Ethics, Character, and Leadership in Engineering Research Associate

Job Classification

• Available to all students

Job Description

• Excellent writing, research, and communication skills
• Strongly intrinsically motivated to create excellent and impactful work
• Creative problem-solver
• Highly collaborative
• Interested and excited to work in an interdisciplinary team
• Flexible, creative, bold, and open-minded about research approaches and methodologies
• Attentive to detail and sensitive to context; Able to contribute to high-level study conceptualization and also minute details
• Strong time management skills to manage multiple ongoing projects and a range of stakeholders
• Open to being mentored and given constructive feedback and regular appraisals
• Interested and able to learn quickly and independently; Willing to follow direction and eventually take on leadership of research as experience is gained on the job.

Required Education, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
The ideal candidate will be working towards a BS STEM degree or have completed a BS STEM degree with a strong commitment towards ethics and character cultivation. We also welcome candidates with background in technology, society, and ethics (e.g. stemming from disciplines like philosophy, social science, religious studies, leadership, etc.). Engineering or technology relevant experience is
preferred. Expertise and some knowledge around ethics, character, and entrepreneurial mindset.

Learning Outcomes

• Effectively and efficiently convey and receive information, both formally and informally, using verbal, non-verbal and writing skills amongst various stakeholders.
• Enhance their time management, problem solving and, teamwork skills
• Develop practical competence through obtaining experience relating to their degree
• Understand and apply professional and ethical responsibility
• Develop cognitive and interpersonal skills that are measurable and transferable
• Function as a part of a multidisciplinary team
• Demonstrate professional communication skills through writing or editing.
• Constructively receive and apply professional feedback
• Demonstrate knowledge of and rationale for departmental safety regulations and proper use of equipment.
• Develop an understanding of professional cultures and expectations

Additional Information

Job summary:

We are launching an effort to develop and integrate a series of engineering and technology specific ethical cases across the engineering curriculum to support ethical reasoning, character cultivation, and leadership development. This work is part of a Kern Family Foundation (KFF) Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN) grant to cultivate ethics, character, leadership, and entrepreneurial mindset across the Wake Forest Engineering curriculum – an integration of both technical knowledge and professional knowledge.

Essential Functions:

(1) Work closely with the KEEN Grant PI, Co-PIs, and engineering faculty to develop relevant cases that can be integrated across the engineering curriculum.
(2) Conduct research to identify cases and case-based learning methods/pedagogy to target character cultivation and leadership development at micro and macro levels of ethical reasoning.
(3) Support the development of assessment tools in support of case-based learning.
(4) Develop documentation to support case-based learning and to include instructional materials and instructional manuals.
(5) Support the KEEN project in other ways – documentation, research, etc.