High school students analyze an assortment of popular inventions to determine their intended beneficiaries as well as who has access to, might be harmed by, and is profiting from them. They then develop and apply class standards for ethical design to re-imagine the devices in a way that would do more good for humanity.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo of VeriScan facial recognition tablet at Dulles International airport by Glenn Fawcett

Read More

Filed under: Class Activities, Grades 9-12, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | Comments Off on Engineering Ethics: Evaluating Popular Inventions

Tags: Class Activities, design constraints, Drones, engineering ethics, genetic engineering, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plan, National Society of Professional Engineers, Presentations

After Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston with historic rains, engineering researchers Texas A&M University offered a quick, inexpensive way to survey the damage. They deployed drones – lots of them – in the biggest squadron ever used in an official disaster response.

Read More

Filed under: Special Features | Comments Off on Eyes in the Skies

Tags: Drones, engineering research, Environmental Engineering, hurricane, National Science Foundation, Robotics, Science, search and rescue, unmanned aerial systems, Videos