IGERT: Assessing the Implications of Emerging Technologies: A Graduate Research and Training Program

IGERT：评估新兴技术的影响：研究生研究和培训计划

• 批准号: 0333010
• 负责人: Daniel Hastings
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-01-01 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0333010&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IGERT; Assessing; Implications; Emerging; Technologies

Technologies in areas such as ubiquitous computing, genetic engineering, and nanotechnologies are developing at extraordinary rates. Understanding of economic, security, environmental, and cultural implications of emerging technologies has not kept pace. Decision makers typically base strategies on unstated expectations regarding the nature and effects of technological change. Because forecasting errors are endemic, analysts often rely on implicit assumptions to reduce their vulnerability to criticism. By contrast, this program explicitly identifies areas of uncertainty about effects of emerging technologies and develops strategies to mitigate uncertainty. Scientific and policy spheres typically come together after lines of conflict are drawn. Creators of technologies focus on immediate issues of development and application, while policy analysts assess the broader implications of technological change only after controversy has flared. By contrast, this program appraises knowledge when options are greater, interests are less entrenched, and policies are not yet locked into place. This IGERT program trains graduate students to engage early and explicitly with the pervasive uncertainty that is often under recognized in technology assessment exercises. It features: (1) Trainees with Complementary Expertise, including engineers from the Technology and Policy Program, social scientists from Political Science, and humanists from the Science, Technology and Society Program; (2) Integrated Curriculum with three new core courses to develop methodological and substantive competencies in evaluating economic, security, environmental, societal, and ethical consequences of technical change; (3) Multidisciplinary Panels of faculty and students to develop and test methods used in training and set student research. The panels feature retrospective analysis of past emerging technologies and prospective analysis of nanotechnologies, ubiquitous computing, and genetic engineering, with a fourth technology to be selected later; and (4) IGERT Seminars to reinforce the panels and courses with intensive interaction among trainees, faculty and staff.Intellectual Merit: The program seeks to generate knowledge in three domains. (1) Substantive: identify knowns and unknowns on implications of emergent technologies; and backcast to identify present actions to improve future responses, including targeting research to reduce uncertainty. (2) Procedural and institutional: identify constraints on use of emerging information on effects of current technologies; and foster adaptation to emerging information by public and private institutions. (3) Methodological: develop ways of integrating formal and qualitative methods; and for using research on past emergent technologies to improve responses to current emergent technologies.Broader Impact: Methods and substantive findings will be distributed through graduate student placements, academic publications and conferences, and via MIT Congressional Staff Seminars on science and technology issues. In addition, government, business, and NGO participation in the project will serve to check on academic blindness, to enrich graduate education, and to engage the world beyond the academy. Senior staff from the Departments of State and Defense, EPA, the UN, Goldman Sachs, Ford Motor, AFL-CIO, and Environmental Defense have expressed interest in participating in panels and research groups.IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries. In this sixth year of the program, awards are being made to institutions for programs that collectively span the areas of science and engineering supported by NSF.

无处不在的计算、基因工程和纳米技术等领域的技术正在以惊人的速度发展。 对新兴技术的经济、安全、环境和文化影响的理解还没有跟上。决策者通常将战略建立在对技术变革的性质和影响的未言明的预期之上。由于预测错误是普遍存在的，分析师往往依赖于隐含的假设，以减少他们对批评的脆弱性。相比之下，该计划明确确定了新兴技术影响的不确定性领域，并制定了减轻不确定性的战略。科学和政策领域通常在划定冲突界限后走到一起。技术的创造者关注的是发展和应用方面的紧迫问题，而政策分析家只有在争议爆发之后才评估技术变革的更广泛影响。相比之下，该计划评估的知识时，选择更大，利益不那么根深蒂固，政策尚未锁定到位。 该IGERT计划培养研究生尽早明确地参与技术评估活动中经常认识不到的普遍不确定性。 其特点是：（1）具有互补专业知识的学员，包括技术和政策计划的工程师，政治学的社会科学家和科学，技术和社会计划的人文主义者;（2）综合课程，三门新的核心课程，以发展评估技术变革的经济，安全，环境，社会和道德后果的方法和实质性能力;（3）教师和学生的多学科小组，以开发和测试用于培训和设置学生研究的方法。小组讨论的特点是对过去新兴技术的回顾性分析和对纳米技术、普适计算和基因工程的前瞻性分析，第四种技术将在以后选择;（4）IGERT研讨会，通过学员、教师和工作人员之间的密切互动来加强小组讨论和课程。智力优势：该计划旨在产生三个领域的知识。(1)实质性：确定关于新兴技术影响的已知和未知因素;并进行回溯，以确定目前的行动，改进今后的应对措施，包括有针对性地开展研究，以减少不确定性。(2)程序和体制：查明在使用关于现有技术效果的新信息方面的制约因素;促进公共和私营机构适应新信息。(3)方法：开发整合正式和定性方法的方法;并利用对过去的新兴技术的研究，以改善对当前新兴技术的反应。更广泛的影响：方法和实质性的发现将通过研究生实习，学术出版物和会议，并通过麻省理工学院国会工作人员研讨会上的科学和技术问题。此外，政府，企业和非政府组织参与该项目将有助于检查学术盲目性，丰富研究生教育，并参与学术界以外的世界。来自国务院和国防部、环境保护局、联合国、高盛、福特汽车、劳联-产联和环境保护部的高级工作人员都表示有兴趣参加小组和研究小组。IGERT是一个全国科学基金会范围内的计划，旨在迎接培养美国博士的挑战。具有跨学科背景的科学家和工程师，在所选学科的深厚知识，以及未来职业需求所需的技术，专业和个人技能。该计划旨在通过建立创新的研究生教育和培训新模式，在超越传统学科界限的合作研究的肥沃环境中促进研究生教育的文化变革。在该计划的第六个年头，奖项正在颁发给那些共同跨越NSF支持的科学和工程领域的计划机构。