With a nearly $2 million grant awarded by the National Science Foundation at their disposal as of June, Cal Poly’s Computer Engineering Department (CPE) can now fund their Breaking the Binary project, according to a Cal Poly news release.
Based on the belief that the field of engineering currently lacks collaboration and can be oppressive, Breaking the Binary aims to reject “binaries or dualisms commonly used to create hierarchies in engineering thought and practice” and to dismantle “the binaries by identifying and breaking down oppressive norms,” according to Cal Poly’s website.
College of Engineering Communications Specialist Emily Slater said that Cal Poly’s status as a predominantly white institution and the fact that the field of engineering is also predominantly male and white is an aspect of this. However, she also said this is something the project will be able to help combat.
Co-principal investigator on the grant and director of the general engineering program Lizabeth Thompson echoed this.
“I would like to change all of engineering education to be more welcoming,” Thompson said. “So that you know, people can choose to be an engineer, even if they don’t fit the mold that is when you Google it.”
To achieve this, the project will facilitate dialogues, host workshops and even encourage faculty and students to build more authentic relationships, according to the news release.
Thompson said these conversations are referred to as “critical reflective dialogues,” and contributes to what she calls “capacity building.”
“Our idea is to actually have conversations that bring up other options for education so that we can make choices,” she said. “Not that lecture is the most terrible thing ever. And sometimes it’s useful, but we can choose other ways of being together.”
The news release states that the other investigators include: CPE Chair Lynne Slivovsky; Director of the university’s Office of Student Research and professor in ethnic studies and women’s gender and queer studies Jane Lehr; Associate Dean and computer engineering professor Bridget Benson; and computer engineering professors Andrew Danowitz and John Oliver.
Faculty from other schools are also involved, such as professor of materials science and engineering education Jon Stolk from Olin College of Engineering and Chair and professor of integrated engineering Susan Lord at University of California, San Diego, according to the news release.
For the students that will be at Cal Poly while this project is active, and even beyond, there will be a “real advantage,” according to Slater.
“I think they’re gonna come away from an education at Cal Poly, with, you know, being in this environment that is accommodating of all sorts of different beliefs and backgrounds,” she said. “And I think being in that environment is going to then send out graduates to have a real appreciation for that and I think what will happen is, they will go out into the workforce and bring that with them.”