Course Details

Course offered Winter 2018

HONORS 221 E: Introduction to Bioengineering Problem Solving: Interplay of Diversity and Ethics (NSc, DIV)

HONORS 221 E: Introduction to Bioengineering Problem Solving: Interplay of Diversity and Ethics (NSc, DIV)

SLN 22202 (View UW registration info »)

Dianne Hendricks (Bioengineering; Human Centered Design & Engineering)
Phone: 206-685-9283
Email: dgh5@uw.edu

Credits: 5
Limit: 25 students

This is a jointly offered course, in part. However, in order to receive Honors credit, you must register for HONORS 221E, not BIOEN 215A. Completion of HONORS 221E will also satisfy the UW bioengineering department's BIOEN 215 course requirement.

If one of the associated sections, HONORS 221 EA-EE, is closed, you may contact the instructor to ask about overloading the section. Her email is: dgh5@uw.edu.

THIS COURSE IS APPROPRIATE FOR STUDENTS WITH SCIENCE AND NON-SCIENCE BACKGROUNDS

This course presents a two-credit add-on to BIOEN 215, a three-credit introductory bioengineering seminar covering creative problem solving techniques, engineering ethics, social constraints, and engineering design process. In addition to attending BIOEN 215 lectures and discussion sections alongside students registered for BIOEN 215A, students registered under the HONORS-prefix will attend an additional two-hour discussion section once a week and complete additional weekly assignments including weekly reading responses and a term paper on a topic of their choice related to the role of diversity/diverse identities in engineering practice.

In the Honors section of this course, we ask students to put their bioengineering knowledge into a social context and reflect on the impact of engineering in society. Through weekly readings and discussions, we will explore the relationships between engineering, ethics, race, gender, disability and sexuality to answer three inter-related questions:
1) How do our cultural ideas about race, gender, disability and sexuality influence engineering knowledge and practice?
2) On the other hand, how does our engineering practice influence our cultural ideas about race, gender, disability and sexuality?
3) How can we use engineering to promote social welfare for all people?