TEP 1601: a ‘course’ to advance and evolve engineering with EDI

Equity, diversity and inclusion course for engineering grad students starts July 10 (students should register by July 1). Learn more on the course page.

“Designing with the community, instead of just for the community”, might appear a simple and logical premise. According to Mikhail Burke, his statement represents a significant philosophical shift in the engineering profession, one which needs to embrace EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion) tools, best practices, training and education, to succeed.

Burke said he created TEP160: EDI in an Engineering Context to “meet a growing demand and requirements in industry and academia to have engineers, leaders, researchers, and instructors who are versed in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles and leverage that knowledge to positively influence the development and impact of their work”. He also pointed out that engineers and STEM researchers often feel unsure how to properly navigate these social principles within their technical spaces.

TEP1601 is available for graduate students, identifying as working professionals or research academics.

Some of the key benefits for learners include: providing a space for accessible knowledge building in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) considerations; developing and acquiring the skills to build connection between engineering work/research/teaching and EDI (or other social considerations); gaining tools and strategies to understand and leverage EDI considerations in their workspace; guided support through a major assignment to develop their own resource relevant to their work context (e.g., positionality statement, grant application section, community outreach activity, etc.).

The call to integrate EDI into academia and practice is widely held, examples include, Tri-Agency/NSERC Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, Engineers Canada’s Strategy for Diversity in Engineering

TEP1601 directly addresses this via the following perspectives. “The domains of learning, fit into three major buckets”, said Burke. “One is building up general EDI knowledge. Two, is framing engineering, research and practice as a social technical process, examining how social considerations influence engineering and vice versa. Three, is EDI considerations in different operational contexts and providing tools and strategies to increase understanding and use in the workplace, which I think is a big value.”

Please share this story with your colleagues and grad students. Start date for the course is July 10: registration is open now until July1.