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

患有神经发育障碍的成年人（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）在美国的任何类型的就业率最低（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，目前美国经济中失业的ASD患者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MS患者，估计经济损失约为每年250亿美元。这个国家科学基金会工程研究中心（ERC）规划补助金授予范德比尔特大学将通过创造未来NSF ERC通过包容工程（EDIE）残疾人就业的能力来解决这一潜力。EDIE将寻求创建工程系统，以降低神经多样性和运动障碍个体的就业障碍，使他们能够更容易地维持或追求有意义的就业。为了充分准备ERC规模，我们需要通过这项规划补助金更充分地开发一些关键要素，特别是：（1）一项以交付成果的5年时间轴为指导的对外关系协调员工作计划，其中强调：（a）利益攸关方的参与和对用户需求的评估，（B）与伙伴组织一起并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阶段，（d）通过大规模部署进行测试，（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），这将创造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，以包括更广泛的技术和残疾，符合创造一个更具包容性的劳动力的使命。EDIE ERC计划的愿景是创造智能的、适应性的技术，使神经发育和/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，并建立一个更具包容性的劳动力和社会。指导这些工程系统将是包容性工程的实现思想，这是一种新兴的研究范式，代表了工程与实施科学，劳动力和经济政策以及商业创新的融合，旨在实现所有个人的全面社会包容。多项技术创新将需要协同努力，以实现真正的系统级解决方案，以便在未来的工作中充分纳入运动障碍和神经多样性个体。因此，我们设想，围绕和支持EDIE的核心研究推力将是一个创新生态系统，包括商业化的努力，加上关键利益相关者的需求和反馈，关于中心人员和最终用户的多样性和包容性的文化，以及多管齐下的努力，朝着发展未来的工程队伍，经过培训，装备和激励，以推进包容性工程的未来。我们已经确定的初步融合研究重点是：（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是基于前瞻性行动研究（PAR），以具有现实世界的吸收和社会影响;（2）社会人机交互（sHMI），以支持神经多样性个体;以及（3）支持运动障碍个体的物理人机交互（pHMI）。第二个和第三个重点直接映射到工程系统中，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知识价值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.