| Launch of LANCSET: Qin Zhu and Rockwell Clancy have recently launched LANCSET, the Laboratory & Network for the Cultural Studies of Engineering & Technology, based in the Colorado School of Mines. LANCSET is an open, inclusive laboratory & community consisting of scholars committed to studying technology and engineering from culturally responsive perspectives. The group is committed to making visible and challenging cultural values and ideologies prominent in training, practices, and policies surrounding engineering and technology, using empirical and experimental methodologies to study the effects of cultural values and norms on these environments. LANCSET explores cultural factors affecting technological ecologies responsible for deprioritizing, marginalizing, or excluding individuals and groups, working to incorporate cultural resources from overlooked, non-Western traditions – especially Confucianism – into the design of professional training and emerging technologies, for example, robotics and AI-enabled technologies. It conducts philosophical and critical studies of cultural practices in engineering education (e.g., medicalization and psychologization). To learn more this work and explore collaborative opportunities, please visit LANCSET’s website. |
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Launch of Africa chapter of the Engineering Education Researchers Network (EERN – Africa): EERN Africa is a network of African Engineering Education Researchers that developed through a WhatsApp group with the purpose of building community and strengthening African engineering education through research. The group, whose members range from experts to developing EE researchers from different countries in the African Continent, has two primary objectives: (1) to provide research-based solutions to engineering education problems that are applicable to the African context and (2) to foster representation of the African perspective of engineering education practice in the international scene through publication. The role of EERN – Africa is to build individuals’ capacity to produce high-quality EER. Activities include: Building relationships; sharing information, knowledge, and experiences; peer learning and learning by doing; supporting each other’s work. If you are interested in joining the group, please email Dr. Esther Matemba at [email protected]
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Special issue on engineering ethics of the Japanese Society for Engineering Ethics: The special issue puts forward Japanese based perspectives on the teaching and assessment of engineering ethics. It can be accessed here.
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Bad Blood – The Final Chapter: The podcast series by John Carreyrou follows in detail the proceedings of the trial of Theranos co-founders Elisabeth Holmes and Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani. Once described as the next Steve Jobs, Elisabeth Holmes is facing several federal fraud charges over allegations that she misled investors, doctors, and patients about the blood-testing technology of Theranos. The podcast is a follow-up to John Carreyrou’ highly acclaimed investigative journalism conducted with the help of Theranos whistleblowers, rendered in his book Bad Blood. The podcast can be accessed at link.
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Extracting Accountability - Engineers and Corporate Social Responsibility: In this newly launched book, Jessica Smith investigates how the public accountability of corporations emerges from the everyday practices of the engineers who work for them. Focusing on engineers who view social responsibility as central to their profession, she finds the corporate context of their work prompts them to attempt to reconcile competing domains of accountability—to formal guidelines, standards, and policies; to professional ideals, to the public, and to themselves. Their efforts are complicated by the distributed agency they experience as corporate actors: they are not always authors of their actions and frequently act through others. Drawing on extensive interviews, archival research, and fieldwork, Smith traces the ways that engineers in the mining and oil and gas industries accounted for their actions to multiple publics—from critics of their industry to their own friends and families. More information about the book by Jessica Smith is available on the publisher site.
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