Dr. Sochacka discusses educating empathic engineers at the Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville

Dr. Sochacka discusses educating empathic engineers at the Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville

Dr. Sochacka was invited to discuss opportunities and challenges associated with teaching empathic engineers to faculty members at the Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville (SIUE). She presented to SIUE’s STEM Center and College of Engineering. In her presentation, Dr. Sochacka described key lessons she has learned over the past 8-years of studying empathy in engineering. She shared her experiences of teaching empathy to undergraduate engineers using case studies and role-play. She also introduced a theory of empathy in engineering developed at the University of Georgia and showed how this theory can be used to design empathy interventions of all different types within and outside of engineering classrooms, e.g., in service learning settings. She concluded by connecting empathy to discussions around engineering ethics and providing examples of the range of student responses her and her colleagues have encountered in their efforts to bring empathy to engineering education.

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