Engineering Innovations, Knowledge and Responsibility

通过访谈和参与者观察，这个基于实地的研究项目将研究改变医学知识的技术对人际关系和生物工程师新兴道德责任的影响。在与一名工程师、一名历史学家、一名法律和科学政策学者协商后，首席研究员（一位哲学家）将研究与三种技术相关的当代发展和影响：诊断x射线、超声波和计算机辅助模拟整形手术。该项目将试图确定生物工程中负责任工作的道德标准是如何发生变化的，以扩大工程学生、工程师和专业协会的能力，以确定和建立新的更好的标准。历史学家和律师将编写关于许可的专业标准的发展以及与这些技术相关的法律方面的文件。在与工程师协商后，首席研究员将准备有关生物工程设计和创新技术使用的责任的讲座和文章。她还将准备有关这三种技术的案例研究。这些案例将描述技术的演变及其对人际关系和生物工程责任的影响。此外，她将与麻省理工学院和哈佛-麻省理工学院健康科学与技术部门的相关工程教师讨论该研究对工程教育的影响。如有必要，将编写一份关于这一专题的额外文件。PI还将把这项研究的结果纳入她正在撰写的一本关于生物医学技术、知识和责任的书中。这个项目将为专业和学术理解改变我们所知的技术的道德含义做出独特的贡献。它还有助于开发新的工程伦理教学方法，并为专业实践和影响这种实践的政策制定更好的标准。首席研究员完全有资格承担这项研究；她已经组建了一支优秀的团队。本研究设计合理可行；它包含了随着项目进展进行讨论、审查和调整的机会。成本合理；研究结果很可能广泛传播，而且很有用。建议提供119,018美元的支助，目前提供7万美元，其余的在以后提供。

Using interviews and participant-observation, this field-based research project will examine the influences of technologies that change medical knowledge on human relationships and on the emerging moral responsibilities of bioengineers. In consultation with an engineer, an historian, and a scholar of law and science policy, the principal investigator, who is a philosopher, will study contemporary developments and effects associated with three technologies: diagnostic X-ray, ultrasound, and computer-aided simulation of orthopedic procedures. The project will try to identify how changes occur in moral standards for responsible work in bioengineering, in order to expand the abilities of engineering students, engineers, and professional societies to identify and establish new and better standards. The historian and the lawyer will prepare papers on the development of professional standards for licensure and on aspects of the law associated with these technologies. In consultation with the engineer, the principal investigator will prepare talks and articles on responsibility in bioengineering design and the use of innovative technologies. She will also prepare case studies on the three technologies. The cases will describe the evolution of the technologies and their influences on human relationships and bioengineering responsibilities. In addition, she will discuss the implications of the study for engineering education with relevant engineering faculty at MIT and in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. If appropriate, an additional paper on this topic will be prepared. The PI will also incorporate results from this study in a book she is writing on biomedical technologies, knowledge and responsibility. This project will make a unique contribution to professional and scholarly understanding of the moral implications of technologies that change what we know. It can also contribute to the development of new approaches to teaching engineering ethics, and to better standards for professional practice and for policies affecting that practice. The principal investigator is very well qualified to undertake the research; she has assembled a fine team with which to work. The research design is appropriate and feasible; it incorporates opportunities for discussion, review and adjustment as the project progresses. Costs are reasonable; results are likely to be widely distributed and useful. Support in the amount of $119,018 is recommended, with $70,000 to be awarded now and the remainder at later date.