Since the audience for such a class must be to a large degree E.E.s and M.E.s, I think they would appreciate a Reader's Digest version of the paper "[Steinmetz and the Concept of Phasor: A Forgotten Story][1]" by A. E. A. Araújo & D. A. V. Tonidandel.

For the human interest aspect of the story, there is much material from which to choose some vignettes. Biographies (videos (see comment), papers, books) of the two main characters in the paper—Steinmetz and Heaviside—contain many very entertaining technically-related tales of the two eccentrics, and some background on their contributions to the development of signal transmission via cables and the ether in the case of Heaviside and of the electric motor in the case of Steinmetz would accentuate the importance of their ideas, along with an overall portrait of Electric City, at which Steinmetz was the acclaimed wizard, and the laying of the trans-Atlantic cables, in which Heaviside played an important role, despite obstructions created by some authorities. 

This epoch of engineering—the genesis of the age of electricity—lies between that of the steam engine and of the computer and IT. I think the engineers would appreciate both the technical and historical perspectives. (You could also slip in the importance of securing patents for financial security—every engineer has an eye on that—using H & S as contrasting examples.)


  [1]: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257810349_Steinmetz_and_the_Concept_of_Phasor_A_Forgotten_Story