Carmen Leicht-Scholten

RWTH Aachen University · Institute Gender and Diverstiy in Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering,

Research highlights the influence of faculty on educational change in engineering education, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary research and strategies aligned with individual perspectives. This study investigates the role of motivational and hindering factors among faculty engaged in engineering education across different European universi...

Facing global challenges, as formulated in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, requires engineering efforts. For this purpose, it is crucial to reflect on the role and responsibilities of engineers for society and environment. Here, engineering education's central contribution must be to educate competent engineering professionals. However, educa...

Engineering and technology are necessary for handling global challenges that encompass technological, environmental, economic and social dimensions. However, there can be unintended consequences if technological solutions are not aligned with societal needs or ethical considerations. This paper emphasizes the need for engineering students to unders...

Despite the widespread use of automated decision-making (ADM) systems, they are often developed without involving the public or those directly affected, leading to concerns about systematic biases that may perpetuate structural injustices. Existing formal fairness approaches primarily focus on statistical outcomes across demographic groups or indiv...

A rapidly changing world with a high degree of uncertainty in the context of climate change requires sustainable and resilient infrastructures, for which engineers are jointly responsible. For this purpose, engineering students need to acquire competencies such as dealing with complexity and uncertainty, systems thinking and anticipatory thinking,...

Nowadays, society faces challenges like climate change and inequality that are addressed by the Sustainable Development Goals. Academia plays a central role as a driver for innovation through research, teaching, and transfer to develop answers to these challenges. Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) provides a framework for aligning research...

Training in scientific integrity continues to be an important topic in universities and other research institutions. Its main goal is to prevent scientific misconduct and promote good scientific practice. However, there is still no consensus on how scientific integrity should be taught. Moreover, the perspective of those who receive such training i...

Like all preceding transformations of the manufacturing industry, the large-scale usage of production data will reshape the role of humans within the sociotechnical production ecosystem. To ensure that this transformation creates work systems in which employees are empowered, productive, healthy, and motivated, the transformation must be guided by...

Engineering and technology-based solutions can address the global challenges associated with sustainable development. In this context, engineers have a substantial responsibility in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Meeting the challenges of all SDGs influences economic, political and social aspects of human life. However, enginee...

As future system designers and decision-makers, engineering students should be trained to anticipate and navigate the unknown. These days, engineers often operate in professional, social and societal environments characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). Therefore, besides traditional engineering skills, educational...

In view of the increasing intensity and frequency of natural disasters due to climate change, engineers need to be able to design systems and infrastructures that are resilient to disruptions. Resilience, here, describes the ability of systems to not only be prepared for sudden crises and to recover from these, but also to learn in order to build a...

The vision of the Internet of Production (IoP) is focused on optimizing manufacturing processes, with the help of Industry 4.0 technologies (I4Ts). However, considering global megatrends such as climate change and the need to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is a growing imperative for the manufacturing industry to become more s...

Like all preceding transformations of the manufacturing industry, the large-scale usage of production data will reshape the role of humans within the sociotechnical production ecosystem. To ensure that this transformation creates work systems in which employees are empowered, productive, healthy, and motivated, the transformation must be guided by...

Climate change increases the risk of natural disasters, which requires the design of sustainable and resilient infrastructure. This implies a need to enable engineering students to deal with highly complex problems and uncertainty. These competencies refer to the concept of resilience, describing the ability of a system to adapt to threatening even...

Future engineering professionals have to deal with increasing complexity and uncertainty, as global challenges, such as climate change, globalisation and digitalisation, require creative, innovative solutions and interdisciplinary perspectives. Accordingly, engineering graduates have to be prepared to deal with those kinds of problems at different...

There are numerous discourses about competencies of future engineers as well as the challenge to learn, teach and assess them. In particular, this applies for the question of which competencies – besides technical knowledge and understanding – are relevant for future engineers in order to responsibly address the needs of society. This paper contain...

Managing Change and Acceptance of Digitalization Strategies - Implementing the Vision of „Internet of Production“ (IoP) in Existing Corporate Structures.

One of the main responsibilities of universities for their students, researchers, and society is to teach scientific integrity. Over the years, many universities—including RWTH Aachen University—have developed modules to impart the rules of good scientific practice. The current case study outlines the “Scientific Integrity” online course of RWTH Aa...

The increasing relevance of uncertainty and complexity provides ongoing and future challenges for engineers. Subsequently, engineers require competencies such as systems thinking, judgement and decision-making in the face of uncertainty or complex problem solving as part of their education. Already, these are part of e.g. the ABET and EUR-ACE stand...

Next Generation Manufacturing promises significant improvements in performance, productivity, and value creation. In addition to the desired and projected improvements regarding the planning, production, and usage cycles of products, this digital transformation will have a huge impact on work, workers, and workplace design. Given the high uncertain...

The future of industrial manufacturing and production will increasingly manifest in the form of cyber physical production systems. Here, Digital Shadows will act as mediators between the physical and digital world to model and operationalize the interactions and relationships between different entities in production systems. Until now, the associat...

Introducing engineering students to topics of social responsibility and sustainability in the field of science and technology studies is internationally discussed, but there is little common consensus on best practices. Especially in large and mandatory engineering courses, initiating reflection processes among the students imposes difficulties on...

The master’s seminar ‘‘Competencies for Social and Sustainable Engineering Design’’ at RWTH Aachen University is part of the study programs Environmental Engineering, Civil Engineering and Industrial Engineering. Focusing on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), this course covers, teaches and reflects relevant competencies for socially resp...

Industrial production systems are facing radical change in multiple dimensions. This change is caused by technological developments and the digital transformation of production, as well as the call for political and social change to facilitate a transformation toward sustainability. These changes affect both the capabilities of production systems a...

Engineering graduates have to cope with dynamic and complex changes and ongoing challenges that directly affect society, for which they are jointly responsible. Accordingly, engineering education requires competencies that enable future engineers to create adaptive systems that are capable of dealing with crises and sudden disruptions. These abilit...

For coping with global challenges based on best available knowledge, the interdisciplinary training of scientists is seen as a key feature of academic education. Scientists educated this way – t-shaped scientists – are seen as being better prepared to facilitate problem-solving processes by combining different disciplinary views on the strong funda...

Even though there have been efforts for many years now to attract more women to engineering fields, technical professions are still clearly dominated by men. The following study examines the gender ratio concerning authorship within two popular journals in the field of mechanics: Computer Methods in Ap-plied Mechanics and Engineering (CMAME) and Jo...

Initiating a reflection process in large engineering classes is a frequently discussed challenge regarding competence-based teaching and learning. Especially in Germany, engineering education continues to be heavily dominated by technical content, which, combined with the large number of compulsory courses, poses challenges in terms of reflection e...

There is a broad international discussion about rethinking engineering education in order to educate engineers to cope with future challenges, and particularly the sustainable development goals. In this context, there is a consensus about the need to shift from a mostly technical paradigm to a more holistic problem-based approach, which can address...

Managing change and acceptance of digitalization strategies Digitalization is currently reshaping the production industry, resulting in the transfer of approaches from the Internet of Things (IoT) to enterprises. In the majority of cases, digitalization approaches must be implemented in already existing corporate structures. As a result, different...

Digitalization in the production sector aims at transferring concepts and methods from the Internet of Things (IoT) to the industry and is, as a result, currently reshaping the production area. Besides technological progress, changes in work processes and organization are relevant for a successful implementation of the “Internet of Production” (IoP...

As mobility should ensure the accessibility to and participation in society, transport planning has to deal with a variety of gender and diversity categories affecting users’ mobility needs and patterns. Exemplified by an analysis of an instrument of transport development processes – German Transport Development Plans (TDPs) – we investigated to wh...

Der technologische Wandel um die zunehmende Digitalisierung ist in aller Munde. Verbunden und diskutiert werden damit tiefgreifende Veränderungen, die alle Gesellschaftsbereiche von Wirtschaft über Politik und Bildung bis hin zur staatlichen Verwaltung ebenso wie soziale Interaktionen im Privaten betreffen. Dabei stehen in vielen Diskussionen die A...

Given changing demographics among engineers and engineering students, increasing international teamwork, and growing awareness of the ways in which cultural and cognitive biases may impinge on engineering problem-solving to reach optimal solutions, can a course providing an opportunity to learn about culture and diversity benefit engineers’ trainin...

Abstract Diversity is increasingly being addressed as an innovation-promoting factor. For this reason, companies and institutions tackle the integration of a diversity management approach that enables a heterogenic perspective on innovation development. However, system-theoretical frameworks state that the implementation of diversity measures that...

As an interdisciplinary research network, the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” (CoE) comprises of around 150 researchers. Their scientific background ranges from mechanical engineering and computer science to social sciences such as sociology and psychology. In addition to content- and methodbased ch...

Die Geschlechterforschung in den Technikwissenschaften hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten die vielfältigen Dimensionen vergeschlechtlichter Prozesse in Forschung und Entwicklung beschrieben. Diese Erkenntnisse finden allerdings bisher nur sehr marginal Eingang in den Diskurs einer sozial verantwortlichen Technikentwicklung innerhalb der Technikwissensc...

The link between diversity and innovation is broadly discussed in the context of research and innovation processes. Many institutions and enterprises, specifically in commerce, have already tried to establish sustainable diversity management concepts, in order to increase the diversity of their workforce in addition to establishing a corporate cult...

Acknowledging that a diverse workforce could be a potential source of innovation, the current research deals with the fine details of why diversity management is central to achieving innovation in heterogeneous research groups and how this could be effectively realized in an organization. The types of heterogeneities addressed mainly include gender...

Engineers and therefore engineering education are challenged by the increasing complexity of questions to be answered globally. The education of future engineers therefore has to answer with curriculums that build up relevant skills. This chapter will give an example how to bring engineering and social responsibility successful together to build en...

Contemporary research appreciates a diverse workforce as a potential source of innovation. Researchers explore the fine details of why diversity management is central for generating innovations in heterogeneous research groups and how it could be effectively implemented into organizations. Complex research associations that discuss topics with a hi...

The societies of tomorrow are confronted with big social challenges. To cope with these challenges in the future, it is necessary to establish a social responsible technical understanding by implementing the perspective of diverse users in the innovation process, and thereby creating a sustainable technical development process. In this context, Eng...

This study explores how diverse people can contribute to the design thinking process, by considering if all team members have the same possibility of con- tributing. Using semi-structured interviews of experienced design thinking coaches in the United States and Germany, observations and existing educational practices in design thinking coaching we...

Future engineers are increasingly confronted with the so-called megatrends which are the big social challenges societies have to cope with. These megatrends, such as for example “Silver Society”, “Globalization”, “Mobility” and “Gender Shift”, require an application-oriented perspective on diversity especially in the engineering field. Therefore, i...

INTRODUCTION The research project buildING│bridges@teaching aims at the integration of gender and diversity aspects in different teaching formats in engineering and is associated with the research group “gender and diversity in engineering” at RWTH Aachen University. Within the framework of the project a gender- and diversity-oriented teaching eval...

In Germany, the IGaDtools4MINT research project aims to integrate gender and diversity in STEM subjects.

Das interdisziplinäre Forschungsprojekt „IGaDtools4MINT – Integration von Gender and Diversity in MINT-Studiengängen an Hochschulen“ arbeitet vor dem Hintergrund des geringen Frauenanteils sowie des Anteils an weiteren bisher unterrepräsentierten Studierendengruppen in der Informatik und den anderen MINT-Fächern an einem kohärenten Gesamtkonzept, u...

Mit dem Projekt „IGaDtools4MINT“ wurde angestrebt, die Interdisziplinarität, die Anwendungsbezogenheit und die große Bedeutung der Informatik für Entwicklungen, von denen Menschen auf der ganzen Welt profitieren können, stärker in die Curricula zu integrieren, um die Wichtigkeit der Teilhabe an diesen Entwicklungen zu demonstrieren sowie die Attrak...