USE Basic Course
Do you know how your mobile telephone works?
As a future engineer, you have to take three parties into account:
- User (U)
- Society (S)
- Enterprise (E)
The role of the engineer
In the USE basic course students learn about the different roles that these parties (and students themselves) play. Attention is paid to history, ethics, management-, philosophical-, and social sciences. Technological developments are compared to dilemmas in the fields of sustainability, health care, energy, mobility, and ICT. Your role as an engineer is highly important.
It’s not only about technology
At a first glance, it seems relatively easy to explain how a mobile phone works. There’s a microphone, an electrical signal, a speaker and some wireless connection. Nevertheless, if you take a closer look, it’s a lot more complicated. Besides technology, you also have to work with communication protocols, available phone numbers, a distribution network, privacy, a financial revenue model, patent on scientific inventions, a well-working infrastructure, a safety and health care guarantee, and so forth. Students become aware of the aspects that they have to pay attention to as an engineer during this course.