction My goal in the present work is to share some teaching tools and resultant impacts on students I have recently experienced. I offer them with complete humility in the same spirit of an opening comment made by the Dalai Lama at a conference on the environment held at Middlebury College in the 1990’s. 1 His Holiness began by asserting that he was not very special but rather very ordinary and that his aspiration was to contribute to the world in a small way that was consistent with his values. I too am only seeking to contribute to engineering education in some small way. The focus then naturally turns towards the students and what is it that I wish for them as they finish a class or their education? The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) suggests the following goals for engineering education: “To enhance the nation's economic productivity and improve the quality of life worldwide, engineering education in the United States must anticipate and adapt to the dramatic changes of engineering practice. The Engineer of 2020 urges the engineering profession to recognize what engineers can build for the future through a wide range of leadership roles in industry, government, and academia--not just through technical jobs.” The Academy further adds that: “The next several decades will offer more opportunities for engineers, with exciting possibilities expected from nanotechnology, information technology, and bioengineering. Other engineering applications, such as transgenic food, technologies that affect personal privacy, and nuclear technologies, raise complex social and ethical challenges. Future engineers must be prepared to help the public consider and resolve these dilemmas along with challenges that will arise from new global competition, requiring thoughtful and