ORU Dean and Students Present Paper to the ASEE
A group of Oral Roberts University students and the dean of the College of Sciences and Engineering worked together to write Exploring Connections Between Engineering and Human Spirituality. Their paper was presented at the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference in Louisville, Kentucky, June 20 through 23, 2010.
The final draft of Exploring Connections Between Engineering and Human Spirituality was finished March 2010. The paper suggests that science and engineering curriculums should be based on students' need to connect their fields of study to their spirituality. It discusses the struggle to answer questions that interface the differences between science and faith and how engineering contributes to both topics.
"This paper will help to establish ORU as a leader among universities that seek to educate the whole person, enabling students to relate their academic training to their spiritual lives," said Dominic Halsmer, dean of the Schools of Science and Engineering and co-author of the paper.
"Hopefully other universities will take advantage of what has been learned through interdisciplinary teamwork at ORU, and implement curriculum changes to facilitate the integration of science and faith for their students. This paper will also demonstrate the innovative curriculum at ORU that engages students with these issues and allows them to co-author publications such as this one."
The paper was written by Halsmer and a collection of students including junior Elliott Butay, Arts and Old Testament and music student; senior Benjamin Hase, psychology student; sophomore Sean McDonough, engineering student; sophomore Taylor Tryon, exploratory student; and junior Joshua Weed, engineering student.