Ethics Research
Technology Ethics Research
What does it mean to be responsible for human interaction and productivity?
INTRODUCTION
College was never introduced to me as a choice; it was only a path to later choices. If institutional higher education is to continue to serve as a staple in career development, it must undergo the revolution currently occurring in all forms of human interaction and learning.
Within generations, higher education will be its own technology: a service used for the improvement of the consumer. Education can be reconstructed with user-centered design. In considering higher education as a chosen foundation for career development, I began exploring the concept of “efficient innovation.” I originally defined it as the advanced use of technology to solve societal problems, for a designated audience, in the most equitable way. This concept fits within what is now understood as technology ethics.
Much of today’s technological bias isn’t addressed until it affects society at an economic level for large corporations run by those in what I refer to as the “Creator Class.” This group of people is made up of designated members of society who manage technological production (i.e. designers, marketers, engineers, researchers). Though they “serve” a specific industry, their expectations are not defined by those they wish to aid, but only by quantifiable risk and harm.
In expanding this idea, I explored the effects of “creators” and developers on consumer-facing products. My research from 2017-18 goes on to develop methods of teaching ethics and moral literacy for young developers and product designers in higher education - through exercises in awareness, perspective, and design thinking.
GOALS
Develop and teach business practices and public policies for technology ethics
Increase accessibility of technology education
Enhance design thinking principles
SCOPE
AI, ML, and automation
Privacy, data permanence,
and governanceCybersecurity
Identity-based user interaction
Biotechnology and medicine
Industrial product design
Accessibility (intellectual and physical)
Aware
2017-18
In pushing the boundaries of bias awareness towards productivity, this interactive installation is a dynamic display built to guide creative and technical developers through four main explorations: “Self-Awareness & Inclusion, Development Impact, Industry Relevance, Prevention & Future Solutions”. Throughout the series of questions displayed, each will include a collection of relevant sources that designers, developers, and engineers can use to brainstorm their current projects. This resource is meant to be web-accessible in real-time across various devices (i.e. wall projection, desktop, mobile) in production environments (e.g. universities, studios, coworking spaces).
The Future of Creative Responsibility
2016-17
Beginning in NYU ITP's Educate the Future class, this project developed from a challenge to study the future solutions of higher education's current issues. The associated research was focused on the need for "efficient innovation" throughout the technology industry that constantly considers contexts such as accessibility, cultural relevance, and machine learning. In aiming to build this ethical literacy for budding engineers before they enter the industry, the problem statement for the design challenge became "How can engineering students develop a moral foundation for their lasting impact on society?" The final solution for the first stage of the project was a lesson plan to be used in a general introductory course for incoming engineering students.