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Robyn Mae Paul, PhD'23 (Engineering Education)
Broadening the notion of engineers and engineering design
Schulich alum and assistant professor brings a fresh way of thinking
Last September, Dr. Robyn Mae Paul, PhD, was teaching an introductory class to first-year students at 8 a.m. on their very first day. The assistant professor in Sustainable Systems Engineering at the Schulich School of Engineering, introduced herself and told the lecture hall she researches queer theory in engineering.
“Engineering has this restricted way of thinking, and this creates these boundaries where only certain people are allowed to be engineers and certain types of designs are allowed to be called engineering,” says Paul.
There was this one student who came up to me after and asked me about it and it was really cool that the first face she got to see showed her that engineering can have these different ways of thinking.
Robyn Mae Paul, PhD'23 (Engineering Education)
Paul’s research aims to break down those boundaries, expand the notion of who can be an engineer while also expanding the definition of good design to “think about what it is we're designing and why we're doing it, who's getting harmed by our designs, who's getting the benefits from the designs.” Beyond having good intentions, she says, engineers need to be critically explicit about what, why, and for whom they design.
Her thinking about engineering and engineering education has evolved since arriving at Schulich from Ontario to do her undergrad in 2006. “I am the classic case of someone going into engineering because I was good at math and science,” says Paul.
After graduating with a BSc in manufacturing engineering with a biomedical specialization, she worked at a small factory for a few years, collaborating with employees to improve processes, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. This “amazing experience” broadened her thinking about engineering and brought her back to Schulich to do a Master of Engineering and a PhD in engineering education.
“I wanted to bring something about queer theory or feminism into engineering,” she says. “At the beginning, I felt there was no connection, but I was really lucky to meet a few scholars who did this type of work. Through them, I gained confidence to take these theories and apply them directly to the way we educate engineers, and therefore to the way we’re teaching engineers how to design.”
Reactions from students and other faculty to Paul’s expanded way of thinking about engineering design are not always positive. “You get the whole spectrum of responses,” she says. “It’s not without challenges. If I’m giving a lecture on social justice and engineering, some students say: “This is pointless, why are we doing this?’ Not all my colleagues and faculty members understand the work that I'm doing.”
But Paul has found mentors, colleagues and peers who can “buffer” the negative comments and remind her she’s doing “good work” helping more people feel “at home” in engineering. It’s gratifying work, she says.