Early awareness of Global Issues and development of soft skills in engineering education: An interdisciplinary approach to communication

To tackle the challenges of the 21st century, the future scientists and engineers have to understand the interplay between societal challenges and technical solutions as early as possible in their education. They also have to develop the communication and the teamwork skills required to be effective professionals. This paper presents the Communication module of a new course in Social and Human Sciences (SHS) introduced for all first year students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). This course aims at tackling Global Issues with an interdisciplinary perspective and at developing soft skills. The Communication module puts emphasis on the challenges associated with the instantaneous and ubiquitous access to information and knowledge. The introduction of a mobile app supporting anonymous interaction during the lectures is also discussed.