Active Grants (Completed grants can be viewed here)
Building a Culture of Compassion in STEM Education: Empowering Faculty as Agents of Institutional Change. Lilly Endowment Inc. and the Wake Forest University.
In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) education, there has been a burgeoning interest in the significance of care and compassion in shaping aspiring professionals. Integrating care and compassion into STEM curricula serves multiple purposes. For example, a curriculum infused with care and compassion can enhance student learning, fostering more effective and meaningful educational experiences. Additionally, it cultivates students’ ability to listen to and understand perspectives from diverse backgrounds, empowering them to design technologies that promote social justice. Prevalent approaches to compassion-oriented STEM education frequently emphasize imparting practical techniques (such as listening skills) or theories (like the human capabilities approach) related to engineering design and decision-making in individual courses. While these approaches offer valuable insights and contributions, they also encounter certain challenges and opportunities for further improvement.
This three-year collaborative project aims to foster a culture of compassion in STEM education. We will establish a dedicated community of faculty committed to systematically creating a compassionate learning environment and integrating compassion into undergraduate STEM curricula through engaged pedagogical approaches. To enhance the reach of our project and promote compassionate STEM education beyond institutional confines, we will utilize our established partnership with the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) to cultivate interconnected communities of STEM educators committed to fostering compassion in STEM education.
In STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) education, there has been a burgeoning interest in the significance of care and compassion in shaping aspiring professionals. Integrating care and compassion into STEM curricula serves multiple purposes. For example, a curriculum infused with care and compassion can enhance student learning, fostering more effective and meaningful educational experiences. Additionally, it cultivates students’ ability to listen to and understand perspectives from diverse backgrounds, empowering them to design technologies that promote social justice. Prevalent approaches to compassion-oriented STEM education frequently emphasize imparting practical techniques (such as listening skills) or theories (like the human capabilities approach) related to engineering design and decision-making in individual courses. While these approaches offer valuable insights and contributions, they also encounter certain challenges and opportunities for further improvement.
This three-year collaborative project aims to foster a culture of compassion in STEM education. We will establish a dedicated community of faculty committed to systematically creating a compassionate learning environment and integrating compassion into undergraduate STEM curricula through engaged pedagogical approaches. To enhance the reach of our project and promote compassionate STEM education beyond institutional confines, we will utilize our established partnership with the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) to cultivate interconnected communities of STEM educators committed to fostering compassion in STEM education.
ER2: Mapping AI Ethics Education Through Intervention Types, Faculty Perceptions, and Institutional Contexts. See NSF webpage.
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to rapidly transform jobs, organizations, leisure, social life, health care, education, industry, domestic politics, and international relations. American colleges and universities are developing a variety of courses and modules to ensure that students gain not only the technical competencies needed to develop, understand, deploy, and use AI but also the ethical competencies needed to ensure that these advances are used wisely to contribute to a more productive workforce and a stronger, fairer, and more prosperous nation. Despite the rapid expansion of AI ethics education interventions across various institutions, there is a notable absence of empirical research systematically mapping or comparing these interventions. To address this gap, this project aims to conduct the first-of-its-kind national survey on the state of AI ethics education interventions and how faculty and administrators, as well as their institutions, approach AI ethics education. A key aspect of the research is the development of meaningful collaborations between the three R1 universities and regional institutional partners with diverse stakeholders.
The research will be conducted through three regional networks, each anchored by an R1 institution that connects area higher education institutions (HEIs) such as (minority-serving institutions (MSIs), community colleges, and research-intensive universities)and actively engages them in the design, implementation, and dissemination of research. Using a variety of methods (e.g., quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews with faculty and administrators, as well as natural language processing analysis of survey and interview data), the project team will analyze the state of AI ethics interventions in diverse institutions across the United States by (a) mining existing interventions to produce a comprehensive overview of current and planned AI ethics education; (b) developing a framework for describing the ways in which the faculty perceive and conceptualize AI ethics education; (c) exploring the factors that affect the decision-making of instructors while proposing, designing, and offering various AI ethics-related interventions; and (d) identifying institutional capacity and needs to support effective AI ethics education. Overall, the research will allow STEM faculty and educational researchers to craft curricula and administrators to develop institutional initiatives that generate AI ethics competencies tailored to the needs of their students, their employers, and their communities.
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to rapidly transform jobs, organizations, leisure, social life, health care, education, industry, domestic politics, and international relations. American colleges and universities are developing a variety of courses and modules to ensure that students gain not only the technical competencies needed to develop, understand, deploy, and use AI but also the ethical competencies needed to ensure that these advances are used wisely to contribute to a more productive workforce and a stronger, fairer, and more prosperous nation. Despite the rapid expansion of AI ethics education interventions across various institutions, there is a notable absence of empirical research systematically mapping or comparing these interventions. To address this gap, this project aims to conduct the first-of-its-kind national survey on the state of AI ethics education interventions and how faculty and administrators, as well as their institutions, approach AI ethics education. A key aspect of the research is the development of meaningful collaborations between the three R1 universities and regional institutional partners with diverse stakeholders.
The research will be conducted through three regional networks, each anchored by an R1 institution that connects area higher education institutions (HEIs) such as (minority-serving institutions (MSIs), community colleges, and research-intensive universities)and actively engages them in the design, implementation, and dissemination of research. Using a variety of methods (e.g., quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews with faculty and administrators, as well as natural language processing analysis of survey and interview data), the project team will analyze the state of AI ethics interventions in diverse institutions across the United States by (a) mining existing interventions to produce a comprehensive overview of current and planned AI ethics education; (b) developing a framework for describing the ways in which the faculty perceive and conceptualize AI ethics education; (c) exploring the factors that affect the decision-making of instructors while proposing, designing, and offering various AI ethics-related interventions; and (d) identifying institutional capacity and needs to support effective AI ethics education. Overall, the research will allow STEM faculty and educational researchers to craft curricula and administrators to develop institutional initiatives that generate AI ethics competencies tailored to the needs of their students, their employers, and their communities.
ER2: Incubation Project: Leveraging the Ethics Bowl Framework for Artificial Intelligence Ethics Education. See NSF webpage.
This incubation project will advance integrated approaches to artificial intelligence (AI) ethics education in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. The research team will seek to transform materials from the ethics bowl competition, which is traditionally an extracurricular activity focused on research, consultation, collaboration, and debate, into structured classroom tools. This will help instructors to cultivate the understanding that students have of AI ethics. The project aims to build a strong community foundation and develop capacity for larger educational initiatives. The project will create and evaluate instructional resources like case studies, instructor guides, and active learning assignments. These tools will provide practical, scenario-based learning experiences to enhance student skills in ethical reasoning, teamwork, and communication. The team will develop and pilot sample resources with participants during a professional conference, workshop the resources at a two-day meeting, and refine and disseminate the resources after the workshop.
The project focuses on STEM ethics education, specifically AI ethics. Project goals are to (1) recalibrate STEM education to incorporate ethical reasoning with professional competencies like teamwork, research, and communication, addressing a critical gap in AI education; (2) equip STEM faculty with a new pedagogy to engage students in ethical discourse and analysis; and (3) set new benchmarks in AI ethics education by providing a replicable model for integrating ethical decision-making into STEM disciplines. The impacts of the project include enhancing AI ethics understanding among students, expanding the reach and inclusivity of ethics education by co-creating materials with a broad collection of institutions, and producing deliverables like pedagogical materials, online resources, and community engagement platforms. The project will involve a collaboration with government, industry, and community partners. The curriculum produced will address current ethical challenges in AI and equip students with relevant skills for various professional settings.
This incubation project will advance integrated approaches to artificial intelligence (AI) ethics education in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. The research team will seek to transform materials from the ethics bowl competition, which is traditionally an extracurricular activity focused on research, consultation, collaboration, and debate, into structured classroom tools. This will help instructors to cultivate the understanding that students have of AI ethics. The project aims to build a strong community foundation and develop capacity for larger educational initiatives. The project will create and evaluate instructional resources like case studies, instructor guides, and active learning assignments. These tools will provide practical, scenario-based learning experiences to enhance student skills in ethical reasoning, teamwork, and communication. The team will develop and pilot sample resources with participants during a professional conference, workshop the resources at a two-day meeting, and refine and disseminate the resources after the workshop.
The project focuses on STEM ethics education, specifically AI ethics. Project goals are to (1) recalibrate STEM education to incorporate ethical reasoning with professional competencies like teamwork, research, and communication, addressing a critical gap in AI education; (2) equip STEM faculty with a new pedagogy to engage students in ethical discourse and analysis; and (3) set new benchmarks in AI ethics education by providing a replicable model for integrating ethical decision-making into STEM disciplines. The impacts of the project include enhancing AI ethics understanding among students, expanding the reach and inclusivity of ethics education by co-creating materials with a broad collection of institutions, and producing deliverables like pedagogical materials, online resources, and community engagement platforms. The project will involve a collaboration with government, industry, and community partners. The curriculum produced will address current ethical challenges in AI and equip students with relevant skills for various professional settings.
RFE: Exploring How AI Engineers Perceive and Develop Translational Ethical Competency. See NSF webpage.
This research aims to advance the fundamental knowledge of the formation of future AI engineers poised to innovate responsibly and construct advanced engineering systems empowered by AI technologies. It will investigate a practical competency critical for socially responsible AI engineering. This includes translational ethical competency, or the ability to translate general ethical principles and values into specific decisions in AI engineering practices in the day-to-day work of AI engineers. To achieve this, researchers from diverse backgrounds including computer science, engineering education, and the ethics of engineering will investigate how to define and cultivate a "translational competency" that allows engineers to translate general AI ethical principles into engineering practices in AI system designs. This project will address the following key research questions: (1) What processes do AI engineers follow to translate ethical principles into engineering practices? (2) What competencies are critical for translating ethical principles into engineering practices (translational competencies)? and (3) How do AI engineers develop the translational competencies for responsible AI engineering? Answering these research questions is critical to ensure future engineering professionals have sufficient learning opportunities to integrate ethical values into real-world engineering problems. The project aligns with the Research in the Formation of Engineers initiative goal of advancing understanding of the educational and professional formation of engineers. Specifically, the research seeks to improve the development of professional and technical skills in postsecondary education through a more practical approach to engineering ethics and to improve the transition from education settings to the workforce for engineers seeking to use what they learn in ethics courses in their future work. Additionally, this project seeks to improve the relationship between engineering and the public by equipping engineers to more effectively handle real-world challenges related to the ethical deployment of AI, including bias, privacy, and autonomy. This research is thus necessary to improve ethics education for engineers, and to help bridge the gap between classroom and job site.
This research aims to advance the fundamental knowledge of the formation of future AI engineers poised to innovate responsibly and construct advanced engineering systems empowered by AI technologies. It will investigate a practical competency critical for socially responsible AI engineering. This includes translational ethical competency, or the ability to translate general ethical principles and values into specific decisions in AI engineering practices in the day-to-day work of AI engineers. To achieve this, researchers from diverse backgrounds including computer science, engineering education, and the ethics of engineering will investigate how to define and cultivate a "translational competency" that allows engineers to translate general AI ethical principles into engineering practices in AI system designs. This project will address the following key research questions: (1) What processes do AI engineers follow to translate ethical principles into engineering practices? (2) What competencies are critical for translating ethical principles into engineering practices (translational competencies)? and (3) How do AI engineers develop the translational competencies for responsible AI engineering? Answering these research questions is critical to ensure future engineering professionals have sufficient learning opportunities to integrate ethical values into real-world engineering problems. The project aligns with the Research in the Formation of Engineers initiative goal of advancing understanding of the educational and professional formation of engineers. Specifically, the research seeks to improve the development of professional and technical skills in postsecondary education through a more practical approach to engineering ethics and to improve the transition from education settings to the workforce for engineers seeking to use what they learn in ethics courses in their future work. Additionally, this project seeks to improve the relationship between engineering and the public by equipping engineers to more effectively handle real-world challenges related to the ethical deployment of AI, including bias, privacy, and autonomy. This research is thus necessary to improve ethics education for engineers, and to help bridge the gap between classroom and job site.
ER2: Institutional Transformation: Transforming Cultures of Responsible Research through the Development of Ethics Expertise and Self-Efficacy among Faculty through Social Networks. See NSF webpage.
The goal of this project is to transform cultures of responsible research throughout Virginia Tech, developing a research-based model of peer-to-peer RCR education that can ultimately be used beyond the university. To do so, this project consists in (1) conducting research on ethics expertise, self-efficacy, and research climates among STEM faculty and (2) developing educational interventions, empowering researchers to engage with ethical issues in their own work. To ensure interventions have an institutional impact, the project will conduct research on social norms in faculty networks, leveraging these results to ensure perspectives on and practices in RCR come to have the broadest possible impact. This project is novel in three main ways: it (1) develops faculty expertise in ethics, so they can proactively identity and address discipline-specific ethical issues that arise in their everyday research; (2) improves faculty self-efficacy in ethics, so they can confidently communicate about research ethics; (3) leverages faculty social networks, ensuring a model of responsible research education that is scalable, sustainable, and transferable. Team members will leverage their leadership positions in professional organizations and relationships in government to promote the merits and facilitate the adoption of this program elsewhere. The project will also encourage faculty, especially those participating in our intervention programs, to share this model with their networks outside Virginia Tech through cross-institutional research collaborations and academic engagement with industry.
The goal of this project is to transform cultures of responsible research throughout Virginia Tech, developing a research-based model of peer-to-peer RCR education that can ultimately be used beyond the university. To do so, this project consists in (1) conducting research on ethics expertise, self-efficacy, and research climates among STEM faculty and (2) developing educational interventions, empowering researchers to engage with ethical issues in their own work. To ensure interventions have an institutional impact, the project will conduct research on social norms in faculty networks, leveraging these results to ensure perspectives on and practices in RCR come to have the broadest possible impact. This project is novel in three main ways: it (1) develops faculty expertise in ethics, so they can proactively identity and address discipline-specific ethical issues that arise in their everyday research; (2) improves faculty self-efficacy in ethics, so they can confidently communicate about research ethics; (3) leverages faculty social networks, ensuring a model of responsible research education that is scalable, sustainable, and transferable. Team members will leverage their leadership positions in professional organizations and relationships in government to promote the merits and facilitate the adoption of this program elsewhere. The project will also encourage faculty, especially those participating in our intervention programs, to share this model with their networks outside Virginia Tech through cross-institutional research collaborations and academic engagement with industry.
Collaborative Research: Developing a Quantification System for Robot Moral Agency. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). In collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Phillips (George Mason University, Lead institution) and Dr. Tom Williams (Colorado School of Mines).
Measuring or quantifying moral agency is of critical importance for human-robot interaction research. Although there have been some recent attempts to develop scales that might achieve this goal, these approaches do not align with the philosophical literature on machine moral agency, and moreover, mistake agency (which we argue to be an ontological state of being) for a psychological construct. In this work, we thus seek to develop a tool for quantifying moral agency that better aligns with the philosophical literature which offers rigorous frameworks for conceptualizing machine moral agency. Specifically, we aim to create new methods for quantifying Moral Agency in which researchers (1) separately assess the core constructs of moral agency: capacity for moral action, autonomy, interactivity, and adaptability (the MIAA scales), and (2) logically combine the outputs of those scales. We will draw upon experimental psychological approaches for construct measure development and merge them with techniques rooted in mathematical logic and philosophical theory for determining robots’ ontological status as moral agents. We will also demonstrate the usefulness of the MIAA scales to assess moral agency of artificial agents and the logical procedures for combining the four constructs measured with the scales in empirical studies.
Measuring or quantifying moral agency is of critical importance for human-robot interaction research. Although there have been some recent attempts to develop scales that might achieve this goal, these approaches do not align with the philosophical literature on machine moral agency, and moreover, mistake agency (which we argue to be an ontological state of being) for a psychological construct. In this work, we thus seek to develop a tool for quantifying moral agency that better aligns with the philosophical literature which offers rigorous frameworks for conceptualizing machine moral agency. Specifically, we aim to create new methods for quantifying Moral Agency in which researchers (1) separately assess the core constructs of moral agency: capacity for moral action, autonomy, interactivity, and adaptability (the MIAA scales), and (2) logically combine the outputs of those scales. We will draw upon experimental psychological approaches for construct measure development and merge them with techniques rooted in mathematical logic and philosophical theory for determining robots’ ontological status as moral agents. We will also demonstrate the usefulness of the MIAA scales to assess moral agency of artificial agents and the logical procedures for combining the four constructs measured with the scales in empirical studies.
Collaborative Research: Growing a Community of Compassionate Higher Education Teachers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Templeton Foundation. See project website.
Our project aims to develop a community of compassionate teachers who are dedicated to bringing a loving mindset into their classrooms. This proposal targets STEM higher education teachers, but we hypothesize that shifts in teacher classroom attitudes and practices will affect student character development. In the future, insights from this project can be further extended to education in other fields and at different levels, particularly K-12 education. We are interested in exploring the following lines of inquiry: (1) What does a character of love (heart) in the STEM-classroom in higher education mean, and in what ways might it be expressed to be beneficial for students and teachers? (2) How can we grow a character of love in STEM teachers in higher education, and how is this shaped by their beliefs and practice? (3) How can a character of love be nurtured in STEM higher education teachers?
Teaching with a Heart will use workshops and subsequent community building among participants to assist teachers to become aware of their beliefs and attitudes about their teaching roles, to reframe these beliefs and attitudes in a positive way, and to incorporate a character of love into their teaching practice in STEM higher education.
Our project aims to develop a community of compassionate teachers who are dedicated to bringing a loving mindset into their classrooms. This proposal targets STEM higher education teachers, but we hypothesize that shifts in teacher classroom attitudes and practices will affect student character development. In the future, insights from this project can be further extended to education in other fields and at different levels, particularly K-12 education. We are interested in exploring the following lines of inquiry: (1) What does a character of love (heart) in the STEM-classroom in higher education mean, and in what ways might it be expressed to be beneficial for students and teachers? (2) How can we grow a character of love in STEM teachers in higher education, and how is this shaped by their beliefs and practice? (3) How can a character of love be nurtured in STEM higher education teachers?
Teaching with a Heart will use workshops and subsequent community building among participants to assist teachers to become aware of their beliefs and attitudes about their teaching roles, to reframe these beliefs and attitudes in a positive way, and to incorporate a character of love into their teaching practice in STEM higher education.
ER2: Collaborative Research: Responsible Engineering across Cultures: Investigating the Effects of Culture and Education on Ethical Reasoning and Dispositions of Engineering Students. See NSF webpage.
The goal of this project is to identify educational interventions with the greatest effects on ethical reasoning and dispositions of engineering students, whether these effects differ among cultural and national groups, and if/how to modify these interventions to respond effectively to cultural and national differences. To do so, researchers from Colorado School of Mines, University of Pittsburgh, Delft University of Technology, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University will implement mixed-method, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and cross-sectional research to: (1) determine the effects of culture and foreign language on the ethical perspectives of first-year engineering students; (2) assess the relative effects of culture and education on these perspectives over four years; (3) use engineering ethics assessment tools across cultures and countries to examine their cross-cultural validity. Findings from this project will be essential to develop educational interventions that effectively respond to the globalized environments of contemporary engineering practice. They will also contribute to the development of more inclusive engineering education, by identifying perspectives potentially marginalized in the reigning paradigms. Finally, this project has implications for the development of responsible research education at the graduate level. Despite the fact graduate student bodies in STEM fields have become increasingly international, limited work has focused on developing culturally responsive ethics curricula for graduate students from diverse backgrounds.
The goal of this project is to identify educational interventions with the greatest effects on ethical reasoning and dispositions of engineering students, whether these effects differ among cultural and national groups, and if/how to modify these interventions to respond effectively to cultural and national differences. To do so, researchers from Colorado School of Mines, University of Pittsburgh, Delft University of Technology, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University will implement mixed-method, quasi-experimental, longitudinal, and cross-sectional research to: (1) determine the effects of culture and foreign language on the ethical perspectives of first-year engineering students; (2) assess the relative effects of culture and education on these perspectives over four years; (3) use engineering ethics assessment tools across cultures and countries to examine their cross-cultural validity. Findings from this project will be essential to develop educational interventions that effectively respond to the globalized environments of contemporary engineering practice. They will also contribute to the development of more inclusive engineering education, by identifying perspectives potentially marginalized in the reigning paradigms. Finally, this project has implications for the development of responsible research education at the graduate level. Despite the fact graduate student bodies in STEM fields have become increasingly international, limited work has focused on developing culturally responsive ethics curricula for graduate students from diverse backgrounds.