Course:ELEC300E/CaseStudies

Context

Course Goals

These case studies were developed for ELEC300E, Engineering Design for the AI Era, a new course on problem formulation, critical thinking and engineering leadership.

Learning objectives:

• Identify and formulate meaningful, well-grounded engineering problems.
• Practice systems thinking skills required to reason about complex sociotechnical systems
• Analyze the social and environmental contexts of engineering problems.
• Articulate their perspectives on engineering problems, and collaborate with their peers to develop shared understandings.
• Identify concrete opportunities to effect positive change

In particular, the course introduces specific analysis approaches and models:

• Systems Mapping
• The Iceberg Model
• Critical Hope
• ...

Pedagogical Approach

Our course is centered around case studies, allowing students to practice analysis strategies and link abstract models to concrete examples. Our strategy - and the case studies - are informed by the following teaching approaches / philosophies.

• Participatory Learning / Knowledge co-creation: Instead of providing specific conclusions and interpretations of events, the case studies aim to facilitate discussions between students that incorporate their personal experiences and perspectives.
• Problem Posing: Paulo Friere's critical pedagogy highlights problem-posing, teaching people "to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves; they come to see the world not as a static reality, but as a reality in process, in transformation". The focus of the course is not on problem solving, but rather on problem posing. Case studies focus more on the context for design decisions rather than the implementation.
• Critical Hope: For positive change to be possible, we need to have hope - but hope that is grounded in reality and in action. These case studies were developed with an appreciation of the importance of hope, and discussion questions relate directly to Cari Grain's seven principles of critical hope.
• Culture of Care / Trust: Participatory learning requires for students to be able to engage, to be supported, and to feel comfortable sharing their perspectives. In case studies, we aim to incorporate principles of UDL, to welcome multiple perspectives, to provide clear scaffolding for new ideas, to attend to student emotions and experience, and to not overwhelm students with too much reading!

Case Studies

- UVic's Controversial AI Plagiarism Policy*

- Embodied Costs of Computing and Repair*

- Intel's Virtuous Cycle of Growth

- Vancouver's AI Datacenters*

- UBC Learning Exchange's LinkVan App*

- Chatbot Training in Nairobi*

- The Indian Registry

- Indigenous Data Sovereignty

- AI and job seeking

- Peer Evaluations

- Grief Bots

- Tech worker protests

- Framework Computing

- Fairphone

- Privacy by Design and Duck Duck Go

- OpenAI Privacy

- Disability Dongles

- Autonomous Vehicles

- Bill C32

- Quest for the Quiet corner

- Navigating Good Food

- Repair Cafes

Analysis Strategies:

• Systems Mapping: eWaste and Repair, Intel's Virtuous Cycle, AI Datacenter Impacts
• Recognizing biases and logical fallacies: AI Datacenter Impacts
• Communication and Rhetoric: AI Datacenter Impacts
• Decision Impact Assessment: AI in Education, eWaste and Repair, AI Datacenter Impacts

Student-Developed Case Studies

We encourage students to develop their own case studies based on problems they have researched or have personal interest or experience in.

• Case Study Selection:
  • Remember critical hope: Does the case study involve any hopeful ideas, or present any ways for students to take concrete action? Does it highlight social injustices, ambiguities or conflicts, emotional experiences, or relationships with the body and land?
  • Does the case study allow for different perspectives and interpretations? If the problems and solutions are too obvious, that leaves less for students to learn through reflection and discussion, and it doesn't allow for nuanced conversations.
  • Can the analysis techniques in the course (like systems thinking) be applied?
  • Is the case study engaging and relevant: Is it local? Directly applicable to student experience? Relating to ECE? Recent? Interesting or controversial? Being at least a couple of those things keeps it more interesting.
• Context:
  • Keep the context as short as possible: The point of the context is to give the students knowledge and context that they need in order to understand the case, have interesting discussions about it, and apply the analysis strategies presented in class. The point isn't to teach students new facts or for them to become experts in the subject.
  • Keep it engaging and creative. Consider pictures, creative forms of expression. Keep in mind accessibility also, and include captions for pictures, transcripts of podcasts etc.
  • Try to focus on the problem and context for decisions or actions more than on implementation... although sometimes these ideas are all interrelated.
• Case:
  • Tell the story from one particular perspectives: This could help make the case study more personal and engaging, and encourages empathy. You might find resources like podcasts where a person tells about their experience, or maybe you write about your own experience, or make up a character and describe their perspective. Consider though - if you are inventing a person other than yourself, are you making assumptions or reinforcing stereotypes?
  • Or present information more neutrally, including both sides of an argument or debate.
• Recommended Readings and Resources:
  • Aim for <7 minutes total of required readings (if there is more than that, make some optional)
  • Use videos and podcasts, but take UDL and accessibility into account and try to provide transcripts and accessible materials.
• Discussion Questions:
  • Try to map the discussion questions to Cari Grain's principles of critical hope. If this is difficult to come up with appropriate questions, then what might that mean about the case study and whether it is in line with Critical Hope?
  • Avoid discussion questions with obvious answers.
  • Avoid discussion questions that students might be uncomfortable talking about in class (eg. "Have you ever used AI to cheat on an assignment? Why"). Otherwise, list them them at the bottom as 'reflection questions'.