The grand challenges within technical communications

This paper examines the introduction of the Grand Challenges as a subject into a required Professional and Technical Communications course and how it affects students´ level of motivation and professional engagement with their collaborative project and the course. In addition, it reflects on whether the project is successful in increasing students´ sense of ethical responsibility as engineers. This paper argues that projects that develop students´ sense of professional identity will be most successful in both developing their technical communication skills as well as their sense of ethical responsibility.