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Teaching social sustainability to engineering students with the help of social impact audit tool
Vakhitova, Tatiana V. Martin, Nicolas Ireland, Piers
Vakhitova, Tatiana V.
Martin, Nicolas
Ireland, Piers
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Date
2025
Educational Level
Curriculum Area
Geographical Setting
Sweden
South Africa
South Africa
Abstract
In this paper we will explore the less practiced aspect of social sustainability in engineering education, focusing on the Ansys Academic Social Impact Audit Tool (SIAT Excel-based) and SIAT Application (SIAT App) and experiences of educators, who have used either of the SIAT versions in their teaching. While the integration of specific methodologies, such as Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) are still being explored and unevenly applied in engineering curricula, the topics, such as engineering ethics and recognition of soft skills as critical (or transversal skills) are simultaneously being discussed and widely accepted (contributions from the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI) conferences 2023 and 2024). The SIAT App is based on originally developed Excel-based SIAT (Ashby et al, 2019). The SIAT helps to teach concepts of S-LCA. The SIAT is now an interactive application. It helps to visually analyse potential social impact at a national scale, enabling comparison between products' life cycles. The SIAT largely follows the UN S-LCA guidelines 2009, 2020 as well as the ISO 14075, aligning with the S-LCA Performance assessment methodology. The data is consistent with the Ansys Granta EduPack Sustainability Database (EduPack). The SIAT App itself is available to download from Ansys Education Resources Website for the licensed users of the EduPack. Broadly, the SIAT and its digital successor help students to: recognise the fundamental concept of S-LCA, aiding to a fully holistic assessment of a product life cycle, if coupled with Environmental LCA and Life Cycle Costing analysis; and examine scenarios with potential socio-economic impact of product-related decisions, using a variety of data visualisations. In this paper we will first focus briefly on historic developments behind S-LCA, continue with a description of the SIAT and its further development into a digital version, concluding with the most recent experiences from academics, who have used the SIAT and SIAT App in their teaching.
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Keywords (free text)
interactive learning, engineering ethics, program assessment, engineering education, engineering for sustainable development, education for sustainabilty, sustainability in engineering