Interdisciplinary engineering and humanities course investigates disasters

‘From the Titanic to the Betamax’
Interdisciplinary engineering and humanities course investigates disasters

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News staff
 
Among the appropriately dry reading in the spring 2009 course catalog was something that whet the appetite of Hanszen College senior Elliott Harwell.

“The class description said it covered technological disasters ‘from the Titanic to the Betamax,'” Harwell said. “There’s already something terribly captivating about disasters. Mix that with dark humor, and you have a winner.”

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	The hybrid electrical engineering and history course Technological Disasters takes a deeper look at instances where the best designs have failed when applied in the real world, such as the doomed maiden voyage of the H.M.S. Titanic depicted above.

The hybrid electrical engineering and history course Technological Disasters takes a deeper look at instances where the best designs have failed when applied in the real world. The class aims to give students a clearer understanding of the complexity of the relationship between society and the technologies it relies on.

“I’m learning that disasters have a context,” Harwell said. “Disasters aren’t just one-off happenings. There are lots of little mistakes, or problems, or errors — some known, some not — that cascade into a technological failure. In many ways, disasters are like art — an expression of the culture they occur in, embodying the preconceptions and obsessions of the society that produces them.”

Co-taught by Cyrus Mody, assistant professor of history, and Kevin Kelly, associate professor in electrical and computer engineering, the course combines case studies, guest panels and class projects to illuminate what disasters show about technology’s role in society.

“We hope to provide some picture of how engineering is a very human activity,” Mody said. “It’s not just numbers and facts. Decisions made in engineering have real-world consequences, right down to what material you choose.”

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Mody has an undergraduate degree in materials science and mechanical engineering. Kelly had an undergraduate minor in policy.

“Our backgrounds make it possible for us to speak to and more easily understand each other’s fields,” Mody said. “There’s a lot to be learned by looking at a situation from another perspective. Those lessons help you think more critically about your own discipline and approaches.”

There are many successful stories of technologies improving lives, so why focus on disasters? Mody and Kelly said it’s because technological catastrophes provide memorable, gripping reminders of the worst-case scenarios and make an interesting platform to investigate the intersection of many disciplines.

“Disasters show us that when technology doesn’t meet the needs of society, it can have catastrophic results,” Mody said. “That makes you aware of all the human aspects involved in your work.” 

Later in the semester, the course will move beyond reviewing past disasters like the Columbia space shuttle, the Titanic or the 2007 bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It will look at the future of engineering and scientific developments such as surveillance systems, biomedical screening and dual-use technology.

“If I had taken this class sooner in my academic career, it could have influenced me to focus on another field of study,” Harwell said. He plans to go to graduate school to study history and the Mughal Empire. Though the class hasn’t made him change his course, it has given him a broader perspective that can prove invaluable, and he hopes the schools at Rice will continue their interdisciplinary efforts.

“History overlaps with a vast number of other fields of study — engineering, political science, art, you name it,” Harwell said. “It’s great to have the opportunity to take a class that explicates those connections. I’m glad the class is being offered, because it exposes students to one of the many facets of historical studies.”