EK 100 – Freshman Advising Seminar
Friday, October 30, 2015
Learning Goals of the Community and Global Engagement Class:
- Discuss the value of community and global engagement from an engineering perspective.
- Examine how Societal Engineers will develop the skills necessary to tackle the grand challenges.
- Students are beginning their training as Societal Engineers. How do they define their society? Where
do they want their impact to be?
Each Student Advisor packet contains the following:
* Attendance sheet
* Session Materials
* Two copies of the agenda
AGENDA:
There are 14 Grand Challenges outlined by the National Academy of Engineering (engineeringchallenges.org). We
have highlighted materials that examine 3 of the Grand Challenges (Provide Access to Clean Water, Advance Health
Informatics and Make Solar Energy Economical). Choose videos or articles to discuss how global and community
engagement is necessary to engage these grand challenges. You can find the materials at http:// bu.edu/eng/currentstudents/ugrad/freshmen/ek100/faculty/materials/. You are welcome to structure the class as you see fit.
You may find it helpful to structure your discussion into 4 main points:
1) Context: what is the global/community impact that you find in the article/video? What is the need for this
impact? How will engineers be involved? How will engineering skills help in service to others?
2) Motivation: What sparked the motivation for the actions taken in the article/video. “Remember, with great
power comes great responsibility.” Where and how will your engineering students use their power?
3) Progress: The grand challenges were released to the public in October 2008. What progress has been made in
the challenge you are discussing? What do you predict will change in the next 5-7 years?
4) Student Advisors as Engineers: the SAs should share their understanding of what a societal engineer is and
how they may be making community/global impact as students.
.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
 Next week’s EK 100 is a large group session in SMG 105. The class is entitled “Beyond the Program
Planning Sheet” and will highlight additional opportunities to enrich the engineering education.

ENG Cup Round 5 will also take place next week after large group and will be held in TBD. Only the
top 17 teams will move on to Round 5. Pizza and snacks will be served. Event starts at 4pm and is expected
to end around 5:30pm.

Please remind students that Friday, November 6th, is the last day to drop a class with a “W”. Anyone
interested in dropping a class must do so by midnight on 11/06 (11:59pm to be exact) on the studentlink.
NOTES:
- Students are in the thick of the semester. An extra encouraging word can go a long way.
Attendance Sheets are due back to Dan and Jane immediately after class.