2nd Floor We must ask why. >> This is one of the key reasons STEM students are encouraged to study humanities . A third year BTech student from the Electrical Engineering department who prefers to remain unnamed (and several other people I have talked to over the last four years) agrees, Engineering people just see HSS courses as a way to increase their grades. The study of humanities has affected the life of every individual to walk the earth at some point in time; It seems sort of outrageous but it's true. /Type /XObject But as he remarked, Hamlet and calculus are both difficult and gloriously beautiful, and his contention that every individual must have a basic understanding of all important developments in both HSS and science from the past century at least, was to me very sensible and welcome. Get the latest news delivered to your inbox. The importance of engineering in the modern world. Behind and Beyond the Restructuring of the Integrated MA Programme. /Font I am sure many other non-HSS electives may be chosen based on these considerations, but the kind of immediate dismissiveness that applies here lies mainly with HSS classes whether towards professors, the topic, or both to a degree that is probably much higher than in engineering classes, Of course, I am not suggesting that the BTech HSS electives be made as rigorous as our core courses. can better develop a student so that they can address . Students and faculty members are set to showcase humanities research and inform the University community in understanding what research in the humanities entails. People who view higher education as a training for employment and think in terms of STEM (science, technology, engineering,mathematics) education, as the most important and essential . % This is one reason why we are promoting greater interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary teaching and learning; it is a complex world and we need to understand the interconnections between and among science, the arts and humanities. It is undeniably true that graduates in STEM fields generally earn higher salaries. *For those unaware, Clayton Christensen coined the term disruptive . Similarly, engineering thrives by going beyond the technical into the realm of its human users. We want to bridge this divide and help create a . Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: 2013 American Society for Engineering Education. Please take a quick look before you read this. Political Science is an important subject in the Humanities Stream and it throws up many challenging careers. https://www.hastac.org/sites/default/files/u/11271/science-vs-humanities.jpg, http://www.ngu.edu/myimages/humanities_cloud2.png, Isha Bhallamudi is a fourth year student of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department in IIT Madras, majoring in Development Studies. 1603 Orrington Avenue Creativity involves developing aesthetic judgments, social emotions, moral sense things cultivated through an HSS education. And with successes under the belt, its natural to rely on those abilities as defining characteristics. /Im1 5 0 R By Julio M. Ottino and Gary Saul Morson. Read articles by, Your email address will not be published. That is why there is immense importance of engineering. Thats not as bad as it might sound. A campus resource that helps first-generation and low-income students succeed at Northwestern, Northwestern invites community feedback on new Ryan Field plan, How the second-longest US government shutdown is affecting the economy, Learning to write like a president sounds, Senior Audi executive to lead Northwestern marketing and communications. Its importance is often underestimated but in reality, it is extremely important to our existence. Like literature, engineering sometimes works not by satisfying recognized needs but by creating the needs it satisfies. In this regard the relevance and importance of humanities ie subjects like literature, history, philosophy, languages and art have been discussed in these columns. Fortunately, teaching in engineering has evolved significantly over the past decade or so, though not in all places and not all at the same rate. The engineering process employed from the time a particular need is recognized until it is satisfied may be divided into a number of phases: 1. Humanities courses develop skills we will need in almost any work we do. Im writing this article to give a summary of the things Prof. Ananth spoke about and add my thoughts as an HSS student in a technical institute. But this lies forgotten, Prof. Ananth lamented, in the culture of placements, where employment is often independent of the education that students have received (say, with engineering students seeking and entering jobs that have nothing to do with engineering). But at the center of that circle are still the things that were most important to her as a bright 18-year old: family, the intersection between engineering and humanities, and Cornell. So let me do that now. By its very nature, engineering is creative and directed to human uses. On the humanities side, there are questions that only serve to spawn more questions. Click here to see a short interview with Yonn Rasmussen. Required fields are marked *. Engineers are the ones who create systems that protect and unite the people and the environment around them. Decisions based on the humanities We want to bridge this divide and help create a system where the two areas are not separate but are essential to each other. And so humanities help broaden the horizons of even the most highly educated people in the world. It is how great writers impart human experience in new ways, and it is how engineers innovate. This spreadsheet, though it has its fair share of positive comments, is shared among students every time the need to select HSS electives comes around and rates every HSS elective based mainly on whether you can get away with not attending classes and how easy it is to get grades (and on at least one occasion, also how many girls you will have the benefit of co-studying with). More broadly, HSS has to do with each one of us, how we construct our identities and through them ourselves, how we behave, what controls how we think and act and feel and this is worth understanding; if not to understand ourselves better then to understand the world around us better. I know there are many BTech and DD students here who have truly enjoyed their HSS courses, but there is no denying that that spreadsheet above represents the broad state of affairs. In its 2018 report The Integration of the Humanities and Arts with Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Higher Education: Branches from the Same Tree, an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine pointed to an emerging body of evidence suggesting that integration of the arts, humanities, and STEMM fields - science, technology, engineering, mathematics . /Resources Engineering needs intelligence, confidence and determination. For one thing, and this is crucial, the way engineering students are allotted HSS electives is quite bad (and nobody seems to know exactly how it works). Learning is, in this sense, a process of familiarization. It is also believed that it is not a beneficial course for students to take due to the perceived lower financial implications in the future, especially when the students would assume employment, than students pursuing sciences and engineering courses (Koc 14-15). Its normal. Non-core over Core: Wherein lies the choice? Most doctoral students in engineering are paid to go to school, with funding provided by government grants. The objective of such literacy is communication and this should be an outcome, not objective, of HSS education. But they should also not become so diluted that the take-away is minimal they may be introductory, but this does not mean they cannot be challenging and engaging (in fact, they must be both). Valuable and meaningful benefits emerge when we focus on human needs, from the basic necessities of life to the potential for individual self-realization. The humanities, at . Prof. Ananths suggestions apply to the academic administration and faculty. The term human-factors engineering is used to designate equally a body of knowledge, a process, and a profession. One reason is funding. On 23rd February, Prof. MS Ananth, our former director, gave a lecture titled The Importance of Humanities in Engineering Education. The human condition isnt finite. But I do feel irked facing a question like How can you possibly do research in Arts? for the tenth time. /FormType 1 : Speaking about how intuition plays a big role in many major scientific discoveries, Prof Ananth quoted: the intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful servant; but we have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift. Still a pity, but an improvement from before. He teaches mainly Materials Science, Machine Design, Capstone Design as well as various engineering mechanics courses and labs. You do it with several characters in the course of one long novel, and not just once, but countless times, until it becomes a habit. 2016 bachelor degrees averaged $64,900 in engineering, $61,300 in computer science, $55,100 in mathematics and other sciences, versus $46,100 in humanities and $34,900 in education. %PDF-1.3 Humanities help the computer science student manage the human resource aspect that comes along with the career. Engineering is a profession in which scientific knowledge and mathematics is used and experimented with to develop ways that benefit mankind, making it extremely important to society for several reasons. /Length 2800 Still a pity, but an improvement from before. The humanities help make sense of the world around us in a way that no . The arts and humanities are vastly more important in troubled times. Part of that is professional development hours, which PDH Academy offers in a convenient, online format. Anger, envy, fear, gluttony, greed, grief, loss, love, lust, mortality, pain, pride, regret, sloth, wrath -- all are aspects of the human condition that are also best studied through the humanities. Copyright It offers us a way of placing ourselves in a rapidly changing world and being able to articulate our discontents so as to resolve them better. Really? But they should also not become so diluted that the take-away is minimal they may be introductory, but this does not mean they cannot be challenging and engaging (in fact, they. It may be read by the public free of charge. The humanities are worth fighting for. Industrial engineering involves the synthesis and . Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. In The Heart of the Matter the american Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences argues that a "citizenry and a workforce knowledgeable about the . The importance of human factors engineering took a rather slow path to discovery. : We should have a grasp of the worlds, metaphors, ideas and core values of the culture(s) we hold in common. He teaches mainly Materials Science, Machine Design, Capstone Design as well as various engineering mechanics courses and labs. On the other hand, I also hope that this idea of HSS classes as a way to increase grades, or ensure a chill quota for that semester, changes. The philosophy of the Enlightenment provides orientation. If you look up the word 'humanities' in the dictionary, it is defined as the subjects of study that deal with the way human beings think and behave. . Dr. Mir Atiqullah is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Southern Polytechnic State University, in Marietta, Georgia. From art and literature to architecture and music, the humanities is present in our everyday lives. The critical thinking skills taught in a humanities course are readily applicable in law, nursing, engineering, international relations and hospitality management, to name a few. : The world over, Prof. Ananth remarked, few engineers are in leadership positions, not because they are not capable but due to a lack of crucial skills such as critical thinking, self-knowledge and the ability to be a productive member of society: all things imparted through an HSS education. Instead, it is presented as a process of absorption, followed only much later by the production of something new. But the goal is always the same to find the answer. Of course, I am not suggesting that the BTech HSS electives be made as rigorous as our core courses. This brings me to the last part of Prof. Ananths talk, where he made practical suggestions to ensure that engineering students in IITM learn humanities and social sciences in a constructive way: As a student in this campus it is difficult not to notice the underlying assumption that HSS has a secondary status to science and engineering and is a light subject. Another important point of the role of an engineer is that they are educated to work with cost, time, and even the wellness of people throughout their constructions. The huge disbelief that accompanies it is even hurtful, because it comes around so often. Each of these points can be developed, and there are many more to make. Engineering uses a complex blend of specialized knowledge, science, math, design, construction, and empiricism in order to build valuable products or services for society. 1 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Good literature lectures are a form of improvisational performance exhibiting what it is like to experience a story, a novel, or a great painting, and arrive at an interpretation. Over the years, the circumference of "Yonn's Circle" has grown to encompass the world. At the heart of human-centered design is empathy, and empathy is what literature, above all, is good at teaching. It should be the norm. Students master routine solving of well-understood problems. Working too far in one direction or the other leaves a person off balance. For an engineering educator, it is vital to inculcate in the engineering students, the importance of studying humanities that can open up their minds to the use of creative ideas from great minds outside of science. Your email address will not be published. To illustrate. The amount of effort that goes into just preparing for one class is vastly greater in magnitude than a BTech elective. Would you like us to report on something specific? importance of humanities - Read online for free. Humanities and social sciences along with mathematics and natural science are at the . So the question is not just what information from each domain might be useful to the other, but also what each could learn by imagining the world in a whole new way. The BTech electives are designed to be just an introduction for BTech students to life other than tech, so most of these courses rely only on the Professor defining and expounding a few basic concepts which are then tested in a mild manner in quizzes and end-sems. The humanities, by contrast, are in peril, with fewer students each year. Meanwhile, those BTech HSS electives that are also core HSS courses, pose a problem for both HSS and engineering students: the former learn only a fraction of what they would have in a regular HSS core course (losing out on some crucial courses in the process), while the latter may face a large gap in terms of background and familiarity for the particular topic, and consequently get RG-ed. But although we have a five year M.A course and a full-fledged humanities and social sciences department in our campus, I would argue that our engagement with each other is extremely superficial, and extremely limited (and even more so among faculty than students). And that is also like literature: Tolstoy did not satisfy someones need for a novel calledAnna Karenina. Explore the crucial aspects of first aid in the workplace and the steps to take if an injury transpires. /XObject Textbooks present current knowledge as timeless truths, as if they had been handed down by divine revelation. brought up by the philosopher Martha Nussbaum: critical self-examination, the ideal of the world citizen, and the development of the narrative imagination. In a world that is becoming increasingly specialized, the humanities provide a much-needed balance. Boosting enrollments in STEM is not enough. Get the latest stories from Northwestern Now sent directly to your inbox. They also have better emotional intelligence and a greater understanding of various cultures. The humanities give you permission to see the world through a different lens, while still understanding facts. Im writing this article to give a summary of the things Prof. Ananth spoke about and add my thoughts as an HSS student in a technical institute. It should not be rare to have graduate students in science and engineering in literature, philosophy, and history of science courses. The answer to this is that there are in fact many reasons why the humanities are essential to a college education. At the Norwegian Institute of Technology there were some social science topics in the curriculum when the Institute was established in 1910 but the scope was modest and the main . - Julio M. Ottino is dean of the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Gary Saul Morson is a professor of Slavic languages and literature, both at Northwestern University. In fact, they can even serve practical purposes and have economic benefits. As a Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) student, I thoroughly enjoyed the talk and felt that both engineering and HSS students could have taken away a lot from it and enriched our respective fields and also the way we approach our studies.