Educating Engineering Students to Address Bias and Discrimination Within Their Project Teams.

Area of Science:

• Engineering Education
• Social Sciences in Engineering
• Ethics in Engineering

Background:

• Unconscious bias negatively impacts diversity and inclusion in engineering teams.
• Teamwork and group projects are integral to engineering curricula.
• Addressing bias and discrimination is a critical engineering ethics issue.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a workshop designed to help engineering students work equitably in diverse teams.
• To equip students with strategies to mitigate bias and discrimination in collaborative engineering projects.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of training in promoting inclusive teamwork.

Main Methods:

• A workshop focused on creating a safe environment for discussing bias.
• Incorporated opportunities for students to apply concepts to their own projects.
• Provided practice in using proactive and reactive strategies against bias and discrimination.

Main Results:

• Students found both onsite and online workshop formats provided practical, applicable skills.
• Workshop participation led to intended application of learned strategies.
• Follow-up evaluations indicated behavioral changes, particularly in proactive bias reduction.

Conclusions:

• The workshop effectively equipped engineering students with skills to address bias and discrimination.
• Training fosters equitable collaboration and promotes diversity in engineering.
• Proactive teamwork strategies are key to reducing the impact of unconscious bias in engineering practice.