Engineering a Better Future: Interplay between Engineering, Social Sciences, and Innovation

222 Pages·2018·4.199 MB·English

by  Eswaran Subrahmanian, Toluwalogo Odumosu, Jeffrey Y. Tsao

Eswaran Subrahmanian
Toluwalogo Odumosu · Jeffrey Y. Tsao
Editors
Engineering
a Better
Future
Interplay between Engineering, Social
Sciences, and Innovation
Engineering a Better Future
Eswaran Subrahmanian Toluwalogo Odumosu
(cid:129)
Jeffrey Y. Tsao
Editors
Engineering a Better Future
Interplay between Engineering, Social
Sciences, and Innovation
123
Editors
EswaranSubrahmanian Jeffrey Y.Tsao
Carnegie MellonUniversity SandiaNational Laboratories
Pittsburgh, PA Albuquerque, NM
USA USA
Toluwalogo Odumosu
Engineering andSociety
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
USA
ISBN978-3-319-91133-5 ISBN978-3-319-91134-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91134-2
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2018942629
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Preface
Engineersmakeuproughly2%ofanycountry’spopulation,however,theyexertan
outsizeimpactonthelivesofcitizensandonsocietyingeneral.SincetheIndustrial
Revolution through the current Information Revolution, engineers through their
workhaveplayedtherolesofsociologist, economist,political scientist, andpolicy
analyst, changing the patterns of our lives. Socially embedded innovations such as
thecell phoneand the Internet aretransforming the economic,social,cultural, and
physical well-being of people all over the world. The debate is often over how the
technology fitsintosocietyandnotnecessarilyoverhow societyisreflectedinthe
technology developed, i.e., for example, how the technological system reflects
preexistingbiasandinequality.Asthe1991NAPreporton“Engineeringasasocial
enterprise” states, the dominant view of engineering is one of detached techno-
logical quests apart from society. The social implications of engineering and the
social influence of engineering is often left out leading to a paucity of interaction
between social sciences and engineering in any meaningful way. Engineers are
often unaware of technological history and the role of social forces in the history
of the development of technologies. Furthermore, the importance of social under-
standing of innovation processes is often downplayed both in daily and academic
discourse on engineering. The workshop was designed to bring together these two
cultures.OurhopeisthattheyarenotasdividedasC.P.Snowdeclared,butrather,
it is the lack of recognition of the intertwined nature of engineering and social
sciences that prevents interactivity.
Thegoaloftheworkshopwastobringtogetherengineersandsocialscientiststo
examine the role that engineers have in the future of our living environments and
our economies, and to begin a discussion on how best to integrate the social
sciences into engineering practice and research. The best innovation systems
anticipate characteristics of technological use and culture, and these are best
informed by the social sciences. The symposium addressed the role of social sci-
ence research in shaping engineers’ view of their work and its role in the trans-
formation of society.
v
vi Preface
Engineering is shaped and informed by social sciences in ways that would
benefit from open discussion and greater integration. Often the larger population
and engineers themselves are seldom aware of engineers’ contributions to social
sciences. From Stevenson to Ford, engineers continually envision and actualize
profound changes to social character and behavior. Individuals such as Benjamin
Whorf, Vilfredo Pareto, and Fredrick Taylor whom, while engineers in practice,
made significant contributions to social sciences, suggesting the close interrela-
tionship between engineering and social sciences. Given the range of problems
faced by global society from global warming, the automation of work, to envi-
ronment degradation and social inequity, it is clear that only through the collabo-
ration and appreciation of the each other can engineers and social scientists work
together to solve these critical problems.
Theworkshopbroughttogetheravarietyofscholarsfromthesocialsciencesand
engineering (see list below) to Carnegie Mellon University for a period of 2 days.
Theworkshopwasdividedintothreethemes:MeetingattheMiddle(challengesto
educating at the boundaries); Engineers Shaping Human Affairs; and Engineering
the Engineers (thinking about design in designing thinking).
Pittsburgh, USA Eswaran Subrahmanian
Albuquerque, USA Dr. Jeffrey Y. Tsao
Charlottesville, USA Prof. Toluwalogo Odumosu
Organizing Committee
Acknowlegments
We would like to thank Prof. Venkatesh Narayamurthi for his encouragement to
findwaystomakethisworkshophappen.Hebroughtus,Subrahmanian,JeffreyY.
Tsao, and Tolu Odomosu together, as organizers that allowed us to pull off the
workshop and the edited book. We would also like to thank, Prof. Maryann
Feldman, Heninger Distinguished Professor in the Department of Public Policy at
theUniversityofNorthCarolina,whowastheProgramDirectorofSciSIPprogram
of NSF, supported and funded this workshop. Our thanks to Prof. Douglas Sicker,
Head of the Department of Engineering and Public Policy for his active partici-
pation in the workshop, Prof. Burcu Akinci, Associate Dean for Research at
College of Engineering, Rebecca Gray, and all other Staff at the Engineering
Research AcceleratoratCMU who supportedinmakingthis workshop successful.
This workshop was funded by the NSF grant 36513.
vii
Contents
1 Innovations in Energy-Climate Education: Integrating
Engineering and Social Sciences to Strengthen Resilience. . . . . . . . 1
Jennie C. Stephens
2 Technology, Policy and Management: Co-evolving or
Converging? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Margot Weijnen and Paulien Herder
3 Reconnecting Engineering with the Social and Political
Sphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Jameson M. Wetmore
4 Ecole des Mines de Paris: A Few Lessons from a Long
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Armand Hatchuel
5 Evolving from Single Disciplines to Renaissance Teams . . . . . . . . . 33
Dan Siewiorek
6 Designing the Future We Want. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Yoram Reich
7 Engineering Design and Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Shyam Sunder
8 The Cult of Innovation: Its Myths and Rituals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Langdon Winner
9 A Generative Perspective on Engineering: Why the Destructive
Force of Artifacts Is Immune to Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Ron Eglash
10 Does Law Wear Out? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
David Howarth
ix
x Contents
11 The Role of Emotion and Culture in the “Moment of
Opening”—An Episode of Creative Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Neeraj Sonalkar and Ade Mabogunje
12 Do the Best Design Ideas (Really) Come from Conceptually
Distant Sources of Inspiration?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Joel Chan, Steven P. Dow and Christian D. Schunn
13 Integrating is Caring? Or, Caring for Nanotechnology?
Being an Integrated Social Scientist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Ana Viseu
14 The Art of Research: A Divergent/Convergent Thinking
Framework and Opportunities for Science-Based
Approaches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Glory E. Aviña, Christian D. Schunn, Austin R. Silva,
Travis L. Bauer, George W. Crabtree, Curtis M. Johnson,
Toluwalogo Odumosu, S. Thomas Picraux, R. Keith Sawyer,
Richard P. Schneider, Rickson Sun, Gregory J. Feist,
Venkatesh Narayanamurti and Jeffrey Y. Tsao
15 Knowledge, Skill, and Wisdom: Reflections on Integrating
the Social Sciences and Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
W. Bernard Carlson
16 Dealing with the Future: General Considerations and the Case
of “Mobility”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Georges Amar
Contributors
Georges Amar Mines ParisTech-PSL Research University, Paris, France; RATP,
Paris, France
Glory E. Aviña Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Travis L. Bauer Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA
W. Bernard Carlson Engineering and Society Department, University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
Joel Chan School of Information Studies, University of Maryland, College Park,
Maryland, USA
George W. Crabtree Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, USA
Steven P. Dow Human–Computer-Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Ron Eglash Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, USA
Gregory J. Feist San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA
Armand Hatchuel Chair of Design Theory and Methods for Innovation,
MinesParisTech-PSL Research University, Paris, France
Paulien Herder Department of Engineering Systems and Services, Faculty of
Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The
Netherlands
David Howarth University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Curtis M. Johnson Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Ade Mabogunje Center for Design Research, Stanford University, Stanford, CA,
USA
xi