Join the Critical Tech Talk series to hear guest speaker Kari Zacharias discuss how engineers can work towards responsibility, sustainability, and equity in design by practicing humility as respect of other ways of knowing, doing, being, and making. A special introduction will be made by Dr. Mary Wells, Dean, Faculty of Engineering.
About the talk
"Responsible, sustainable, and equitable technological design requires a culture of engineering whose values reflect these intended design outcomes. In this talk, I use the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer – the Rudyard Kipling text that forms the basis of the iron ring ceremony – as a space to explore changing understandings of humility as an engineering value. While humility has long been positively associated with engineering practice, the humble engineer portrayed in Kipling’s poetry is a different figure than the engineer humbled by technology who is often presented in contemporary discussions of the iron ring and the Ritual. I argue that our understanding of engineering humility has implications for the ways that we think about and enact responsibility in engineering and technological design. Connecting recent discourse around the Ritual to the idea of humility, I suggest that engineers can work towards responsibility, sustainability, and equity in design by practicing humility as respect of other ways of knowing, doing, being, and making."
About the speaker
Kari Zacharias is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education at the University of Manitoba. Her work focuses on the intersections between engineering knowledges and other disciplines and knowledge cultures. She has a background in engineering and in science and technology studies, and she is a founding member and co-facilitator of the Retool the Ring group.
Respondents
Jennifer Howcroft is a Lecturer in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Her research encompasses technical and pedagogical research areas. Her pedagogical research focuses on engineering education, in particular engineering design, holistic engineering education, empathy, and values. Her technical research is predominantly focused on sensor-based human movement analysis encompassing signal analysis, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence techniques.
Naomi Paul (She/Her) is a Métis woman who grew up here in Waterloo region. This is outside of the Georgian Bay Métis Community, which is her family's hometown. She is currently pursuing her PhD in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where she completed both her undergraduate and master's degrees in Systems Design Engineering as well. Naomi's research focuses on bridging Indigenous and Western knowledge within STEM, recognizing that Indigenous Perspectives have long been excluded from education, but will play a crucial role in our progress towards reconciliation.
Moderator
Professor Marcel O'Gorman, University Research Chair, professor of English, and founding director of the Critical Media Lab (CML), University of Waterloo. Professor O'Gorman leads collaborative design projects and teaches courses and workshops in the philosophy of technology at the CML, which is located at the Communitech Hub. The role of the CML is to disseminate a philosophy of "tech for good."