Courses

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The EiS program offers courses for undergraduate and graduate students in engineering communication and ethics. Learn about EiS courses below and refer to the USC Schedule of Classes for scheduling information.

In this course, students consider general questions about the nature of technology, including questions about the values that are embedded in technology, as well as questions about our control over technology and its development. We examine various theoretical frameworks that philosophers have developed for answering ethical questions, and we consider the problems facing these frameworks. We then consider pressing ethical questions raised by particular kinds of technology, such as social media, biomedical technology, and artificial intelligence.

The primary purpose of the Ethics for Engineers course is to provide students with theoretical perspectives and contemporary practices associated with ethics in engineering contexts. Accordingly, a primary focus of the course is to assist undergraduate students in developing ethical principles in engineering such that they can identify the ethical dilemmas in engineering and scientific contexts with global foci and address them using a systems-centric, case study approach that situates their decisions in that which is prescribed by the National Academies of Engineering and Sciences and the National Society of Professional Engineers. This course is a part of the Engineering Innovation for Global Challenges minor. The course content will support the ethical components provided in the minor’s capstone experience. It can be taken by students in the minor as well as those who are not enrolled in the minor.

This course is an introduction to the various ways in which social media, science and society intersect in a compelling manner. Through a series of case studies, students examine issue-based examples that illustrate the complexities of online pseudoscience, misinformation, ethics, privacy, and the law. Assignments and in-class discussions encourage students to consider the issues and opportunities with using social media to communicate STEM-related topics. By the end of the semester, students will be able to identify appropriate usage of social media for science outreach, convey science and engineering concepts on digital platforms, and create professional content.

The course addresses academic and research writing, writing for publication, dissertations, proposals, conference papers, and journal articles as well as general principles of effective written communication. Students learn to structure and report their research findings with clarity and impact. Communication to industry and public audiences is also covered. Students receive one-on-one assistance with their current writing projects (e.g. academic conference and journal papers, dissertations) and develop the skills for continued improvement.

Students learn the fundamentals of oral presenting and receive one-on-one assistance with their works in progress, e.g. conference presentations, posters, preparing for quals.—all such efforts and more are covered.

The course covers general principles of effective oral communication, including delivery elements for online and in-person modalities. Workshop-style classes focus on giving conference presentations, poster presentations, qualifying exams and a variety of other oral communication projects. Goals include building confidence, clarity and connection to a variety of audiences. Personalized feedback is provided to promote continued improvement.

ENGR 597 focuses on improving written communication skills with emphasis placed on writing for a professional engineering environment. The course covers: writing concepts and strategies for communicating to public and professional audiences, standard conventions for industry communications and skill development to prepare documents for professional purposes. At the end of ENGR 597 students should be better equipped to communicate in their workplace, revise and edit to professional standards, and write accurate, precise technical prose.

In this course, first-year students survey a range of environmental ethical theories and analyze some of the difficult ethical questions raised by climate change. First, we read and discuss foundational texts in environmental ethical theory; then, we turn to the ethics of climate change and the role of technology in climate change. Among other topics, we’ll consider the ethical tradeoffs of various renewable technologies, our duties to future generations, our individual and collective responsibilities, and the ethical permissibility of geoengineering. Throughout, we pay particular attention to the ways these topics involve environmental and climate justice, at both the national and global levels.

This freshman-level seminar satisfies the requirement for a general education course in humanistic inquiry. In this interdisciplinary course, students are provided with the tools to analyze current and emerging controversies in science, engineering, and technology. Students read primary source texts in ethical theory, science fiction, and the philosophy of technology. Acquisition of the fundamental principles in key ethical theories, such as duty ethics, utilitarianism, and virtue ethics, is a primary course objective, as is broad exposure to canonical and non-canonical readings in science fiction and speculative literature. Literary texts are drawn from a wide variety of writers, such as Mary Shelley, Aldous Huxley, Octavia Butler, Philip K. Dick, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Margaret Atwood.

Throughout the semester, students engage in critical thinking about contemporary issues in science and technology (e.g., AI, data collection, disruptive technologies, and automation). Students demonstrate learning acquisition through class discussion, oral presentations, and analytic writing assignments. Mastery of course concepts is also displayed via midterm and final examinations and collaborative group work. In a summative group project, students create utopian planned communities that seek to resolve urgent global issues. This final assignment requires students to produce a transdisciplinary, multimedia project that demonstrates achievement of course objectives.

In this course, students who have successfully completed WRIT 150 or its equivalent will identify and apply writing and speaking skills for various audiences on topics related to their professional or disciplinary interests. This version of WRIT 340 focuses on professional and disciplinary interests in engineering.

At the end of WRIT 340: Advanced Writing and Communication for Engineering, students should be able to:

Write for academic, public, and professional audiences.
Demonstrate research and documentation abilities at the upper-division level.
Identify and analyze pressing ethical issues within an engineering discipline.
Compose a professional proposal for a real-world constituent that reflects the importance of engineering solutions in society.
Revise and edit to advanced academic and professional standards.
Prepare and give professional oral presentations for a variety of audiences and purposes.
Utilize visual aids in both written and oral communications.
Articulate the impact engineering has on everyday life.
Work collaboratively to research, write, and present information and ideas.
Write accurate, precise technical prose.

Foundational pedagogical approaches for this course rely on writing workshops, in-class activities, and other active-learning modes of instruction to build classroom communities that foster productive dialogue and interaction.

In this course, students develop communication skills, both written and verbal, within the context of current disciplinary grand challenges. Students will research “wicked problems” within their fields of study and communicate their significance, ethical implications, and possible solutions in a variety of forms. The class is designed to provide students with the writing and communication skills needed to undertake a more in-depth project (such as an honors thesis or a commercialization plan) within their discipline. Multiple scaffolding assignments will culminate in a substantial final paper that lays the foundation for this future project.

In this course, students examine the Grand Challenges of Engineering from a global perspective and explore the multi-faceted relationships between Cities, Citizens, and Engineering. Students will examine both local and global perspectives on the Challenges as they complete individual and collaborative assignments. The course includes two weeks in Berlin, where students will experience some of Berlin’s unique approaches to infrastructure, digitalization and design through company visits, museum and factory tours and historical exploration. In both Los Angeles and Berlin, class assignments will reinforce the global nature of engineering and explore the crucial social role of engineers.

In this course, students develop written and oral communication skills by writing and presenting about technologies related to climate change and sustainability. Reading and writing assignments consider not only the performance capabilities of the technologies but also the ethical, economic, and political implications of the technologies. Students also develop skills in climate change communication for both professional and lay audiences.

As much of modern engineering practice involves and impacts people around the world, an understanding of global engineering trends and perspectives in communication, engineering ethics, and public service is critical. In this specialized version of WRIT 340 Advanced Writing and Communication for Engineers, students will identify and examine technological innovations across the globe and develop the concomitant communication skills, ethical awareness, and cross-cultural competencies necessary to navigate engineering on a global scale.

Published on April 7th, 2017

Last updated on March 9th, 2022