STS Initiative Receives $300k for Ethics Education in Science and Engineering

The National Science Foundation has awarded a group of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst a $300,000 grant to create, implement and refine a series of international ethics modules for science and engineering students through the Science, Technology, and Society Initiative.

The National Science Foundation announced yesterday that a group of eight researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst will be awarded $300,000 to build, evaluate, and disseminate a series of international ethics modules for science and engineering students. The group, led by Political Science and Public Policy Professor Jane E. Fountain, represents six academic departments from four colleges and includes Paula Stamps, Professor Community Health Studies; MJ Peterson, Professor of Political Science; Marc Achermann, Assistant Professor of Physics; Beverly Park Woolf, Associate Research Professor of Computer Science; Neal Anderson, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; John Hird, Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, and Peter Haas, Professor of Political Science. The project will work in partnership with researchers from the University of New Mexico and Northeastern University.

The researchers will create a total of nine ethics modules, half focusing on the impact of globalization on the work practices of scientists and engineers and the other half on the impact of international-level regulatory processes on national regulations. These modules will be introduced into science and engineering courses in order to fill a gap in the formal ethics education of science and engineering students and to create a better understanding of ethics in an increasingly international and globalized discipline. The modules will eventually be accessible online so that their content may be used in courses globally.

This project is based in the Science, Technology and Society Initiative (STS), a priority area of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and based at the Center for Public Policy and Administration. Fountain, who also serves as the Director of the STS Initiative said, “The kind of interdisciplinary work this grant represents is typical of the STS Initiative. STS strives to bring seemingly disparate parts of this campus together around the common themes of science and technology. We look at how new technologies affect society and how the public is reacting to them.” In addition to ethics education, the STS Initiative also encompasses research on nanotechnology, underrepresentation in sciences, and information technology and society. More information about the STS Initiative is available at www.umass.edu/sts .

For more information please contact:

Michelle Sagan Gonçalves, Program Manager

413 577 2354 | mgoncalves@pubpol.umass.edu