Drones for Good : How to Bring Sociotechnical Thinking into the Classroom

What in the world is a social scientist doing collaborating with an engineer, and an engineer with a sociologist, and together on a book about drones and sociotechnical thinking in the classroom? This book emerges from a frustration that disciplinary silos create few opportunities for students to engage with others beyond their chosen major. In this volume, Hoople and Choi-Fitzpatrick introduce a sociotechnical approach to truly interdisciplinary education around the exciting topic of drones. The text, geared primarily at university faculty, provides a hands-on approach for engaging students in challenging conversations at the intersection of technology and society. Choi-Fitzpatrick and Hoople provide a turnkey solution complete with detailed lesson plans, course assignments, and drone-based case studies. They present a modular framework, describing how faculty might adopt their approach for any number of technologies and class configurations.

Gordon Hoople is an assistant professor and a founding faculty member of Integrated Engineering Department at the University of San Diego’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering. His work focuses on engineering education and design. He is the principal investigator on the National Science Foundation Grant “Reimagining Energy: Exploring Inclusive Practices for Teaching Energy Concepts to Undergraduate Engineering Majors.” His design work occurs at the intersection of STEM and Art (STEAM). He recently completed the sculpture Unfolding Humanity, a 12 foot tall, two ton dodecahedron that explores the relationship between technology and humanity. Featured at Burning Man and Maker Faire, this sculpture brought together a team of over 80 faculty, students, and community members.Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick is an associate professor of political sociology at the Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, and is concurrent associate professor of social movements and human rights at the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab and School of Sociology and Social Policy. His work focuses on politics, culture, technology, and social change. His recent books include The Good Drone (MIT Press, 2020) and What Slaveholders Think (Columbia, 2017) and shorter work has appeared in Slate, Al Jazeera, the Guardian, Aeon, and HuffPo as well as articles in the requisite pile of academic journals.