Engineering a Better Future: Interplay of Social Science, Engineering and Innovation

最好的工程创新能预见到用户的特征和文化，这可以通过社会科学家的积极参与来改进。工程师在工作中往往含蓄地扮演着社会学家、经济学家、政治学家和政策分析师的角色。工程师们所做的决定经常会改变我们的生活模式，然而在设计或技术应用中却没有考虑到这一点。手机和互联网等已融入社会的创新正在以出人意料的方式改变全世界人民的经济、社会、文化和身体健康。本次研讨会的重点是将社会科学的概念、方法和研究整合到工程中，以影响技术的开发、评估和传播。研讨会将汇集来自各种社会科学和工程学科的学者。工作坊分为四个主题：工程的文学与历史观点、工程的社会科学观点、工程的社会科学观点，以及结合社会科学的工程教育。本次研讨会的主要目标是促进新的合作研究，将社会科学的方法和考虑纳入工程研究和设计。

The best engineering innovation anticipates user characteristics and culture, which can be improved with active involvement by the social scientists. Engineers often implicitly play the role of sociologist, economist, political scientist and policy analyst in their work. The decisions engineers make often changes the patterns of our lives, yet in ways that are not considered in the design or application of technology. Innovations that have been socially embedded such as the cell phone and the internet are transforming the economic, social, cultural and physical well-being of people all over the world, often in ways that were unanticipated. The focus on this workshop is to integrate social science concepts, methods and research into engineering to affect the technology developed, evaluated and the diffused. The workshop will bring together scholars from a variety of social science and engineering disciplines. The workshop is divided into four themes: literary and historical view of engineering, engineering perspectives on social sciences, social science perspective on engineering, and engineering education incorporating social sciences. The primary objective of this workshop is to promote new collaborative research incorporating the social science methods and considerations into engineering research and design.