Liberal Arts and Engineering

Directors: John Orr (ECE),
Lance Schachterle (HU)
Associated Faculty and Program Committee:
David DiBiasio (ChE), James Doyle (SSPS),
Peter Hansen (HU), Rob Krueger (IGSD),
Kent Rissmiller (IGSD and SSPS), D. Samson (HU),
Gretar Tryggvason (ME), Richard Vaz (IGSD and ECE)

BA in Liberal Arts and Engineering Program Chart (PDF)

Mission Statement

The goal of the Liberal Arts and Engineering Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree is to provide an opportunity for students who want a broad background in engineering and other disciplines, as preparation for further studies in engineering or in other fields such as medicine, law, public policy, international studies, business, or wherever a solid technical background would give them a unique edge. The program is also designed to allow students to transfer to an engineering BS program with minimum loss of time.

The Liberal Arts and Engineering degree responds to proposals from both professional organizations and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to develop engineers more broadly educated in both liberal and engineering studies. The Engineer of 2020, published by the NAE in 2004, envisions “engineers who are broadly educated, who see themselves as global citizens, who can be leaders in business and public service, and who are ethically grounded.” Calling for engineers who exhibit “creativity, ingenuity, professionalism, and leadership,” The Engineer of 2020 serves as a reminder that design—solving problems under constraint for the benefit of society—is the signature activity of the engineering profession. To adapt to external pressures will require a US engineering workforce featuring the innovation, flexibility, and understanding of context that underlie good design practice. However, most engineering teaching and research are done from the relatively “pure” perspective of engineering science rather than the context-driven, problem-oriented perspective of engineering design, allowing much of what students experience in their engineering curriculum to remain unconnected to the broader learning outcomes of NAE. Similarly, engineering students’ general education studies are unlikely to be intentionally connected to their professional studies.

What are the characteristics of someone educated broadly in the liberal arts and engineering? Certainly, we anticipate significant elements common with engineers educated in one of the disciplines. However, we would also expect to find more breadth of knowledge and abilities in domains outside of engineering, and a mature understanding of the relationship between technology and human needs.
First of all, engineers strive to understand how things work. Curiosity is a requisite trait. Second, engineers can imagine solutions to problems. Finally, engineers can understand interrelationships among disparate components. Understanding of system behavior as a result of the characteristics of its components is a fundamental engineering ability.

Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristics of the engineer are practical innovation and creative problem solving. These characteristics are embodied in the signature activity of the engineering profession, engineering design. Design involves creating solutions in response to stated needs or problems, under a set of constraints that include cost, safety, environmental impact, ergonomics, ethical considerations, sustainability, manufacturability, and reliability. Engineering design is not so much about the latest technology as it is about appropriate technology to meet human needs. Students in this program should learn to identify problems, understand user requirements, develop specifications and criteria, evaluate design options, synthesize solutions, bring those solutions to realization, and communicate their results.

Engineers work from a body of knowledge: information, facts, laws, and principles. It is important to avoid being prescriptive but, at the same time, important to ensure certain fundamentals. Engineers should be aware, for example, of experimental methodologies that produce data. Similarly, they should be aware of the systemization of such data through engineering analysis. Engineers also possess a special manner of thinking about problems – a mode of thought. It is analogous to, but different from, the modes used by other professionals such as lawyers, physicians, and businessmen. In a BA program, the engineer’s mode of thought is developed through acquiring facility with abstract models of the physical world, and relating those models to actual phenomena. Engineers excel at order- of-magnitude analyses, representing the behavior of complex things with simplified models, iteration to home in on solutions, and extrapolation into unknown terrain.

Engineers need to be literate in a wide variety of fields. The artifacts of technology have both scientific and social consequences, intended and unintended, and engineers need a broad perspective in order to identify and find appropriate, responsive solutions to problems. Traditionally, physics, chemistry, mathematics, humanities and arts, and the social sciences have formed this basis. However, we should now give serious consideration, on the technical side, to computer science, biology, and information technology; on the humanities, social, and policy sides, students in the program should be familiar with issues in environmental studies, sustainability, ethics, management, esthetics, economics, communications and doubtless others.

Program Educational Objectives

The Liberal Arts and Engineering degree recognizes that societal and technological issues are becoming more and more interdependent. Leaders of government, non-profit and for-profit organizations are typically educated in non-engineering disciplines yet increasingly would benefit from a more technological grounding. The Liberal Arts and Engineering major, with its emphasis on problem solving, will prepare students not only for engineering but also for many other high-level careers, such as:

Program Outcomes

Graduates of the WPI BA in Liberal Arts and Engineering major will have:

  1. an ability to formulate and solve problems requiring knowledge of both technological and societal/humanistic needs and constraints
  2. an ability to apply, as needed, the relevant fundamentals of mathematics, science, engineering, social sciences, and the humanities to solve such problems
  3. an ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern tools necessary for professional practice
  4. an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams
  5. an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility
  6. an ability to communicate effectively in oral, written and visual modes
  7. a recognition of the need for, and ability to engage in, life-long learning, in response to the ever-increasing pace of change affecting societal needs and opportunities
  8. the broad education necessary to understand the impact of professional solutions in a societal context, both locally and globally.

Degree and Distribution Requirements

The general degree requirements are the same as those for all other WPI baccalaureate degrees.

REQUIREMENTSMinimum Units

1.

Mathematics and Basic Sciences (Notes 1, 2)

3

2.

Engineering Science and Design (Notes 3, 4, 5)

3

3.

Humanities and Arts, Social Science, and Management Topics (Notes 6, 7)

3

4.

MQP (Note 8)

1

Notes:

  1. Mathematics must include differential and integral calculus and either probability or statistics.
  2. All courses with prefixes BB, CH, PH, or GE count toward this requirement. Must include at least 1/3 Unit each of BB, CH, and PH.
  3. Courses with prefixes BME, CE, CHE, CS, ECE, ES, and ME are eligible to count toward this requirement. These courses should be thematically related; students must gain approval of their program of study in this area from the Liberal Arts and Engineering Program Committee.
  4. Must include either CS 1101 or CS 1102.
  5. Must include at least one course in engineering design (such as ECE 2799 or ME 2300), plus at least two other courses with a significant laboratory component (a list of such courses will be maintained by the Liberal Arts and Engineering Program Committee).
  6. Must include 2 Units of Humanities and Arts and Social Science. Courses with prefixes AR, HI, PY, RH, WR, IMGD, ECON, GOV, PSY, STS, and SD may be eligible to count toward this requirement. Courses must be selected from areas that strongly complement the practice of engineering, such as the history of technology, ethics, writing and visual rhetoric, economics, society- technology studies, and environmental studies. A list of such courses will be maintained by the Liberal Arts and Engineering Program Committee.
  7. May include up to 1 Unit of Management. All courses with prefixes ACC, BUS, ETR, FIN, MKT, MIS, OIE, and OBC are eligible to count toward this requirement.
  8. The MQP provides a capstone experience that builds on both the technical (Engineering Science and Design) and nontechnical (Humanities and Arts, Social Science, and Management Topics) components of the student’s particular program. At least one advisor to the MQP must be a member of the Liberal Arts and Engineering Associated Faculty.

Three Example Programs

The Liberal Arts and Engineering degree program is designed to be flexible. However, it must introduce the two cornerstones of engineering, engineering science and design, in a meaningful way, and it must also provide a substantive treatment of humanistic, social, and business factors related to engineering and technology. Table 1 (see page 141) presents three examples of how students might construct a program.

Example MQPs

The MQP in Liberal Arts and Engineering should be substantially different from an IQP. As the sample curricula indicate, in the BA program students would have threeunit cornerstones in both engineering and liberal studies. Thus they will have formal course backgrounds for both the engineering and the humanistic, social, and management components of their MQPs, and can take on topics of greater complexity than may be the case for a similar IQP. The BA MQP would also be, by definition, in the student’s major, whereas the IQP does not have to draw upon the students’ major for the technological component. This distinction means that for the MQP the student has to build significantly on the base of prior study in two fields they have selected; for the IQP they must often function effectively in areas new to them. These two project experiences can be different and complementary. At least one MQP advisor must be a member of the Liberal Arts and Engineering Program Committee; we recommend that Liberal Arts and Engineering MQPs be co-advised by faculty teams offering suitable sets of engineering and liberal disciplinary expertise.

The MQP topics below are given as examples to correspond with the three example programs presented above.

  1. ECE Design with Social, Humanistic, and Business Factors of Design:
    “Design of a Low-Cost Lighting System Suitable for the Developing World”
    “Baseline Design and Business Plan for Integrated Household Information Systems”
    “Social Impact and Economic History of the Microprocessor”
  2. Energy with Environment and Policy:
    “A Brownfields Remediation Plan for Worcester”
    “Low-cost, Energy Efficient Housing Design”
    “A Windmill Design to Counter the NIMBY Argument”
  3.  Engineering Science and Design with Pre-law:
    “Intellectual Property Issues in Machine Design”
    “Design and Patent Search for a Better Mousetrap”
    “The Chainsaw: A Technical, Ethical, and Legal Case Study”

Programs of Study and Relevant Courses

The Liberal Arts and Engineering program will offer considerable curricular flexibility to accommodate a wide range of student interests, but at the same time will require students to be intentional about developing a coherent program of study consistent with the program’s objectives. Academic advising will play an important role in helping students plan their programs.

The Engineering Science and Design component of the major (Distribution Requirement 2) must be approved by the Liberal Arts and Engineering Program Committee to ensure that it provides students with a focus in some area of engineering. Guidance and examples will be provided so that students know in advance what types of programs will be approved. The intent is to accommodate creative programs while avoiding programs that lack a coherent theme.

The Social and Humanistic Factors component (see Distribution Requirement 3 and Note 6) should consist of courses that complement engineering and technology to support the educational objectives of the program. The Program Committee will maintain and make available to students and advisors lists of current courses that are acceptable for credit toward this requirement.

The following list of courses is eligible for the Social and Humanistic Factors requirement, and has been compiled to provide a starting point for the program. Alternately, the complete distribution requirements table is also available in PDF format.

AR 1100 Essentials of Art
AR 1101 Digital Imaging and Computer Art
AR 2113 Topics in 19th- and 20th-Century Architecture
AR 3112 Modernism, Mass Culture, and the Avant- Garde
AR/ID 3150 Light, Vision, and Understanding
EN 2235 The American Dream
EN 2237 American Literature and the Environment
EN 2252 Science and Scientists in Modern Literature
EN 3232 The Concord Writers
GN 3513 Survey of German Civilization and Culture from 1871 to the Present
GN 3514 Seminar on Selected Topics in German Literature
GN/ID 3515 Technical Topics in German
HI 1331 Introduction to the History of Science
HI 1332 Introduction to the History of Technology
HI 2324 Industry and Empire in British History
HI 2331 American Science and Technology to 1859
HI 2332 American Science and Technology from 1859
HI 2333 History of Science from 1700
HI 2334 European Technological Development
HI 3331 Topics in Science, Technology, and Society
HI 3333 Topics in American Technological Development
MU 3611 Computer Techniques in Music
MU 3612 Computers and Synthesizers in Music
MU 3613 Digital Sound Design
PY 2712 Social and Political Philosophy
PY 2713 Bioethics
PY 2714 Ethics and the Professions
PY 2717 Philosophy and the Environment
PY/RE 2731 Introductory Ethics
PY/RE 3731 Problems in Ethics and Social Philosophy
SP 3523 Topics in Latin American Culture
SP 3524 Spanish-American Literature in the Twentieth Century
SP/ID 3525 Spanish-American Film/Media: Cultural Issues
SP/ID 3526 Comparative Business Environments
SP/ID 3527 Technical and Business Spanish
SP 3528 Spanish Culture and Civilization
SP 3529 Caribbeanness: Voices of the Spanish Caribbean
RH 3111 The Study of Writing
RH 3112 Rhetorical Theory
RH 3211 Rhetoric of Visual Design
WR/EN 2211 Elements of Writing
WR/EN 3011 Peer Tutoring in Writing
WR/EN 3214 Writing about Disease and Public Health
WR/EN 3216 Writing in the Professions
IMGD 1000 Critical Studies of Interactive Media and Games
IMGD 2000 Social Issues in Interactive Media and Games
IMGD 2001 Philosophy and Ethics of Computer Games
ECON 1110 Introductory Microeconomics
ECON 1130 Introduction to Econometric Modeling
ECON 2110 Intermediate Microeconomics
ECON 2117 Environmental Economics
ECON 2125 Development Economics
STS 1207 Introduction to the Psycho-Sociology of Science
STS 2208 The Society-Technology Debate
STS 2209 Conflict and Cooperation in Research and Development Settings
GOV 1310 Law, Courts, and Politics
GOV 2302 Science-Technology Policy
GOV 2311 Environmental Policy and Law
GOV 2312 International Environmental Policy
GOV 2313 Intellectual Property Law
GOV 2314 Cyberlaw and Policy
SD 1510 Introduction to System Dynamics Modeling
SD 1520 System Dynamics Modeling
PSY 1401 Cognitive Psychology
PSY 1402 Social Psychology
PSY 2405 Environmental Issues and Psychology
PSY 2406 Cross-Cultural Psychology

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Last modified: February 26, 2008 10:29:00