By the end of this course, students will have an understanding 
of:
(1)  How engineering and technology are viewed in today’s 
society and the challenges engineers face.
(2)  Lessons learned from past engineering failures as well as 
successes.
(3)  The globalization of industrial production and commerce as 
it relates to engineering in particular.
(4)  The U.S. patent process and how intellectual property is 
created and turned into products.
(5)  The concept of systems engineering and how it incorporates 
both technical and human-centered disciplines such as control 
engineering, industrial engineering, organizational studies and 
project management.
(6)  How public policies are developed and how they influence 
the development of technology.

1)  A brief history of what is considered engineering today.
2)  The general public’s perception of engineering today.
3)  Case studies of past engineering failures (Tacoma Narrows 
Bridge, Challenger, etc.).
4)  Case studies of past engineering successes (landing on the 
moon and Apollo 13, etc.).
5)  Lessons learned from Thomas Friedman (“The World is 
Flat”; “Hot Flat and Crowded”; “That Used to Be Us”).
6)  Intellectual property rights and the U.S. patent process.
7)  Examples of the application of systems engineering to 
large, complex projects, such as the design of a spaceship, 
computer chip design and robotic systems.
8)  A service-learning project will be done to provide 
practical experience with bringing these concepts together.