Research: Advancing Engineers’ Ability to Recognize, Strategize About, and Act On Concerns Related to Public Welfare

工程师们对技术对公共安全、健康和福利的影响的关注从未像现在这样迫切。最近关于算法偏差、基于无人机的监控和排放造假(以及其他问题)的报告强调了工程师可能参与的社会技术系统的潜在危害。通过调查和访谈，我们将开发和测试一个多层次的理论框架，以了解工程师对公益的担忧，并检查塑造这些担忧的文化、制度和身份因素。我们将开发一个研究型研究生研讨会，为其他机构的工程项目提供模式，以加强其学生的专业责任培训。更好地了解工程专业人员和学生如何认识到他们的公益责任，将有助于工程教育工作者和领导者修改培训工作和问责基础设施，使工程师能够更有效地履行他们的专业责任。该项目还将有助于建立工程人员入职和培训的知识库，并将成为研究工程师对其公益责任理解的基准。我们将从三个层面考察影响工程师关注公益的可能因素：专业文化意识形态、制度背景(工程教育、工程工作场所和专业社会)和专业身份。我们将使用这个多层次的框架来解决几个主要的研究问题：(1)工程专业人员和学生在多大程度上认识到，对公益的关注是他们职业责任的一部分，并在多大程度上采取行动？(2)哪些文化、制度和认同因素促进或破坏了这些结果？(3)一个了解研究情况的研讨会在多大程度上可以教会学生认识到公益责任并理解干预策略？我们将通过对美国工程师的代表性调查(N=500)和在一群电气和计算机工程硕士学生进入劳动力大军(N=60)之后的纵向访谈研究来调查这些问题。利用这些数据的洞察力，将设计(和评估)一个新颖的“公益责任和干预培训”(PubWRIT)研究生研讨会，以培训工程师在他们认为公众的健康和安全受到威胁的情况下识别和理解如何应对。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。

Engineers’ attention to the impact of technology on public safety, health, and welfare has never been more imperative. Recent reports of algorithmic bias, drone-based surveillance, and emissions falsification (among other issues) underscore the potential harms of the socio-technical systems in which engineers may play a part. Through surveys and interviews, we will develop and test a multilevel theoretical framework for understanding engineers’ concerns for public welfare and for examining cultural, institutional, and identity factors that shape these concerns. We will develop a research-informed graduate seminar that will provide a model for engineering programs at other institutions to enhance professional responsibility training among their students. Having a better understanding of how engineering professionals and students recognize their public welfare responsibilities will help engineering educators and leaders revise training efforts and accountability infrastructures to equip engineers to more effectively uphold their professional responsibilities. The project will also contribute to the knowledge base on engineering workforce onboarding and training, and will serve as a benchmark for research on engineers’ understanding of their public welfare responsibilities.We will examine possible factors that impact engineers’ concern for public welfare across three levels: professional cultural ideologies, institutional contexts (engineering education, engineering workplaces, and professional societies), and professional identities. We will use this multilevel framework to address several primary research questions: (1) to what extent do engineering professionals and students recognize, strategize about, and act on concerns for public welfare as part of their professional responsibilities? (2) What cultural, institutional, and identity factors promote or undermine these outcomes? (3) To what extent can a research-informed seminar teach students to recognize public welfare responsibilities and to understand strategies for intervention? We will investigate these questions with a representative survey of US engineers (N=500) and a longitudinal interview study following a cohort of electrical and computer engineering master’s students into the workforce (N=60). Using insights from these data, a novel “Public Welfare Responsibility and Intervention Training” (PubWRIT) graduate seminar will be designed (and assessed) to train engineers to recognize and understand how to respond when they encounter situations where they perceive the health and safety of the public to be at risk.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.