Studio sessions: Engineering epistemology, design pedagogy, and rhetoric

A new curriculum integrates writing instruction within a sequence of engineering design courses taught in a multidisciplinary studio format. Most closely associated with the disciplines of industrial design and architecture, design studios immerse students in an authentic problem-solving environment. In engineering education, on the other hand, varying specializations and skills within the engineering profession are divided into numerous special purpose courses, and students are not always fully supported in the necessary process of integrative learning. In particular, the domains of design and analysis are separated more often than they are blended. The rhetorical components of these activities are likewise relegated to a secondary status rather than an intrinsic part of engineering thinking. Based in interdisciplinary inquiry and practice, the engineering design studios are intended to combat students' tendency to dismiss or subordinate the skills, methods, and bodies of knowledge outside of their own major discipline or specialty.