Socially Engaged Engineering & Design (SEED) Seminar
Want to explore the impact of engineering work on people and society?
Our team is excited to offer the Socially Engaged Engineering & Design (SEED) seminar course for the 2025 Fall semester. The course is listed as ENGR 490-002 (27925) / 599-300 (33116) for special topics in engineering. Please note: there are no prerequisites for this course!
Offered FALL 2025, Tuesdays, 1:00 – 2:30pm @ C-SED, 3360 G.G. Brown
This 1-credit seminar course serves as an introduction to the “how” and the “why” of socially engaged engineering & design practice, highlighting core skills as well as the impact of engineering work on people and society. The course will use real-world microhistories, readings, and guest speakers that explore benefits, burdens, and tradeoffs embedded in engineering processes and provide opportunities to analyze the impacts of design solutions. Through group discussion and succinct written reflections, students will articulate personal motivations for engaging in engineering practice and tie their technical skills to broader questions about the role and responsibility of engineers and designers in society. This course is suitable for any engineering student, both graduate and undergraduate alike, who have demonstrated an interest in design, people-first engineering, or tackling big problems with engineering skills.
Instructors: This course will be led by Charlie Michaels and Claudia Cameratti-Baeza from the Center for Socially Engaged Engineering & Design.
Course Topics Sample:
- Into to Socially Engaged Design
- Stakeholder Mapping
- Lithium Mining
- Xbox Case Study
- Kat Holmes’ Mismatch
- Ashely Shew’s Against Technoableism
- Airbnb Case Study
- “Wrongfully Accused by an Algorithm“
- Fenwal Blood Bags Case Study
- MIT DLab Participation Toolkit
- Volvo WHIPS Case Study
- Hurricane Katrina Case Study
Have questions about joining the SEED Capstone course? Please get in touch with C-SED via email at c-sed-info@umich.edu