After successful completion of the course, students are able to...
…describe fundamental concepts and ideas in Moral Philosophy
…describe fundamental theories and concepts of Science and Technology Studie(STS)
…have an understanding of Research and Innovation as soicio-historical and socio- cultural activities and processes
…discuss theories and concepts of Responsible Research and Innovation Having a broad range of methods to assess technology as socio-technical systems available
…Using Design Fiction to speculate about futures in productive and critical ways
How to design technology and innovation responsibly increasingly gains attention of engineers, developers, and innovators, and has more and more found its way into the work of regulators, policy makers and research funding. To explore aspects of responsible innovation, this course will focus on the fundamentals of a specific concept, namely Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), and explore its core ideas in relation to the students’ own experiences and ideas of responsible technology development and innovation.
This course sets out to inspire the students how to reflect upon and incorporate responsible thinking into their practice as computer scientists and engineers. It is composed of broadly two parts: the first one provides a conceptual foundation while the second draws on cases from science fiction to allow the students to explore in more depth the ideas of RRI.
Students become familiar with core concepts and ideas of RRI, such as ethics, gender equality, inclusion and participation, anticipation, and governance. These concepts help students to deal with questions and dilemmas that research and innovation can bring up, and to consider and apply these reflections in specific contexts.
On a side note, we recommend taking the related PR course (PR Responsible Research and Innovation, 190.041) in the same semester to best benefit from the synergies between them. Of course, this is just a recommendation; it is not mandatory to take both courses together.
This course consists of two main parts. It starts with three lectures providing theoretical input on RRI. This is followed by a practical part consisting of group presentations. The topic assignment will take place right before the Easter break and the actual presentations will start at the end of May - so there is plenty of time for preparation.
