1. Facilitating high-level understanding in engineering education through STE inspired examples Christian Claudel Assistant Professor Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering The University of Texas at Austin Keywords: interdisciplinarity, example-based learning

2. Why? Engineering is by essence applied, on real-life scenarios But: theoretical foundations of engineering are sometimes obscure Difficult to motivate why some concepts are studied, given that alternatives could exist (but do not apply to our specific engineering field)

3. When? Fall 2011: ME 221A (Linear systems theory): some of the math foundations have no real-life counterpart in engineering (but have in other stem fields) Fall 2012: Start building a database of real-life examples of math foundations of ME 221A, possibly spanning multiple disciplines Spring 2015: CE 391F (Advanced traffic flow theory): examples are also very useful to motivate the choice of why specific concepts are taught in engineering subfields. These examples are usually outside of the field of interest

4. Where? King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST): Linear systems University of Texas Austin: Advanced transportation theory Applicable to full courses

5. What? Developed a database of examples and counterexamples applicable to class concepts (both for motivations and real-life examples) Theory: having real-life examples of obscure theoretical concepts helps understanding, even if these examples are picked from non-related fields Showing limitations of theories/concepts (even if there is no limitation in the given subject) greatly helps motivating and creating interest.

6. Prognosis? Impact documented from student assessments Main takeaways: – Students are usually not afraid of other STEM fields (provided that examples are short/require not much context) – Examples taken out of taught subject help creating interest and curiosity. Future objectives: having all taught concepts properly motivated through examples/counterexamples Need to develop database/share among other faculty