How engineering students work with photographs to address authentic socio-technical problems in a globalized world

Discussion of visual rhetoric in engineering communication has largely focused on the use of graphics in technical documentation, but how do engineering students work with photographs to construct a visual narrative of a problem as it affects people they may never meet in a culture unfamiliar to them? This question has implications for engineering educators as they prepare students to work in a globalized world where they may have little or no contact with clients. Related questions are explored within an interdisciplinary course called “Technology and Development: The Global Engineer,” in which students use photographs to work on authentic socio-technical problems identified by rural artisans in India with whom they do not have contact. Two written assignments, a visual assignment, and a brief survey provide qualitative and quantitative data of student decision-making in the visual learning process, suggesting that photographic work in the engineering curriculum may present an untapped source of contextual information that can enable engineering students to develop human-centered design skills.