Topic

The effects of technology on individuals, society and nature and what people can do to create a responsible technology that addresses the needs of everyone while considering possible risks and harms caused by technology.

Target Group

Engineering students and students of the humanities with an interest in the workings of technology on individuals, society and nature.

Learning Objectives

1. The prospective engineers analyze and evaluate the present reciprocal relations of technology, individuals, nature and society by taking different perspectives. Based on this analysis and evaluation, they are able to state their personal perspective and values of the reciprocal relations and act accordingly.
2. The prospective engineers cooperate with others to analyze and evaluate in a democratic process the present reciprocal relations of technology, individuals, nature and society. Based on their analysis and evaluation, they are able to work out a collective understanding with regard to their collective values and democratise the reciprocal relations.

Course Components

The course will consist of a few regular lectures and mostly of building blocks which will be conducted by the lectures and the student’s themselves and one excursion per week (e.g. waste/drinking water treatment, recycling, lignite pit and lignite power plant, industrial food production). In addition, the students will create, conduct and finally document their own building block for further use.

Building blocks, i.e., self-contained study-elements, are at the core of the Blue Engineering course. They provide clear didactical instructions to facilitate a 90 minutes course as well as compact, yet multiple perspectives on a complex topic, e.g., ethical codes, recycling, pre-implementation diagnostics, social businesses and cooperatives. Some of these study elements help to thoroughly analyse single technologies, e.g., energy saving light bulbs, in respect to the ecological, social, economical, political and gender related impacts of these technologies. In other study elements, engineering students learn to shift away from the general paradigm of engineers as problem solvers. They are encouraged to become problem definers in all areas of engineering, including their own proper working conditions. Along with the wide variety of topics, every single building block uses a specific set of wide-spread teaching formats such as case studies, story-telling and station learning. Most building-blocks, however, rely on a specific adaption and new combination of known methods, e.g. learning cascades, advocatus diaboli, triangular method, evaluation sculpture, crime scene investgations and court trials, educational games and challenges. On top, several building blocks make use of newly created methods or are build according to specific forms of pedagogy.

Short Description

Sustainability in the curriculum of engineering students is either ignored or solely focuses on technological solutions. As the UN Rio+20 debate and its focus on Green Economy shows, there is a strong demand for technological innovations as a remedy for ecological destruction and as pathway to poverty eradication. Consequently, the predominant belief in technological progress is held up through technicians as well as a society wishing for easy technological solutions for complex ecological and social problems.

Taking this into account, this course promotes socially and ecologically responsible engineering through a variety of alternative teaching methods. Engineering students acquire the competence to unveil the complex interdependency of their social, political, ecological and economic surroundings. This includes the consideration of different values, interests and needs within a global perspective as well as within one class(room). The course design encourages democratic decision-making not only to solve but also to define problems within the course itself and moreover outside of the classroom. This method is applied in order to adequately respond to the specific needs of users and to cooperatively develop technologies which are socially useful, locally adapted, durable, repairable and recyclable.

Prerequisites

The general prerequisites of the TU Berlin Summer University are: at least one year of university experience + English level B2 or equivalent.

An interest in the reciprocal relations of technology, individuals, nature, society and democracy.

Further Information and Registration

The Blue Engineering Summer University is part of the Summer University of TU Berlin. Further information and registration are made through their website: http://www.tu-berlin.de/menue/summer_university/summer_university_block_3/blue_engineering_engineers_with_social_and_ecological_responsibility/