Collaborative Research: Exploring the Variation in Understanding and Experiences with Ethical Engineering Research Among Faculty in Biomedical Engineering

合作研究：探索生物医学工程教师对伦理工程研究的理解和经验的变化

• 批准号: 2124907
• 负责人: Nicholas Fila
• 金额: $ 5.67万
• 依托单位: Iowa State 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 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2124907&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Exploring; Variation; Understanding

Engineering faculty prepare engineering students for ethical research conduct and practice. Thus, it is important to identify how faculty understand ethical engineering research because these perceptions influence how they teach ethics to their students. It is especially important to focus on biomedical engineering (BME) because biomedical engineers play a critical role in promoting the health and well-being of the public and must confront novel ethical issues associated with emerging technologies, such as genetic engineering, stem cell technologies, rapid COVID detection, and vaccine development. In this work, we seek to investigate how BME faculty understand ethical engineering research and how they reached those understandings. Using these findings, we will then be able to design better educational strategies to prepare BME students for ethical research. We will collaborate with BME faculty interested in BME ethics through a Community of Practice (CoP) and in partnership with the Online Ethics Center (OEC). This CoP will provide perspective on the research findings and will help translate the research findings into actionable educational practices for use at CoP participants’ specific institutions and throughout the nation. Sharing the research findings and these educational practices through the OEC will provide the BME community with appropriate educational tools to prepare future biomedical engineers for ethical BME research and practice, which will in turn help future engineers better promote the health and well-being of society.Faculty act as stewards of culture in their research groups and departments and play a significant role in ensuring ethical research conduct and practice within these contexts. Thus, identifying the variation in how faculty experience and understand ethics can inform the development of valid strategies to establish and maintain ethical cultures in engineering departments and research groups. Due to the significant role of BME research and development products on the health and well-being of the public, it is imperative that we understand how to train ethical engineering researchers in this specific discipline. Yet, strategies for training BME faculty and students to effectively engage with ethical challenges remain unclear. To derive empirical insights on effective approaches to cultivating ethical cultures of BME research, we believe it is necessary to study the specific challenges and variations in ways BME faculty members across programs experience, understand, and practice ethical engineering research. In this work, we will (1) use phenomenography to identify the variation in ways BME faculty across the US experience ethical engineering research, (2) use critical incident technique to identify the critical factors that influence these ways of experiencing, and (3) use design heuristics as a lens to generate educational approaches appropriate for fostering cultures of ethical engineering research in BME. Throughout the project, we will engage a CoP of BME faculty and students from a diverse set of research institutions across the US who will reflect on findings; thus, the CoP will help validate emergent findings and identify effective strategies that may be diffused across this STEM community to guide related efforts at cultivating cultures of ethical research. This project will generate new knowledge that reveals the range of variation in experiences with and understandings of ethics and ethical research cultures among BME faculties as well as critical experiential and cultural factors that have shaped those understandings. This new knowledge will guide approaches to fostering ethical cultures of research. Finally, integrating this new knowledge within a CoP will ensure effective transfer of research into practice, which will benefit society by ensuring biomedical engineers graduating from these programs are prepared to respond effectively to the critical ethical issues of BME research and practice.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.

工程学院为工程学生进行道德研究行为和实践做好准备。因此，确定教师如何理解道德工程研究非常重要，因为这些看法会影响他们向学生教授道德的方式。关注生物医学工程（BME）尤为重要，因为生物医学工程师在促进公众健康和福祉方面发挥着关键作用，并且必须面对与新兴技术相关的新伦理问题，例如基因工程、干细胞技术、快速新冠病毒检测和疫苗开发。在这项工作中，我们试图调查 BME 教师如何理解伦理工程研究以及他们如何达成这些理解。利用这些发现，我们将能够设计更好的教育策略，让 BME 学生为伦理研究做好准备。我们将通过实践社区 (CoP) 并与在线道德中心 (OEC) 合作，与对 BME 道德感兴趣的 BME 教师进行合作。本次 CoP 将为研究结果提供视角，并帮助将研究结果转化为可操作的教育实践，供 CoP 参与者的特定机构和全国范围内使用。通过 OEC 分享研究成果和这些教育实践将为 BME 社区提供适当的教育工具，为未来的生物医学工程师进行符合道德的 BME 研究和实践做好准备，这反过来又会帮助未来的工程师更好地促进社会的健康和福祉。教师在其研究小组和部门中充当文化管家，并在确保这些背景下的道德研究行为和实践方面发挥重要作用。因此，识别教师体验和理解道德的差异可以为制定有效的策略提供信息，以在工程系和研究小组中建立和维护道德文化。由于 BME 研发产品对公众的健康和福祉发挥着重要作用，因此我们必须了解如何培训这一特定学科的道德工程研究人员。然而，培训 BME 教职员工和学生有效应对道德挑战的策略仍不清楚。为了获得培养 BME 研究伦理文化的有效方法的实证见解，我们认为有必要研究 BME 教员在不同项目中体验、理解和实践伦理工程研究的方式所面临的具体挑战和变化。在这项工作中，我们将（1）使用现象学来识别美国 BME 教师体验伦理工程研究方式的差异，（2）使用关键事件技术来识别影响这些体验方式的关键因素，以及（3）使用设计启发法作为镜头来生成适合培养 BME 伦理工程研究文化的教育方法。在整个项目中，我们将邀请来自美国各地不同研究机构的 BME 教职员工和学生组成 CoP，他们将对研究结果进行反思；因此，CoP 将帮助验证新发现并确定可在 STEM 社区传播的有效策略，以指导培育伦理研究文化的相关工作。该项目将产生新的知识，揭示 BME 院系之间对伦理和伦理研究文化的经验和理解的差异，以及形成这些理解的关键经验和文化因素。这些新知识将指导培育研究伦理文化的方法。最后，将这些新知识整合到 CoP 中将确保有效地将研究转化为实践，从而确保从这些项目毕业的生物医学工程师做好准备，有效应对 BME 研究和实践的关键伦理问题，从而造福社会。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。