A new collaboration between professors and students from both U of T Engineering and the Faculty of Arts & Science (ArtSci) has brought a unique multidisciplinary focus to Praxis III, a second-year Engineering Science design course that runs during the Winter semester. 

“A lot of my background is looking at engineering from a human perspective; how we do the engineering and who does it,” says Professor Philip Asare (ISTEP, EngSci), who coordinates the Praxis III course with Professor Morgan Hooper (UTIAS, EngSci). 

“One of the things that I found is that the people in the room making the decisions matter. Another thing I have found with multidisciplinary work is that not everybody knows how to do it well. I have been on good multidisciplinary teams and bad ones, and I think the missing element is practice.”  

Asare first approached the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST) in the summer of 2022 with an opportunity to enrich learning through interdisciplinary collaboration between students of both faculties. After a successful pilot in winter 2023, the project was expanded and ran in full this past winter. 

The idea was to have students from both faculties jointly participating in lectures and collaborating directly on course work, both drawing on each other’s strengths. 

“Engineering and ArtSci students each bring unique perspectives, and when they work together, the mix of these perspectives exposes everyone to factors they may not have considered before,” says Asare. 

“The result was projects that demonstrated strong awareness of the contextual situation their designs were intended for.”  

Informed by the principles of Engineers for the World (E4TW), the focus for the project was global development and sustainability, specifically based in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Students were challenged to develop a design and prototype addressing one of three categories in this space — buildings, waste or local economy. 

The results were presented in an end-of-course showcase to display the culmination of their efforts. Guests — including faculty and staff, alumni, other students, and members of the general public — were invited to listen to the Praxis III teams explain their concepts and see live demos of the prototypes. 

IHPST Undergraduate Director Professor Mark Solovey recognizes the value of interdisciplinary learning opportunities. 

“We realize we don’t want to just talk to ourselves or only learn from other humanists. We need to really engage with the sciences and engineering in a serious way.”  

“It is difficult to find a career where you are only working with one type of person or one type of professional, regardless of the field or work environment,” says Rachel Katz, IHPST PhD Candidate and instructor of the Arts and Science component of the course. 

“Having multidisciplinary experience during one’s education helps cultivate respect for different disciplines, an understanding of the skills required, and an appreciation for the effort and various kinds of work undertaken by people in different roles.”  

Emily Huynh, one of the Arts and Science students in the course, commented on her experience working with engineering students.  

“Their empathy and the efforts they went through to include me allowed us to create a stronger, more well-rounded ideation,” says Huynh. 

“With the multi-disciplinary approach, we were able to genuinely foster an inclusive environment, and this is a skill that I will take with me as I progress in my academic and professional journey.” 

Asare plans to continue creating student opportunities for multidisciplinary collaboration with the launch of a brand-new course, TEP440 – To Engineer is Human.  

“The hope coming out of the Praxis III pilot project was that we could create more opportunities for students to explore a mix of perspectives, because a mix of perspectives is always involved in engineering work,” he says. 

“To Engineer is Human was designed to include Arts & Science students with this in mind. To help students understand and navigate how this mix of perspectives will inevitably influence their professional lives, we should be providing them as much exposure as we can now to prepare them for the reality they will face later.”