Forum History
Engineer by Day…Poet by Night
Celebrating the Engineer as Renaissance Person
It was a mere week before the annual spring awards banquet in
my engineering department, signaling a scurry of last minute preparations by
languid students and scatterbrained faculty. It was also the spring of my senior
year, a time to feel either a great sense of accomplishment or a guttural, gnawing
anxiousness. I was somewhere near the bottom of this spectrum and was furtively
avoiding professors’ and advisors’ inquisitive natures. Unfortunately,
I held duties in the departmental honorary and was called upon to meet with
the advisor to plan for the banquet, incognito no longer.
As if reading a script, the advisor inquired what my plans were after graduation.
Looking to heaven and hell for inspiration, and consequently avoiding eye contact,
I ventured that I was planning on attending graduate school. Upon further prodding
I nervously stated that I was unhappy with my engineering degree and becoming
increasingly interested in the social sciences and humanities courses I had
managed to squeeze into my schedule. My conviction and bravery blossomed, and
I declared my intent to study environmental policy and land and stewardship
ethics. With a judging stare, the advisor of the honorary looked at me, holding
back a torrent of tree-hugger vitriol. He finally spoke and offered that I should
“just read a book” on ethics because it was not a challenging field,
and he added that engineering is “where the jobs and money are”.
I quickly left, muttering to myself that all engineers are illiterate barbarians.
While this notion is most assuredly not true, it speaks volumes of the misunderstandings
between engineering students and faculty and their counterparts in the arts
and humanities departments. This is a culture nourished by mistrust and stereotypes;
the advisor of the honorary was simply suggesting that I not give up on my engineering
studies so easily, while I had already typecast him as “one of them”
and unfairly over-analyzed his comments. Yet his response was less than eloquent.
Too often these juvenile attitudes prevail, and black and white dichotomies
are created. It is easy to assume that for every starched-shirt, conservative,
uncultured, socially aloof engineering icon that designs weapons of mass destruction,
there exists a complementary thrift shop couture, hilariously liberal, hipster,
technology-phobic English student unable to balance a checkbook.
Dr. Ann Christy, an associate professor within the department
of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering (FABE) at The Ohio State University
(OSU), has spent the last several years bridging the relationship between student’s
technical studies and its impacts on society and the environment in her classes.
Most predominant of her teaching techniques is a weekly journal response included
with typical engineering problem sets, encouraging students to reflect on what
they have learned each week, how to communicate this to the public and other
professionals, and the greater impact of this newfound knowledge. The journals
serve many purposes, but for students it serves as a time for academic reflection
as well as an outlet for creative, non-technical writing. For Dr. Christy, the
journals serve as a gauge of student development and a resource for realizing
their potential. Students in recent years have submitted increasingly colorful,
entertaining responses that Dr. Christy has read with glee and admiration at
the beginning of her classes. The taupe walls and stale environment of the classroom
begin to transform into the poorly lit, hazy atmosphere of a beatnik club as
students eagerly await readings.
Dr. Christy has also been known to administer surveys in the name of the student
welfare, sharing responses with her students and opening the floor to discussion
of the results. Perhaps most memorable to many students was a survey concerning
the General Education Curricula (GEC) requirements for engineering students
at OSU. Wide arrays of responses were received. Some students questioned the
value of the courses to their careers and demanded that GECs be stripped from
their schedules. Others questioned the worth of taking mere 100-level courses
and expressed a desire to expand the GEC requirement in order to take more advanced
courses. These student responses unwittingly reflect the myriad opinions of
engineering professionals and academics as the Accreditation Board for Engineering
and Technology (ABET) introduces its Engineering Criteria (EC) 2000 standards
to universities across the country. In order to remain accredited, engineering
departments must demonstrate students are receiving meaningful education in
non-technical areas, developing communication skills and an understanding of
the social responsibility and environmental impacts of engineering work.
In an article written by Thomas K. Grose in the February 2004 edition of Prism,
the periodical for the American Society for Engineering Education, the challenges
faced by universities in implementing these standards is detailed. Most schools
– including OSU – require a limited number of GEC courses be taken
by students, emphasizing personal choice. Unfortunately, this approach is analogous
to an a la carte menu, creating a jumble of liberal arts classes with seemingly
little relevance to engineering coursework. Fortunately, most schools are flexible
in implementing new ABET standards and have found creative solutions to the
shortcomings of free electives. Some professors, such as Dr. Christy, have found
innovative ways of incorporating communication skills, social sciences, and
humanities-based learning into their engineering courses. College-wide approaches
have also been implemented, such as the First-Year Engineering program at OSU,
which incorporates group work and creative design projects into introductory
courses. Yet barriers still remain. As Grose elaborates, many students seek
refuge in the math and sciences because they feel inadequate in English and
art courses. Perhaps most compelling is the lack of interdisciplinary approaches
utilized by universities. The prospect of humanities and engineering faculty
cooperating and building classes and projects together seems unlikely in the
highly specialized culture of higher education.
Dr. Christy, ever vigilant and bolstered by the findings in her survey and journal
responses, felt students should follow the example of a truly multi-disciplinary
individual. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) was both an artist and an
engineer, known for his paintings (e.g., Mona Lisa, The Last Supper) as well
as his variety of inventions (e.g., flying machine, parachute, three-speed gear
shift, hydraulic jack, canal locks). He was the epitome of a Renaissance individual,
a genius whose varied interests and balanced life continue to influence philosophers,
professionals, and students into the modern age. Leonardo’s life and philosophy
have even been incorporated into a self-improvement guide by Michael J. Gelb,
entitled How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci, a favorite amongst many professionals.
Leonardo’s life and work is something to admire and his personal philosophy
something to strive towards. Perhaps Renaissance thinking is the key to breaking
interdisciplinary barriers. Dr. Christy simply hoped the concept would influence
students to go beyond their comfort zones, as well as build an appreciation
for the arts and humanities within the FABE department.
Dr. Christy decided to organize a poetry contest for engineering students within
the FABE department, including students in agricultural construction systems
management (ACSM). The poetry contest was open to both FABE and ACSM undergraduate
students and graduate students advised by FABE faculty (termed “students”),
as well as FABE and ACSM faculty, staff, and alumni (termed “non-students”).
Student and non-student categories were further divided into two additional
subcategories: poems dealing with technical subjects (i.e., Ode to a Manure
Spreader) and poems dealing with non-technical subjects (i.e., My Love Is Gone,
My Money’s Gone, and Now My Sobriety Is, Too). There were no rules pertaining
to the content, convention, and style of poetry; however, participants were
cautioned to be mindful of decency and brevity. There was also no limit to the
number of poems participants could submit. Thus began the first annual FABE/ACSM
Poetry Forum.
Dr. Christy also recruited an esteemed faculty panel of poetry judges from OSU’s
Department of English: Drs. Michelle Herman, Kathy Fagan, and David Citino,
the current Poet Laureate of OSU. The judges’ interest was immediately
apparent. “Within one day of sending an introductory email and asking
for their help in judging, all three responded with incredible enthusiasm for
the contest,” remarked Dr. Christy. “It was overwhelming. I was
expecting a few raised eyebrows, but each felt it was a worthy endeavor.”
The judges would choose the best three poems in each of the four categories,
and prize money would be awarded to the top three poems in each of the student
categories, with 1st place receiving $50, 2nd place $25, and 3rd place receiving
$10. Funding for the project was provided by the Sanford G. Price and Isabelle
Price Barbee Chair in Teaching, Advising, and Learning at the Ohio State University’s
College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. Posters and flyers
with a Renaissance theme were posted throughout the Agricultural Engineering
Building to advertise the contest. To build a healthy competitive spirit, students
were also encouraged to break Michigan’s poetry submission records.
Both the University of Michigan (UM) and Michigan State University (MSU) offer
some form of poetry contest in their engineering departments. The University
of Michigan offers three major writing awards: the George M. Landes Prize for
Technical Communication, established in 1981 and presented to the undergraduate
engineering student who most clearly combines the highest standards of technical
communication and technical excellence; The Cooley Prize, established in 1950
and presented to engineering undergraduates who author winning essays, fiction,
or drama; and The Roger M. Jones Poetry Contest, established in 1977 to encourage
engineering students to write poetry and develop their creative skills. Winning
poetry is awarded up to and exceeding $1,000 at UM. MSU has offered a poetry
forum for the past several years, open to the entire college of engineering.
Craig J. Gunn has been the guiding force of these efforts and has given sage
advice to Dr. Christy throughout the FABE/ACSM Poetry Forum.
“It’s interesting to note that previous to EC 2000, standards for
communication skills were buried within the ABET document,” notes Gunn.
“Engineers in industry and government have really lobbied for universities
to improve the writing and creative skills of students.” Gunn also promotes
an interdisciplinary approach to engineering curricula as well. “No man
is an island, and no field of study can divorce itself from the activities,
interests, and positive reinforcement of divergent areas of instruction. Engineers
need to be well-rounded individuals capable of dealing with increasingly complex
problems in a dynamic world.”
“Craig has been a great help,” remarked Dr. Christy. “We’ve
been tossing a variety of ideas around. We’ve even considered having a
poetry competition between MSU and OSU, with our mutual rival, UM, judging.”
Valuable help has also come from Dr. Marybeth Lima of Louisiana State University,
coordinator of a “Renaissance Learning” creativity workshop for
beginning engineering students. Kathyrn M. Plank, Associate Director of Faculty
and TA Development at OSU, has also offered guidance, assisting in the creation
of an online survey to gauge the opinions of those within the department towards
the poetry forum and Renaissance learning in general. “We’re hoping
to see if opinions change over time within the department,” notes Dr.
Christy. “It will be interesting to see if Renaissance learning initiatives
and the poetry forum actually do build an appreciation for the arts and humanities
within the department over the next several years.” She added, “This
is quickly becoming a research project on the side.”
Roughly 29 poems were submitted in this year’s forum. “I was very
pleased,” stated Dr. Christy. “MSU received roughly 120 poems this
year, but their potential participation pool is over 4,000 people. Ours is around
400 people, so the percentages work out in our favor. We beat MSU this year.”
Poetry topics and styles ranged over a broad spectrum. Technical topics included
fractured glacial till, septic systems, waste management, infrared sensing,
and haikus about wetlands and combined sewer overflows. Non-technical poems
ranged from religious musings to a gripping verse penned by a grad student stranded
in Mexico while his daughter was born prematurely. “We also received a
creative ditty called I Love Pooping by one of the students. While I’m
sure it was submitted as a joke, it’s actually quite amusing and required
some thought. I advised the judges to have a sense of humor, and assured them
that we don’t think about waste management every hour of the day despite
what they might read.”
Poems will be displayed in the Agricultural Engineering Building beginning in
May. A Student Lounge Gala will be held on Tuesday, May 18th, showcasing the
poetry, art work, and musical talents of students, faculty, alumni, and staff
within the FABE and ACSM departments. Winners of the poetry forum will also
be announced at the event, and all participants in the forum will have a chance
to read their poetry to an audience. “We’re encouraging everyone
to display their art as well,” Dr. Christy said, smiling. “We honor
creativity in all its forms, from engineering diagrams to welding sculptures.
We’re also looking forward to musical contributions to the evening, particularly
a faculty kazoo band.” The gala should be a fun and rousing event, featuring
DJs from The Underground, OSU’s student-run radio station.
Dr. Christy has bigger plans for the poetry forum in coming years. “Like
MSU and UM, I’d like to extend the forum to the entire college of engineering,”
Dr. Christy acknowledged. “There are a great many faculty within the college
of engineering who share these same goals and objectives, and it will be interesting
to see if we can get this thing off the ground. We’ll see what happens.”
Perhaps Dr. Christy underestimates the enthusiasm for such an endeavor. Scot
Irvin, an engineering alumnus of OSU, emailed this response to Dr. Christy:
“Looks like a few things have changed since I left the department in 1986.
I salute the efforts to get students to participate and grow in the arts. The
two things most underdeveloped in young folks I work with are creativity –
expanding beyond the lines and expressing compelling logic. Your contest seems
to hit those things very well.”
Update: 2004 Student Lounge Gala
A Student Lounge Gala – showcasing the poetry, art work, and musical talents
of those within the department – was held on Tuesday, May 18th in the
Agricultural Engineering Building. The evening began with a reception featuring
a wide assortment of foods, with lounge music provided by DJs from the Underground,
OSU’s student radio station. Attendees strolled by display boards featuring
numerous poems and a variety of art. Some exhibited pieces included: a fluorescent
sculpture by Chris Gecik, a design engineer within the department; a welding
sculpture in the form of an elaborate candleholder by Larry Heckendorn, a teacher
and technical editor within the department; eerie ceramic skull sculptures by
Melissa Nazareth, a freshman in biological engineering; jewelry crafted by Dr.
Karen Mancl, a professor within the department; and a variety of sketches and
photographs by Diane Yagich, an office associate.
Dr. Christy kicked off the event with guitar in hand, singing a folk song about
engineering penned during the womyn’s movement in the seventies. The evening
also featured readings of some of the poems submitted in the poetry forum. There
were several highlights during the evening, including a dance written as a poem
by Suzanne Kulshrestha. Eight volunteers from the audience helped realize the
dance.
Another memorable moment was the reading of The Window of My Face by Stewart
Diemont, a graduate student in the department. The poem relates receiving news
that his as-yet unborn daughter, Eva, was to make her first appearance prematurely.
Stewart was in Mexico doing research at the time, and the poem reflects his
urgency in returning home. Stewart’s wife, Deb, wrote a companion poem
relating her experience at the time, and both were read at the end of the evening.
The poetry judges bestowed extra praise to this poem, which garnered the grand
prize entry designation in the forum. Other awards were also presented.
The event was attended by students, faculty, and staff in FABE as well as by
students outside of the department and the college of engineering. Many of these
students were surprised by the creative abilities of those in FABE and the engineering
discipline in general. “I was expecting really bad poetry, but I was so
impressed,” gushed Katie Imes, a senior in journalism and speech and hearing
science. “I particularly liked the poems about waste management and septic
systems. How neat!”
“I came for the free food, but I dug the music and art,” stated
Dave Treneff, a recent graduate in film studies. “I just thought these
kids did math.”
Students in the department also had a great deal of enthusiasm for the forum
and the gala. “I had a lot of fun tonight,” said Peter Gehres, a
senior in FABE. “While I might be a bit biased since I won some awards,
I can’t wait for the next poetry forum.”
Additional Update
Dr. Ann Christy presented a paper based on the FABE/ACSM Poetry Forum at the
2004 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
The paper received first place designation in the Biological Engineering category.
By: Julie A.Graf
B.S. in Biological Engineering, 2003
Graduate Teaching/Research Associate
The Ohio State University
School of Environment and Natural Resources