AN ADAPTED ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS: GUIDING TOUCHSTONES

Abstract

The field of engineering needs to develop while healing our relations with the lands, waters, and living systems. Fostering ethical spaces where Indigenous ways of knowing and being and western worldviews can hold space together, and cease to separate the technical from the social, are key to progressing equitably as a society. In the field of engineering within Turtle Island, it is essential that we adapt the engineering design process to reflect this. Following the execution of an Engineering and Architecture transdisciplinary Design Build course at University of Manitoba, and in partnership with the Shoal Lake No. 40 First Nation, it was acknowledged by stakeholders that further analysis of this project could establish lessons learned. This paper speaks to engineering education practice. The objective of this research is to develop recommendations for how the engineering design process can make space for Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Shoal Lake No. 40 community members, one engineering contractor, and four university faculty members were asked their perspectives on the development and implementation of two projects conducted with the community members and on the First Nation lands. Through the co-analysis of these open-ended discussions, recommendations were developed for how the engineering design process can integrate four touchstones external to the design process. The touchstones enable an engineer to perceive the design process and establish core intentions for a project that creates space for Indigenous values and principles and western worldviews.