Engineering a Better Future: Interplay between Engineering, Social Sciences, and Innovation

Overview

This open access book examines how the social sciences can be integrated into the praxis of engineering and science, presenting unique perspectives on the interplay between engineering and social science. Motivated by the report by the Commission on Humanities and Social Sciences of the American Association of Arts and Sciences, which emphasizes the importance of social sciences and Humanities in technical fields, the essays and papers collected in this book were presented at the NSF-funded workshop "Engineering a Better Future: Interplay between Engineering, Social Sciences and Innovation," which brought together a singular collection of people, topics and disciplines. The book is split into three parts:

A. Meeting at the Middle: Challenges to educating at the boundaries covers experiments in combining engineering education and the social sciences;

B. Engineers Shaping Human Affairs: Investigating the interaction between social sciences and engineering, including the cult of innovation, politics of engineering, engineering design and future of societies; and

C. Engineering the Engineers: Investigates thinking about design with papers on the art and science of science and engineering  practice.

Chapters by Belfer Center authors: 

“The Art of Research: A Divergent/Convergent Thinking Framework and Opportunities for Science-Based Approaches.” by  Glory E. Aviña, Christian D. Schunn, Austin R. Silva, Travis L. Bauer, George W. Crabtree, Curtis M. Johnson, Toluwalogo Odumosu, S. Thomas Picraux, R. Keith Sawyer, Richard P. Schneider, Rickson Sun, Gregory J. Feist, Venkatesh Narayanamurti and Jeffry Y. Tsao.