Drawing on Michel Foucault’s spatial concept of heterotopia—sites that simultaneously mirror, resist, and reconfigure dominant spaces—this paper examines how engineering education can better accommodate students whose learning modes diverge from performative, group-centric pedagogies.
Framed within heterotopology, panoptic critique, and the notion of assemblage as a relational educational construct, the study explores educational practices that recognize and nurture solitary cognition, asynchronous engagement, and spatial autonomy.

Survey data collected from senior engineering students reveal possible patterns often marginalized in traditional curricula: preferences for quiet study, individual problem-solving, spatial/temporal flexibility, and solo feedback mechanisms. Rather than proposing a retreat from collaboration, this paper advocates for a heterotopic reimagining—a layered, flexible assemblage of educational modalities where interaction coexists with solitude, and dynamism includes stillness.

Concretely, the presentation proposes a design shift toward optional asynchronous labs, modular solo projects, and quiet reflective zones—thus rebalancing the dominant learning architectures. This pedagogical model elevates under-acknowledged excellence and cognitive divergence by resisting the panoptic impulse to standardize visibility and participation. Engineering classrooms, reconfigured as heterotopias, can become spaces of radical inclusion—structured yet contingent, cohabited yet personalized—where a diversity of minds finds recognition, rhythm, and rigor.

Authors:
Hessam Mirgolbabaei, University of Minnesota, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Mirgolbabaei is an unwavering advocate for women and the LGBTQIA+ community in the engineering field, and his remarkable journey is marked by resilience and unwavering determination.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hessamkassra/

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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