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（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）的成年人的就业率是所有类型中最低的（失业率为 63-68%）。改善这些人的就业成果的潜在经济效益是巨大的。例如，目前患有自闭症谱系障碍的失业者对美国经济造成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；对于多发性硬化症患者来说，每年造成的经济损失估计约为 250 亿美元。范德比尔特大学获得的国家科学基金会工程研究中心 (ERC) 规划拨款将通过包容性工程 (EDIE) 为未来的 NSF ERC 残疾人就业创造能力，从而发挥这一潜力。 EDIE 将寻求创建工程系统来降低神经多样化和运动障碍人士的就业障碍，使他们能够更容易地维持或追求有意义的就业。为了为 ERC 规模做好充分准备，我们需要通过这笔规划拨款更充分地开发一些关键要素，特别是：(1) 以 5 年交付时间表为指导的 ERC 工作计划，强调 (a) 利益相关者参与和对用户需求的评估，(b) 与合作伙伴组织一起并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) 通过大规模测试 部署，以及（e）通过技术商业化实现可持续性。 (2) 商业化战略（例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) 计划逐步扩大中心的范围，以涵盖更广泛的技术和残疾人，这与创造更具包容性的劳动力队伍的使命相一致。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在就业和工作场所取得成功，提高人类生产力和经济影响，并形成更加全面包容的劳动力和社会。指导这些工程系统将是包容性工程的使能理念，包容性工程是一种新兴的研究范式，代表着工程与实施科学、劳动和经济政策以及商业创新的融合，以实现所有个人的全面社会包容。需要共同追求多种技术创新，以实现真正的系统级解决方案，以充分包容运动障碍和神经多样化的个人，以适应未来的工作。因此，我们设想围绕和支持 EDIE 的核心研究主旨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元化和包容性文化，以及多管齐下的努力，以培养经过培训、装备和激励的未来工程人员队伍，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，以确保这些单独的技术和由此产生的工程系统基于参与性行动研究（PAR），以产生现实世界的采用和社会影响； (2) 社会人机交互 (sHMI)，以支持神经多样性个体； (3) 物理人机交互 (pHMI)，以支持运动障碍人士。第二个和第三个重点直接映射到工程系统，而第一个重点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价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。