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Title:
Developing Judgment for Addressing “Wicked Problems” in Engineering

Abstract:
Engineers constantly face “wicked problems,” which are ill-defined and complex sociotechnical problems with undefined and often-shifting constraints and requirements. Many students come to engineering because they want to tackle these wicked problems in their future career; however, the well-defined, closed-ended, and decontextualized problems prevalent in undergraduate engineering education do not allow students to develop the practices needed to address these problems. To be prepared for wicked problems, engineering students need to be given opportunities to develop their judgment, where they apply their knowledge and personal values to make decisions in the practice of engineering. This seminar will cover my qualitative design-based education research that integrates fundamental research of student thinking and evidence-based development of educational interventions to address two forms of judgment. First, I will discuss a taxonomy of emerging engineering modeling judgment that outlines the ways in which engineering students make informed decisions when developing and using a mathematical model on an open-ended problem. Second, I will present our research on how aerospace students’ perceptions of macroethical issues—the broader societal context of engineering—influence their career intentions. In discussing both forms of judgment, I will outline the educational interventions we have developed to scaffold these important practices into engineering science courses. The talk will conclude with implications for engineering education and future research directions that bring these judgments together with other practices under the conceptual framework of humanity-centered engineering.

Bio:
Aaron W. Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department and a Core Faculty member of the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. He leads the SHUTTLE Lab (https://shuttlelab.engin.umich.edu/), which conducts Studies of Holistic Understanding, Thinking, Teaching, and Learning in Engineering. The lab’s NSF-funded design-based research focuses on how to re-contextualize engineering science engineering courses to better reflect and prepare students for the reality of ill-defined, sociotechnical engineering practice. Their current projects include studying and designing classroom interventions around macroethical issues in aerospace engineering and the productive beginnings of engineering judgment as students create and use mathematical models. Ph.D. students in the SHUTTLE Lab are also studying students’ perceptions of professional skills, and the social class worldview and experience of engineering students from a low-socioeconomic status background. Aaron holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Michigan and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to re-joining Michigan, he was an instructor in Aerospace Engineering Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. Outside of work, Aaron enjoys reading, collecting LEGO NASA sets, biking, camping, and playing disc golf.

Citation:
Swenson, J., Johnson, A. W., Miel, K., Caserto, M., Magee, M., Perry, J. B., Kimberlin, C., Beranger, K., & Toftegaard, J. (2025). A taxonomy of emerging engineering modeling judgment in undergraduate engineering courses. Journal of Engineering Education, 114(4), e70011. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.70011