Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Employment of Persons with Disabilities through Inclusion Engineering (EDIE)

规划资助：共融工程残疾人就业工程研究中心（EDIE）

• 批准号: 2123722
• 负责人: Keivan Stassun
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2123722&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Grant; Engineering; Research; Center

Adults with neurodevelopmental disabilities (e.g., autism spectrum disorder; ASD) and/or motor impairments (e.g., multiple sclerosis; MS) have the lowest rates of any type of employment in the US (unemployment rate of 63-68%). The potential economic benefits of improving employment outcomes for these individuals are enormous. For example, the current economic opportunity cost to the US economy of unemployed individuals with ASD is estimated at $90 billion per year, to say nothing of the immeasurable human costs; for individuals with MS, the estimated loss to the economy is approximately $25 billion per year. This National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (ERC) Planning Grant award to Vanderbilt University will address this potential by creating the capacity for a future NSF ERC for the Employment of Persons with Disabilities through Inclusion Engineering (EDIE). EDIE would seek to create engineered systems to lower barriers to employment for neurodiverse and motor-impaired individuals, such that they can more readily maintain or pursue meaningful employment. To be fully ready for ERC scale, we need to more fully develop a number of critical elements through this planning grant, specifically: (1) An ERC work plan guided by a 5-year timeline for deliverables that emphasizes (a) stakeholder engagement and assessment of user needs, (b) pilot testing of technologies with and through partner organizations, (c) development of technologies to minimum viable product (MVP) stage, (d) testing through large-scale deployment, and (e) sustainability through commercialization of the technologies. (2) Commercialization strategies (e.g., start-ups and licensing agreements) that would create a self-sustained innovation ecosystem. (3) A plan to gradually expand the Center’s scope to include a wider range of both technologies and disabilities, consistent with the mission of creating a more inclusive workforce. The proposed vision of the planned EDIE ERC is to create intelligent, adaptive technologies that enable employment and workplace success for individuals with neurodevelopmental and/or motor disabilities, increasing human productivity and economic impact, and leading to a more fully inclusive workforce and society. Guiding these Engineered Systems would be the enabling idea of Inclusion Engineering, an emerging research paradigm representing the convergence of engineering with implementation science, labor and economic policy, and commercial innovation, toward enabling full societal inclusion of all individuals. Multiple technological innovations will need to be pursued in concert toward a truly systems-level solution for full inclusion of motor-impaired and neurodiverse individuals for the future of work. Thus, we envision that surrounding and supporting EDIE’s core research thrusts will be an innovation ecosystem that includes commercialization efforts coupled to key stakeholder needs and feedback, a culture of diversity and inclusion with regards both to Center personnel and end-users, and a multi-pronged effort toward developing a future engineering workforce that is trained, equipped, and inspired to advance the future of Inclusion Engineering. The preliminary convergent research thrusts that we have identified are: (1) Workplace disability inclusion and employment nondiscrimination policy to ensure these individual technologies and the resulting engineering systems are based on Participatory Action Research (PAR) to have real-world uptake and societal impact; (2) Social Human-Machine Interaction (sHMI) to support neurodiverse individuals; and (3) Physical Human-Machine Interaction (pHMI) to support motor-impaired individuals. The second and third thrusts map directly into engineered systems, while the first guides them and also addresses issues that are not directly addressable via technological solutions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

在美国，患有神经发育障碍（如自闭症谱系障碍）和/或运动障碍（如多发性硬化症）的成年人的就业率最低（失业率为63-68%）。对这些人来说，改善就业结果的潜在经济效益是巨大的。例如，目前美国经济中失业的自闭症患者的经济机会成本估计为每年900亿美元，更不用说不可估量的人力成本了；对于患有多发性硬化症的个人来说，估计每年的经济损失约为250亿美元。这项授予范德比尔特大学的国家科学基金会工程研究中心（ERC）规划拨款将通过创建未来的国家科学基金会工程研究中心，通过包容工程（EDIE）为残疾人就业创造能力，来解决这一潜力。EDIE将寻求创建工程系统来降低神经多样性和运动障碍个体的就业障碍，这样他们就可以更容易地维持或追求有意义的工作。为了为ERC的规模做好充分准备，我们需要通过这项规划拨款更充分地发展一些关键要素，具体如下：(1)以5年交付成果时间表为指导的ERC工作计划，强调(a)利益相关者参与和用户需求评估，(b)与合作伙伴组织或通过合作伙伴组织对技术进行试点测试，(c)将技术开发到最小可行产品（MVP）阶段，(d)通过大规模部署进行测试，以及(e)通过技术商业化实现可持续性。(2)商业化战略（如初创企业和许可协议），将创建一个自我维持的创新生态系统。(3)逐步扩大中心范围的计划，以包括更广泛的技术和残疾人，与创造更具包容性的劳动力的使命相一致。EDIE ERC计划的愿景是创造智能，自适应技术，使神经发育和/或运动残疾的个体能够就业和工作场所成功，提高人类生产力和经济影响，并导致更加全面包容的劳动力和社会。指导这些工程系统的将是包容性工程的支持理念，这是一种新兴的研究范式，代表了工程与实施科学、劳动和经济政策以及商业创新的融合，旨在实现所有个人的全面社会包容。多种技术创新需要协同进行，以实现真正的系统级解决方案，使运动障碍和神经多样性个体充分参与未来的工作。因此，我们设想围绕和支持EDIE的核心研究重点将是一个创新生态系统，其中包括与关键利益相关者的需求和反馈相结合的商业化努力，涉及中心人员和最终用户的多样性和包容性文化，以及多管齐下的努力，以发展一支训练有素、装备精良、受到启发的未来工程队伍，以推进包容性工程的未来。我们确定的初步趋同研究重点是：(1)工作场所残疾人包容和就业非歧视政策，以确保这些个人技术和由此产生的工程系统基于参与式行动研究（PAR），具有现实世界的吸收和社会影响；(2)支持神经多样性个体的社会人机交互（sHMI）；(3)物理人机交互（pHMI），以支持运动障碍者。第二个和第三个推力直接映射到工程系统中，而第一个则指导它们，并解决无法通过技术解决方案直接解决的问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。