Category: Social Implications of Technology

PeaceTech is “the movement to use technology to end violent conflict and extremism.”

Scholars critique physical infrastructure approaches as ineffective because flooding routinely exceeds defense structures and disaster assistance and removes the incentive for property owners to reduce their risk. As an educational and engagement tool, the flood resilience challenge (FRC) game aims to build the capacity of stakeholders to improve flood resilience and enhance flood risk governance, including collective decision-making.

IEEE ETHICS-2023: Ethics in the Global Innovation Helix – Call for Papers – DEADLINE EXTENDED: Poster Abstracts and Full Draft Papers (short length and regular length) due January 13, 2023

In this time of massive growth in the scale and scope of technological innovations, it is more important than ever to look critically at the nature of these innovations and to challenge a naïve, techno-utopian attitude that innovation is synonymous with progress.

This SSIT Guest Lecture was presented by Prof Clinton Andrews, Rutgers University / President of IEEE SSIT (2021 – 2022)…  Read More

People around the world are increasingly holding corporations accountable for their practices and seeking ways to rectify their unequal distribution of the risks and benefits among differently positioned populations.

Call for Papers – ISTAS23 – Submission deadline March 1, 2023 – “Technology and Analytics for Global Development”. 13-15 September 2023, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales

Organizations are gaining awareness that digital products and services targeted at the children’s market segment need to go beyond adopting the “mindset” of a child. Rather, it is necessary to actually invite children to participate in the design process.

This SSIT Guest Lecture was presented by Dr. Nizar Rokbani, Tunisia Section SIGHT at a Chapter Meeting organised by IEEE UK…  Read More

“Securitization for Sustainability of People and Place: A Call to Transdisciplinarity”
The Fifteenth Workshop on the Social Implications of National Security (SINS22

Ruth Lewis, IEEE SSIT Standards Committee Chair, has been named a 2022 recipient of the IEEE Standards Medallion for leadership in promoting the development of IEEE technology and society standards.

The call for responsible innovation is a call to address and account for technology’s short- and long-term impacts within social, political, environmental, and cultural domains. Technological stewardship stands as a commitment to anticipate and mitigate technology’s potential for disruption and especially harm and to guide innovation toward beneficial ends. Dialogue and collaboration across diverse perspectives is essential for developing actionable technological solutions that attend in responsible ways to the evolving needs of society.

The IEEE Workshop on Electronics for mitigating Climate Change (EmC2) will be a place to discuss issues arising by climate change such as the risk of passing a tipping point of planetary boundaries if we do not accelerate the path to reduce GHG emissions.

All the deep philosophical questions, starts the joke, were asked by the classical Greeks, and everything since then has been footnotes and comments in the margins, finishes the punchline.

This Anniversary Year provides a reason to reflect on the fact that many members have been involved with the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) throughout their full professional careers.

“Digital and Societal Transformations” – Conference website here: https://www.istas22.org/

Access Volume 3, Issue 3, 2022 – Special Issue on Emerging Technologies, Evolving Threats: Next Generation Security Challenges Current Issue…  Read More

This year, 2022, marks 50 years of history within IEEE for the Society on Social Implications of Technology. It is a moment to reflect on what has transpired in the realm of technology and society over this time, and on the accomplishments of SSIT and its members in helping to guide technological development in directions that benefit humanity. It is also a moment to look forward and imagine what the next 50 years will bring. What should SSIT be doing now to prepare for that future? We welcome participation by everyone who has an interest or stake in issues related to technology and society – which is all of us.

If caregiving is the very essence of being human, why would we consider turning it over to robots? Technology—and artificial intelligence (AI, in particular—have created a world in which automation is prioritized and digital is seen as an improvement on analog—more accurate, more portable, and more controllable. Caregiving is as analog as it gets and it is a field with a serious labor shortage. That makes it ripe for automation—and in fact, the robot caregivers are already here.

Social robotics is poised to impact society by addressing isolation and providing companionship by augmenting human interaction when none is available.