SCHOOL FOR WONKS

ASEE Prism, Feb 2004 by Creighton, Linda

ENGINEERING SCHOOLS ARE SLOWLY RESPONDING TO THE NEED FOR GRADS WITH BOTH TECHNICAL AND PUBLIC POLICY KNOW-HOW.

Ask any engineering student in the country whether modern engineering practice runs up against an increasing number of societal and policy problems, and the answer you'll most likely get is a resounding "yes." Ask those same students whether their education-particularly at the undergraduate level-provides them with the skills needed to analyze and solve those problems at a public-policy level, and you'll see some head scratching.

There are a number of excellent graduate-degree programs integrating engineering and public policy, including those at George Washington University, Princeton, Georgia Tech, MIT, Berkeley, and Stanford. Penn State and Cornell offer a large number of undergraduate courses and programs in science, technology, and society.

Only one university in the country, Carnegie Mellon, offers a formal undergraduate program that deals with engineering's role in politics. Begun in 1971, the school's Engineering and Public Policy program has graduated almost 500 students. These graduates have the analytical skills imparted by the traditional engineering fields coupled with those from economics and social and policy analysis. Trained to solve problems at the intersection of technology and society, these engineers will meet environmental, computer, and communication problems from a unique perspective.

But now McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La., has introduced a new course called The Engineer's Role in Public Policy. The idea is to help prepare undergraduate engineering students for the variety of societal problems awaiting them in their jobs.

Most of McNeese's engineering graduates find employment in the nearby petrochemical industry-an industry particularly impacted by the proliferation of safety and environmental regulations. Until now, few engineering graduates in this country have been trained to understand and influence the regulations, laws, and policies that support or subvert work in the field.

Control of the rapidly changing landscape of engineering has been left in the hands of public-policy makers who have limited understanding of new technology and its implications. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, for instance, creates policy dictating electricity supply and delivery without a single engineer on its staff.

Fred Denny, associate professor of electrical engineering at McNeese, and Richard Robinson, associate professor of chemical engineering, have created a one-year course drawing from the disciplines of chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering to prepare graduates for the technical analysis required to shape public policy. The first year of the course discussed the engineer's role in public policy and was a step in the right direction in teaching future engineers that it's not enough to work in a bubble, even if you do your job well.

"Graduate courses emphasize critical-thinking skills and analysis of issues," says Denny. "We're using a broad brush to introduce some of those concepts-things they'll need to be successful engineers in a larger, global context."

Using guest speakers, lectures, slide presentations, videotapes, and Web presentations, students obtain information about hot public-policy issues affecting their fields. Working in teams, students learn about ease studies featuring business ethics, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, activities of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, electric and magnetic field effects, superfund legislation, nuclear power, and deregulation/restructuring in major U.S. industries.

One of the introductory components of the course was an overview of the U.S. government's history, including the principles of the Founding Fathers. Understanding how the Senate and House of Representatives work, the nuances of federal budgeting, and how bills become laws constitute the framework of the students' education in public policy. Denny says he was surprised at how little students remembered from high school. "I taught civics 101 for the first few weeks," he notes dryly.

The students watched C-Span and other television programs covering debates between candidates for the mid-term elections of 2002, debating the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches. Denny also showed them videotapes and Web sites outlining the role of lobbyists.

While public policy remains the focus of their course, Denny and Robinson emphasize that corporate policies for private businesses are often developed using the same techniques. "The ability to make your point convincingly and the ability to put together a strategy on an issue, whether it's a public policy issue or a business issue, are a similar skill set," Denny says. "Even if you end up never working in the public policy arena, the skills are useful."

One of the primary goals of the course, says Denny, was to increase engineering students' understanding of how public policies are developed, as well as how those policies will affect their future work activities.