Aerospace Engineering Seminar Series: Aaron Johnson "Developing Judgment to Address Wicked Problems in Aerospace Engineering"

Abstract: Aerospace engineers constantly face “wicked problems,” which are ill-defined and complex sociotechnical problems with undefined and often-shifting constraints and requirements. Many students come to aerospace engineering because they want to tackle these wicked problems in their future career; however, the well-defined, closed-ended, and decontextualized problems prevalent in undergraduate aerospace engineering education do not allow students to develop the judgment and critical thinking needed to address these problems. This seminar will cover my design-based education research that integrates fundamental research of student thinking and evidence-based development of education interventions. Specifically, I will discuss a set of open-ended problems for engineering science courses and a related taxonomy of emerging engineering modeling judgment that outlines the ways in which engineering students make informed decisions when developing and using mathematical models. The talk will conclude with implications for engineering education, particularly as they relate to the ever-expanding availability and capacbility of generative AI, and future research directions.

Speaker Bio: Aaron W. Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department and a Core Faculty member of the Engineering Education Research Program at the University of Michigan. His lab’s NSF-funded design-based research focuses on how to re-contextualize engineering science engineering courses to better reflect and prepare students for the reality of ill-defined, sociotechnical engineering practice. Aaron holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Michigan and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.