Responsible Engineering, Design and Innovation

As engineers, product managers and designers, we often make decisions that affect people’s lives. These often raise ethical questions increasingly important to individual consumers, societies, governments and corporations, from behaviour change, to technology’s bias and economic impact. This module aims to introduce students to critical ways of thinking about technology products and their impact on individuals, their health and society as whole. Students will learn how to explore questions about the impact their work will have on humanity, and apply it to design better products.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, students will be better able to:

• Use Methods for identifying values: consequence scanning, stakeholder analysis, semi-structured interviews.
• Evaluate value oriented design methods like mock-up and prototypes.
• Analyse design features in technologies that consider their impact on wellbeing.
• Explain practical frameworks from professional associations (IEEE) and industry groups.
• Interpret what past and contemporary debates tell us about the impact of technologies on individuals and society.
• Communicate academically describing a research study.

Description of Content

• Utopias and values
• Ethics frameworks and policy
• Value Sensitive Design

-        Principles to practice

-        VSD foundations

-        VSD methods

• Design for Wellbeing & privacy
• Design Ethics

-        Ethical Theories & tensions

-        AI Ethics

• Multicultural perspectives

-        Asia

-        Africa

-        Latin America

• Impact Assessment & beyond HCD