Universities in the Information Age: Changing Work, Organization, and Value in Academic Science and Engineering

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This small grant for training and research will support the development of an interdisciplinary graduate training program examining the changing nature of university work. In the 1990s the interactions of changing social processes and priorities, such as the increasing commercialization of research, with developments in information technology are reshaping the work of university-based scientists and engineers. This program will examine these interactions and explore the ethical issues they raise. The program core consists of two courses, a once-a-year substantive seminar and an ongoing (every semester) research seminar. Participants in these courses will include doctoral students majoring in the program, as well as other graduate students in science, engineering, and social and informational sciences interested in completing a masters or a minor or elective coursework in the area. Beyond this core work, students' programs of study and research will be individualized; faculty from numerous departments have agreed to cooperate with this effort. A three-day capstone seminar as well as a special lecture series will be used to highlight research ethics issues raised in the training program. NSF funds will be used to support three graduate students and a post-doctoral fellow each year over the three years of the award, and the program expects to work with a total of 15-22 students over that period. Besides the student and faculty research projects that will be associated with this effort, successful incorporation of aspects of this program into graduate training at the university will provide a model for other universities with interests in incorporating interdisciplinarity into graduate education.