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

患有神经发育障碍(例如自闭症谱系障碍；ASD)和/或运动障碍(例如多发性硬化症；MS)的成年人在美国任何类型的就业中都是最低的(失业率为63%-68%)。改善这些人的就业结果的潜在经济效益是巨大的。例如，目前失业的自闭症患者给美国经济带来的机会成本估计为900亿美元，更不用说不可估量的人力成本了；对于多发性硬化症患者，估计每年给经济造成的损失约为250亿美元。范德比尔特大学的国家科学基金会工程研究中心(ERC)规划奖助学金将通过为未来的NSF ERC通过包容工程(EDIE)就业残疾人创造能力来解决这一潜力。伊迪将寻求创建工程系统，以降低神经多样性和运动障碍个人的就业门槛，以便他们能够更容易地维持或追求有意义的就业。为了充分做好扩大ERC规模的准备，我们需要通过这笔规划赠款更充分地制定一些关键要素，特别是：(1)以5年交付成果时间表为指导的ERC工作计划，强调(A)利益攸关方参与和评估用户需求，(B)与合作伙伴组织和通过伙伴组织对技术进行试点测试，(C)将技术开发到最低可行产品(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)创造自我维持的创新生态系统的商业化战略(例如，初创企业和许可协议)。(3)计划逐步扩大中心的范围，以包括更广泛的技术和残疾，以符合创造更具包容性的劳动力的使命。计划中的Edie ERC的拟议愿景是创造智能、适应性技术，使患有神经发育和/或运动障碍的个人能够获得就业和工作场所的成功，提高人类生产力和经济影响，并导致更充分地包容劳动力和社会。指导这些工程系统的将是包容工程学的使能思想，这是一种新兴的研究范式，代表着工程学与实施科学、劳工和经济政策以及商业创新的融合，朝着实现所有个人的完全社会包容的方向发展。将需要寻求多种技术创新，以实现真正的系统级解决方案，为未来的工作完全纳入运动障碍和不同神经的个人。因此，我们设想，围绕和支持伊迪核心研究的将是一个创新生态系统，其中包括与关键利益相关者需求和反馈相结合的商业化努力，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，以培养一支经过培训、装备和灵感的未来工程队伍，以推进包容性工程的未来。我们已经确定的初步趋同研究重点是：(1)工作场所残疾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性行动研究(PAR)，以具有现实世界的吸收和社会影响；(2)社会人机交互(SHMI)，以支持神经多样性的个人；以及(3)物理人机交互(PHMI)，以支持运动障碍个人。第二个和第三个推力直接映射到工程系统，而第一个推力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NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.