**1. Introduction**

In the twenty-first century, "engineers are called to be change-makers, peacemakers, social entrepreneurs, and facilitators of sustainable human development" [1]. Preparing engineers to meet these challenges requires a rich educational experience. In particular, the way in which students are taught the design process is important. The products, processes, and infrastructure designed by engineers are critical to human quality of life, with an array of positive and negative impacts that should be carefully considered. More broadly, the designs of engineers are having global environmental effects. A rich design experience will reinforce to students the coupled socio-technical challenges they will face in practice, and prepare them to recognize and wrestle with the complex array of ethical issues that are inherent in all designs.

It is not sufficient that engineers have a great depth of technical knowledge, socalled I-Type education. Engineering education has been moving toward a T-shaped model that adds breadth skills that cross the boundaries of a single profession, such as teamwork, communication, and global understanding [2, 3]. Perhaps we need to move beyond T-shaped engineers to envision "cluster" type engineers [1], who will sit with a broad array of stakeholders (including members of the public and those in policy, social scientists, and natural scientists) to design appropriate and sustainable processes and products that better meet an array of environmental, social, and economic objectives.

It is our claim that service-learning can serve as an ideal basis for design education that strives to meet the aforementioned goals of educating global citizen engineers. In addition, the hard work invested by students and educators can yield tangible results that serve real people, as opposed to designs in AutoCAD or objects that are displayed at a design fair and then go to waste. Engaging with communities may also broaden the diversity of students interested in becoming engineers, both in terms of recruiting students into engineering majors in higher education as well as retaining students to graduate with engineering degrees and enter the engineering workforce [4].

This chapter begins by defining service-learning (SL) and community engagement and briefly describing their history in higher education and in engineering. Next, frameworks and theories of design that are particularly relevant to SL are presented, with a focus on human-centered design. This section is followed by a discussion of essential elements of SL-based design projects, as well as challenges and pitfalls of SL as a pedagogy for design education. The student knowledge, skills, attitudes, and identity that can result from SL-based design projects are presented next. Examples of SL-based design programs and courses are integrated throughout the chapter to illustrate concepts and best practices. This chapter is intended to provide the reader with an introduction to service-learning as a vehicle for design education, and to provide additional resources for readers who wish to delve into more detail with the theory and practice of this pedagogy.

#### **2. Service-learning in engineering education**

Service-learning is defined as "a credit-bearing, educational experience in which students participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility." [5] Service-learning in higher education was pioneered by Ernest Boyer [6, 7] and other scholars in non-engineering professions [8–10] and was identified by George Kuh [11] as a high impact educational practice critical to the retention of early career college students. Servicelearning, and more broadly civic engagement, which encompasses curricular and co-curricular efforts to ensure that the university is using its resources to partner with communities and other stakeholders to address complex societal issues, are a well-defined part of the higher education landscape in the USA. Campus Compact, the major professional society for civic engagement in higher education, has more than 1100 universities as members.

Models of service-learning were presented by Heffernan [12], and include (among others) a discipline or placement based model, in which students are situated within the community and perform community service to meet their learning objectives, as well as a problem-based or deliverable model, in which student create or co-create (with community) a product to fulfill course requirements. Servicelearning in engineering has largely used the deliverable model, in which students deliver designs or designed and built artifacts.

**19**

*Service-Learning and Civic Engagement as the Basis for Engineering Design Education*

Leah Jamieson pioneered service-learning in engineering through the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program at Purdue University [13, 14]. This model features vertically integrated teams consisting of an approximately equal number of first-year, sophomore, junior, and senior engineering students who take a course repeating times for semester credit and who work together on addressing community issues using human-centered design. The teams are also multidisciplinary, including students studying an array of engineering and nonengineering disciplines. The community partnerships are often long-standing, with EPICS conducting a number of projects with partners over many years. Examples of projects conducted by EPICS in partnership with communities include handson exhibits for science museums, custom toys for children with disabilities, and software for elementary schools, non-profits, and public agencies. The EPICS model has expanded to include approximately 40 colleges of engineering nationally and internationally [15]. Edmund Tsang [16] is the editor of the engineering volume of the American Association of Higher Education's Service-Learning in the Disciplines. Numerous early models of service-learning in engineering are shared in this volume. Though there is much work on service-learning in engineering, engineers serving the common good through co-curricular (outside the classroom) methods also play a large role in learning through service (LTS) activities [17, 18]. Many pre-professional and practicing engineers have participated in engineers without borders (EWB), whose mission is "To be the beating heart of the engineering movement for sustainable global development, building and evolving engineering capacity throughout the world." (http://ewb-international.com/). In this context, engineers partner with communities throughout the world that have a lack of access to resources in an effort to improve the quality of life for people in these communities. Common projects include improved sanitary conditions, enhancing water

There has been a proliferation of curricular and co-curricular opportunities for civic engagement in engineering since the turn of the century. SL design projects have been integrated into introductory courses for first-year students, technical core courses, and senior capstone design. Readers are encouraged to consult the *International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering: Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship* (IJSLE), especially two special issues published in 2014 and 2015, Opportunities and Barriers to Integrating Service-Learning into Engineering Education [19] and University Engineering Programs that Impact Communities: Critical Analyses and Reflection [20]. Additionally, the Community Engagement Division of the American Society for Engineering Education was created in 2012 and has a resource page for general knowledge in this area (https://

The design process can be modeled in a number of ways, with specifics that vary somewhat depending on whether engineers are designing infrastructure at the community scale (e.g. a bridge, road, power system), physical products that are owned at a household or personal level (e.g. a car, computer), or processes (e.g. computer software). Some methodologies are more congruent than others with service-learning. The human-centered design process has often been used to frame service-learning (e.g. [21, 22]), and also aligns with numerous elements in the conceive-design-implement-operate (CDIO) process [23]. Human-centered design puts the people who are the users/community members at the heart of the process, engaging them throughout all phases. Optimally, service-learning embraces the notion of designing with

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83699*

quality and availability, and access to energy.

aseeced.libraries.psu.edu/resources).

**3. Design frameworks**

#### *Service-Learning and Civic Engagement as the Basis for Engineering Design Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83699*

Leah Jamieson pioneered service-learning in engineering through the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program at Purdue University [13, 14]. This model features vertically integrated teams consisting of an approximately equal number of first-year, sophomore, junior, and senior engineering students who take a course repeating times for semester credit and who work together on addressing community issues using human-centered design. The teams are also multidisciplinary, including students studying an array of engineering and nonengineering disciplines. The community partnerships are often long-standing, with EPICS conducting a number of projects with partners over many years. Examples of projects conducted by EPICS in partnership with communities include handson exhibits for science museums, custom toys for children with disabilities, and software for elementary schools, non-profits, and public agencies. The EPICS model has expanded to include approximately 40 colleges of engineering nationally and internationally [15]. Edmund Tsang [16] is the editor of the engineering volume of the American Association of Higher Education's Service-Learning in the Disciplines. Numerous early models of service-learning in engineering are shared in this volume.

Though there is much work on service-learning in engineering, engineers serving the common good through co-curricular (outside the classroom) methods also play a large role in learning through service (LTS) activities [17, 18]. Many pre-professional and practicing engineers have participated in engineers without borders (EWB), whose mission is "To be the beating heart of the engineering movement for sustainable global development, building and evolving engineering capacity throughout the world." (http://ewb-international.com/). In this context, engineers partner with communities throughout the world that have a lack of access to resources in an effort to improve the quality of life for people in these communities. Common projects include improved sanitary conditions, enhancing water quality and availability, and access to energy.

There has been a proliferation of curricular and co-curricular opportunities for civic engagement in engineering since the turn of the century. SL design projects have been integrated into introductory courses for first-year students, technical core courses, and senior capstone design. Readers are encouraged to consult the *International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering: Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship* (IJSLE), especially two special issues published in 2014 and 2015, Opportunities and Barriers to Integrating Service-Learning into Engineering Education [19] and University Engineering Programs that Impact Communities: Critical Analyses and Reflection [20]. Additionally, the Community Engagement Division of the American Society for Engineering Education was created in 2012 and has a resource page for general knowledge in this area (https:// aseeced.libraries.psu.edu/resources).
