Engineering with Character: Olin Wins $400K Grant to Advance Moral Action
Olin College of Engineering has received a three-year, $399,355 Institutional Impact Grant from the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), a project of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, to make character development a more ubiquitous part of the Olin experience.
Olin’s project—“Engineers of Moral Action: Building a Pervasive Culture of Character Development through Storytelling”—explores a concept that has long been fundamental to Olin’s idea of engineering education: that being a good engineer extends beyond technical skills.
Professor Erhardt Graeff, principal investigator (PI) for Olin's Educating Character Initiative project, sits on the Norden Auditorium stage to talk to students.
“Olin has always understood engineering as a human endeavor as much as a technical one,” says Erhardt Graeff, associate professor of social and computer science and principal investigator (PI) for the project. “This grant lets us make character development a regular part of how our students learn and work here—so they graduate able to carry virtues like humility, care, and courage into their contributions as engineers, citizens, and people.”
Olin has always understood engineering as a human endeavor as much as a technical one.
This grant lets us make character development a regular part of how our students learn and work here—so they graduate able to carry virtues like humility, care, and courage into their contributions as engineers, citizens, and people.”
Erhardt Graeff
Associate Professor of Social and Computer Science
Co-principal investigators on “Engineers of Moral Action” include Zachary del Rosario ’14, assistant professor of engineering and applied statistics; Benjamin Linder, professor of design and mechanical engineering; Jonathan M. Adler, professor of psychology; Gillian Epstein, associate professor of English; and Sam Michalka, interim dean of Academic Programs and associate professor of computational neuroscience and engineering.
Building on Previous ECI Grant
“Engineers of Moral Action” grows out of a Capacity-Building Grant from the ECI that was awarded in 2025 to Graeff and Andrea Cuadra ’13, assistant professor of computer science. That effort engaged approximately one-quarter of Olin’s full-time faculty through workshops and meetups focused on virtue and character education.
The new project has three interconnected goals: to foster a pervasive culture of character development across campus; to give students opportunities to practice moral action; and to contribute to a fuller definition of what engineers should be. Through this work, Olin will engage students as moral agents throughout their four years here, working with them collaboratively to develop the shared vocabulary, structures, and practices needed to make thoughtful decisions and act on their values.
For alumnus and co-PI del Rosario, that includes recognizing that technical expertise itself depends on a particular kind of character.
“To be technically competent, engineers need intellectual humility—to know what they know, and to learn what they don't,” says del Rosario. “That's what virtue and character bring to engineering education.”
The Power of Stories
In keeping with Olin’s emphasis on hands-on learning, “Engineers of Moral Action” takes an experiential approach with storytelling as a bridge between reflection and action.
“For us, learning to serve the common good means having opportunities to enact our moral selves in the many local communities that exist across the curriculum, campus life, and the college experience,” says Linder.
“For us, learning to serve the common good means having opportunities to enact our moral selves in the many local communities that exist across the curriculum, campus life, and the college experience,” says Ben Linder.
Olin already has a longstanding commitment to storytelling across the learning continuum, including through The Story Lab, co-founded and directed by Adler and Epstein. Together, they produce Olin’s annual story slams and have helped many other campuses leverage storytelling for culture change. “Engineers of Moral Action” will build on that foundation, using storytelling as a way for students to examine the choices they and others make, consider competing values and perspectives and develop a deeper understanding of what it means to exercise judgment responsibly.
“Storytelling brings creativity and nuance to how we understand ourselves, our choices, and our communities in ways that stick not just in our minds but in our hearts,” says Epstein.
“Stories weave us together as both individuals and as communities,” adds Adler. “They are like the infrastructure of our lives.”
That approach is especially relevant to engineering, where decisions that may appear technical can have profound human and social implications. The project therefore builds on Olin’s longstanding effort to redefine engineering education around a broader vision of the profession—one in which character development and service to the common good are not peripheral to engineering, but part of what it means to be a good engineer and citizen.
A Nationwide Effort
The Educating Character Initiative’s Institutional Impact Grants are part of a larger national effort by Wake Forest University to support colleges and universities as they integrate character into undergraduate curricula and programs in ways that reflect each institution’s mission and culture. Olin’s project is one of 44 to receive an Institutional Impact Grant in 2026.
“We are grateful to the Lilly Endowment and Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative for this Institutional Impact Grant to purposefully build character development into engineering education,” says Michalka. “Our amazing team, led by Erhardt Graeff, is well-poised to make meaningful changes at Olin and to partner with other institutions so we can all learn together.”
“We are grateful to the Lilly Endowment and Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative for this Institutional Impact Grant to purposefully build character development into engineering education,” says Sam Michalka. “Our amazing team, led by Erhardt Graeff, is well-poised to make meaningful changes at Olin and to partner with other institutions so we can all learn together.”
Over the next three years, the Olin team will work to turn those ideas into lasting practices across the college, continuing its work to create a culture in which students regularly have opportunities to reflect on their values, practice moral and ethical judgment, and consider the kind of engineers—and people—they are becoming.