Engineering IDBE

In engineering, we often use a leaky pipeline analogy to depict where women leave engineering pathways, but selective filtration describes it better. I will discuss the structural barriers (or filters) that exclude equity-deserving folks from high school to the faculty level along with research-based strategies we have used through the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering (ONWiE) and McMaster University to remove those barriers.

Dr. Kim Jones is the Chair of the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering (ONWiE), which drives and coordinates nation-wide efforts to recruit a diverse population into the study of engineering. She is an associate professor of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University, where she has done research into the body’s response to implanted biomaterials and now investigates issues of inclusion in engineering. She has served as the Engineering Leadership Fellow (focusing on inclusion), the Chair of the Women in
Engineering Committee, Associate Chair (Undergraduate) of Chemical Engineering, the Hamilton-Halton Engineer of the Year, and is an Engineers Canada 30x30 Champion. She has been a feminist since birth and enthusiastically drives outreach, equity and inclusion efforts.

Speaker: Kim Jones, McMaster University, Canada

The talk will summarize the complexity of handling human rights problems as they pertain to scientific communities, mostly drawn from the speaker's experience and involvement.

Educated in India, Australia and the Johns Hopkins University, Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, sixty-one years of age, taught at Yale for twenty-two years from 1979, as the Harold W. Cheel Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1988, later holding joint appointments in the Departments of Physics, Applied Physics and Mathematics. Between 1987 and 1992, he was the Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department and, in 1989, (the equivalent of) the Acting Dean of Engineering and Applied Science. In 2002, desiring to learn how a public university works, he moved to the University of Maryland as Distinguished University Professor, Glenn L. Martin Professor of Engineering and Professor of Physics, and served for a year and a half as the Director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology. He was then appointed as the Director of the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, www.ictp.it, where he holds a concurrent professorship in the name of the Center’s founding director, the late Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam. He has been a visiting professor at Caltech, Rockefeller University, Cambridge University, and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, among others.

Sreenivasan’s research expertise is fluid dynamics in a broad sense, and has touched a few other areas of applied physics. He is the author of some 240 research papers, has supervised about 30 Ph.D. theses and mentored numerous students at Yale and elsewhere. He has served the scientific community in several capacities, in both official and scholarly capacities. He has been instrumental in creating new entities such as the Topical Group in Statistical and Nonlinear Physics of the American Physical Society. He is greatly interested in human rights, especially as they apply to scientists, and presently holds a unique position with respect to international science and science policy, especially in developing countries.

Among the academies to which Sreenivasan has been elected are the US National Academy of Sciences and the US National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), and the African Academy of Sciences. His honors include Guggenheim Fellowship, Otto Laporte Memorial Award of American Physical Society, TWAS Medal Lecture in Engineering Science, Distinguished Alumnus Award and Centennial Professorship of the Indian Institute of Science, Sir C.V. Raman Visiting Professorship of the Indian Academy of Sciences, the International Prize and Gold Medal in memory of Professors Modesto Panetti and Carlo Ferrari, Academia delle Scienze di Torino, Italy, National Order of Scientific Merit (the highest scientific honor) by the Brazilian Government and the Academy of Sciences, UNESCO Medal for Promoting International Scientific Cooperation and World Peace from the World Heritage Centre, Florence, Italy, President Dr. Zakir Husain Memorial Award from the Duty Society and the Indian Society of Applied and Industrial Mathematics, Honorary Member, Academia Torre e Tasso, Duino-Aurisina, Trieste, Italy, the Melvin Jones Fellow of the Lions Club (for humanitarian service), the Dwight Nicholson Medal of the American Physical Society for human outreach, and the 2009 Nusselt-Reynolds Prize from the Assembly of World Conference on Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics. He has delivered a number of named lectures, is Fellow of several learned societies, and the recipient of three honorary doctorates.

Speaker: Katepalli Sreenivasan, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, USA

Hala Zreiqat is a Payne-Scott Professor of biomedical engineering at The University of Sydney. The focus of her lab is on engineering functional synthetic biomaterials for use in regenerative medicine using cutting-edge materials, biological and nano techniques, and novel 3D-printing technologies. Her team developed 3D printing technology to produce complex novel bioceramics and nanomaterials to increase ceramics’ elasticity, identifying the mechanisms determining the mechanical properties of our complex bioceramics composites. Prof. Zreiqat’s contribution to regenerative medicine and orthopaedic research has led to a number of national and international awards, including being named a Member of the Order of Australia (2019), 2021-2022 Fulbright Senior Scholar; the 2018 New South Wales Premier’s Woman of the Year, the King Abdullah II Order of Distinction of the Second Class (2018), Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University (2016-2017); Eureka Prize winner for Innovative Use of Technology (2019); and University of Sydney Payne-Scott Professorial Distinction (2019). She is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences (2021); the Australian Academy of Technology & Engineering (2020), the International Association of Advanced Materials (2022), the Royal Society of New South Wales (2019); the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2019), and the International Orthopaedic Research Society (2019). She is the past president of the Australian & New Zealand Orthopaedic Research Society. She was the Director of the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering (2017-2022) and a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellow (2006-2020). She is an Associate of the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University and an Honorary Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Prof. Zreiqat has authored over 170 peer-reviewed publications with over 10,000 citations. Her research in the field of musculoskeletal disorders and biomaterials research has led to four awarded and four provisional patents and more than $20.5M in competitive funding, including major grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council, ARC and the New South Wales Medical Devices Fund. As well as her pioneering work in biomaterials development, Prof. Zreiqat is committed to improving opportunities for women and young scientists around the world. She is the founder of the IDEAL Society (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Action Leadership) at Harvard University, and founder and Chair of the BIOTech Futures, a science and engineering mentorship program for high school students.

Speaker: Hala Zreiqat, University of Sydney, Australia

Historically, engineering is the last place to experience cultural and gender diversity, but many are working hard to ensure the profession becomes a reflection of society. The engineering profession focuses on solving problems but the key to developing strong, innovative solutions is to have diverse perspectives. While focus on enhancing diversity at all levels is vital, we know that representation at the top matters: who sits at the leadership table to who is in front of the classroom can create more robust conversations and learning objectives for all involved. Programs such as Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Sciences (ELATES) provide women STEM faculty an opportunity to discuss career development, networking, leadership training, and is founded on a strong mentoring component. Multiple distinct mentoring approaches are utilized from a formal learning community advisor and executive coaching to peer mentoring. All of which are interwoven to provide guidance and support for the participants not only through their time in the program but throughout their future endeavors. This talk will focus on what it means to be committed to building an inclusive spirit of innovation, collaboration, and discovery for positive impact.

In 2003, Caroline joined the faculty in the Department of MSE at Drexel University, obtaining tenure and promotion in 2010. She was a 2017-2018 ELATES fellow where she focused on academic leadership within the college. In 2018, she was promoted to full professor. She has served as an Associate Dean, Research and Faculty Affairs for three years transitioning to Associate Dean, Research Enterprise. She is also currently the Margaret C Burns Chair in Engineering. In 2021, she was inducted as an American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) fellow for her work on biopolymer nanofibers.

Her mentoring work has received numerous awards such as Outstanding Faculty Mentor from the Graduate Student Associate (2012), Provost’s Fellowships Mentoring Award (2016), and STAR Faculty Mentoring Award (2022) all from the Provost at Drexel. Currently, she is part of an AWIS-PHL mentoring circle for Philadelphia Center City, which she finds tremendously rewarding.

Speaker: Caroline Schauer, Drexel University, USA

Panel discussion - Engineers Careers in the UAE and Beyond

Event description:
The panel discussion is aimed to facilitate a conversation between NYUAD Engineering Students and industry leaders from different engineering fields. The conversation is planned to focus on answering the most common questions that engineering students may have, and also to enlighten them on the demographics of the job market in the various dynamic engineering fields. The discussion topics may include:
- Most demanded skills in today's job market
- Possible paths in interdisciplinary projects dominated fields
- Engineering career long-term prospects
- How to make best use of time before graduation?
- IDBE considerations and opportunities in the current job market

The target audience will be undergraduate students primarily, but graduate students and early-career researchers will also be invited to attend.

Event details:
Panel + Q&A: 1.5 hours and Networking: 0.5 hours
Date: Monday, November 14th, 2022
Time: 5-7pm
Location: A6-001 and A6-002 conference rooms

During this honest conversation, you will face your bias (we all have them) and find
effective ways to create a more inclusive environment in areas of your life. This session will be an interactive conversation with an activity that people will work on in groups. In addition, this session will help you develop a more profound knowledge and understanding of diverse groups by hearing actual accounts from various marginalized populations and adopting an approach of first looking inward, then confronting ignorance, biases, and stereotypes of marginalized populations, and ending each lesson with a personal reflection.

By the end of the session, you will be able to:
1. Recognize and appreciate the life experiences that shape your beliefs
2. Establish direct awareness to support other marginalized populations
3. Discover how ideas about race, sex, and culture shape your environment

Fueled by her desire to deepen her knowledge and understand how she can leave a lasting
impact on the world and the people around her, Dr. Rush Leeker has cultivated a rich educational background. Equipped with her undergraduate degree in Supply Chain and
Information Systems from Penn University and her Ph.D. in Engineering Education and MBA in Sustainability and Operations from Purdue University, she is proud to currently share her expertise as an Engineering Professor at University of Colorado Boulder. As the founder of RL Strategies, Dr. Rush Leeker not only provides organizations with support in project areas such as goal setting and employee development but with DEI-centered workshops, training, and coaching. Through her coaching business, Dr. Rush Leeker has worked with several successful companies, including top Fortune 500 organizations, and private coaching clients looking to improve their business practices to find professional and personal growth.

Dr. Rush Leeker hopes to serve as a mentor for the next generation as she encourages
students of all ages to explore their creativity, always choose kindness, and be brave enough to pursue their passions.

Speaker: Jessica Rush Leeker, University of Colorado Boulder and Founder of RL Strategies, USA

Event details and description:

Organizers: weSTEM and Engineering IDBE
Non-NYUAD Organizers: Lean In Equity & Sustainability
Date/Time: Wednesday, 7th December 2022, @ 6pm
Location: A6-001 conference roomNYUAD
Context: The workforce of the Future & DEI in STEM focusing on the 20s – Ambition: A decade of learning, exploring, growth, independence, and fewer caring responsibilities and dependents.

Objectives:
- Equip Students, especially females and allies, with the support they need to start a career.
- Explore the building blocks for a support system
- Provide a space for young professionals to navigate hurdles and untie career knots
- Develop crucial conversation skills for professionals

Agenda:

6 PM: Opening/Welcome Remarks

• Mohammad A. Qasaimeh | Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering and Chair – Engineering IDBE Committee 
• Maria Flouda | Lean In Equity & Sustainability 

6.15 PM to 7.00 PM: Roundtable session (Table Host & Scribe to coordinate discussion and take notes)

Roundtable 1: Workforce of the Future

1.      Take a quiz, which world of work do you belong to? https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/people-organisation/publications/workforce-of-the-future/quiz.html   (send it before the event- like a prep work, what do you think?)

2.      To discuss:

      (a) Did you expect to belong to this world? Why?
      (b) Why do you think your world is the right world for you as a woman?
      (c) How can NYU help you access your world?
      (d) How can a network like Lean In equity & sustainability help you access your world?

Roundtable 2: Diversity and inclusion in STEM

• How does  WeSTEM support you in relation to DEI objectives?
• What aspects of DEI are most relevant for you at university today? 
• What aspects of DEI are important for you in the workplace (in the corporate world or as a research professional)? 
• What (if any)  role do you see yourself  playing  in advancing DEI in the workplace? 
• What support would you expect from university or business  leaders?  

Roundtable 3: The ideal Workplace-career path

• What does the ideal workplace look like for you?
• How do you imagine your ideal career ? Industry or Research
• How do you imagine yourself professionally at 30 years and 40 years of age  ?
• What can the university do to make the transition to the workplace smooth?

7.00-7.30 PM:  Feedback from roundtables  & Questions Answers

8 PM:  Snacks

AI has made significant advances in low-expertise tasks, characterized by broad agreement on subjective criteria: we all tend to agree whether an AI-generated picture is of a cat riding a bicycle or a poem is about dogs playing chess. Methods developed in these settings are being adapted for applications requiring more expertise during modeling and evaluation. For example, popular deep learning architectures have shown promise in replacing physics-based models to predict the weather, simultaneously learning the physics and the parameters directly from observations, without requiring knowledge of fluid dynamics as input.

We are studying techniques and technologies for these high-expertise settings, characterized by limited training data, complex multi-modal features, and ambiguous and conflicting sources of labels. With the commoditization of methods (deep neural networks trained by gradient descent), the challenge in these settings shifts to task specification, data curation, and results interpretation, all of which require domain expertise. We consider this perspective of “curation as programming” as an opportunity to build new tooling to empower domain experts to participate in developing effective AI systems

I’ll describe some projects my group is pursuing in this space including recovering missing data in urban mobility, identifying speakers and agenda items in local council meetings, and extracting information from legal documents. I’ll describe the technical questions we encounter in these settings, including how best to use expert-provided ontologies and unlearning specific biases during fine-tuning. I’ll end with some topics for directions going forward, emphasizing the use of the scientific literature as a research domain.

Bill Howe is Associate Professor in the Information School and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research spans data management, machine learning, and visualization earning best paper awards in each of these areas, and has been featured in the popular press including the Economist and Nature. Dr. Howe served as Founding Associate Director of the UW eScience Institute, where he led the creation of UW’s Data Science for Social Good Program with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, NSF, and Microsoft. He founded the UW Data Science Masters Degree, serving as its inaugural Program Chair, and created a first MOOC on data science that attracted over 200,000 students. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Portland State University and a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial & Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Speaker: Bill Howe, University of Washington, USA

Description:

In recognition of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (IDWGIS), we invite all students, faculty, staff and researchers to a workshop that will focus on how women and girls in science and engineering can contribute towards a greener future. We will discuss ideas for empowering women at all levels in STEM, including education and careers in academia and industry. The round table discussions will touch on challenges, opportunities, and solutions, including the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in support of these empowerment initiatives. Further, the topic of women empowerment towards sustainable and equitable ecosystems will be discussed. This workshop is facilitated by the LeanIn Equity and Sustainability non-profit organization, and hosted by the Engineering IDBE Committee, the weSTEM group, the Vice Provost of Faculty Advancement and Engagement, and the Division of Science.

Date/Time/Location: Friday, February 10 / 10:15AM-12PM / East Forum

Round Table Topics:
· How can we empower female students to choose STEM curriculum in the University year? Propose ways to support students in their journey.
· Transition from University years to Industry, Graduare studies, academia. What are the challenges, opportunities and solutions? Identify 2 or 3.
· What is the role of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) networks in support of this empowerment in university and in the career years.
· What is the role of male allies in the success of DEI implementations. Points 1, 2, and 3.
· This year, the UN is focusing the IDWGIS around the role of women and girls in sustainability for greener future, including clean water and energy, sustainable cities, innovations, etc. How can we empower women for bringing everyone forward towards sustainable and equitable ecosystems?

Cultivating new infrastructural and ecological imaginaries is a crucial part of addressing the
climate crisis. How might we envisage ways to design and engineer our way out of the mess we are in? Where is there space to prototype new social and technological relations that depart from both the privatized techno-solutionism of Silicon Valley and the anti-
technological stance of twentieth century environmentalism? In this seminar I will share
several interdisciplinary research projects spanning art and engineering, that explore how
automated systems and AI are reshaping ecological thought. These projects are examples of eccentric engineering and they demonstrate a form of interdisciplinary work that bridges
practice and theory, speculation and implementation and attempts to make a space for
much-needed thinking and experimentation

Tega Brain is an Australian-born artist and environmental engineer and my work examines issues of ecology, data systems and infrastructure. She has created wireless networks that are coupled to natural phenomena, systems for obfuscating personal data, and an online smell-based dating service.

Recent exhibitions include the Vienna Biennale for Change and the Guangzhou Triennial, as well as commissions from the Whitney Museum of American Art and Smithsonian Arts and Industries. She is 2023 Creative Capital Awardee and an Associate Professor of Integrated Design and Media, New York University. Her first book is Code as Creative Medium, co-authored with Golan Levin and published with MIT Press.

Speaker: Tega Brain, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, USA

In this talk we examine the intersection of diversity, equity, inclusion, and leadership. We look at how biases can influence diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and how DEI is a leadership issue that requires actions, rather than statements, of commitment. By exploring not just what we want, but also how we might accomplish our DEI goals, we move beyond good intentions towards real change. In doing so, we recognize the impact of our own roles, actions, and behaviors to advance DEI.

Joyce W. Yen, Ph.D., is the Director of the University of Washington (Seattle) ADVANCE Center for Institutional Change. Prior to joining UW ADVANCE, she was as assistant professor of Industrial Engineering at UW. Joyce has been a leader in numerous grant-funded projects to support and mentor STEM faculty, particularly early-career faculty, and to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in STEM. An accomplished facilitator, Joyce has also led over 100 workshops, retreats, and trainings focused on diversity in STEM, bias in evaluation, cultural change in academia, and other related topics. Joyce has also engaged with science philanthropy organizations to support their DEI efforts. Joyce has a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan. She recently received the 2021 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM).

Speaker: Joyce Yen, University of Washington, USA

We see disability as a conspicuous set of conditions that prevents someone from
doing the things that other people do. Designers know this is seldom true: disability is almost always never a condition alone but a product of condition and the environment; what prevents people with reduced mobility from enjoying access to a certain place is not their condition alone but the choice of the architects and planners to build steps instead of a ramp. Often it is nothing else. Imagine the pedestrian bridges leading to Saadiyat beach; a person in a wheelchair would easily reach the beach, should a gentle ramp be there, instead of those, seemingly unimportant, five steps at the beginning of the path; blind people would reach the beach by themselves, should a tactile path be there; and old people too, had a handrail been installed. And so on. In this talk, borrowing from reflections I have been sharing with philosopher Roberto Casati, I will propose that we re-think the concept of disability as a condition diverting from a 'norm' and address instead our own human nature as being one of inherent diminution.

Such view calls for a rethinking of many established design protocols in visual communication at large. I will also elaborate on bad design: why it is ubiquitous and how to train ourselves to spot it. At the end of the talk, I will introduce hands-on, student-driven research on inclusive design as one of the core educational pillars of the A&H Visual Design Lab.

Presenter Biography: Associate Professor of Practice of Visual Arts and Director of the
A&H Visual Design Lab at NYUAD. His area of expertise is in corporate identity and
branding. His main interests are in the interactions of visual communications with policy-
making processes with a focus on accessible design. Prior to joining NYUAD in 2011,
he worked in Italy, UK and France for international clients such as Axa, Louvre, Mars,
NTT, Pirelli, Pyrex, Samick Music Corp. First faculty of Visual Design at NYUAD, Goffredo has designed courses on topics such as Cross-cultural design, Calligraphy and Type design, Brand identity. He has received international accolades for logo design such as Wolda World of Logos Awards, MarCom Awards, B2BEurope Awards. He is a motorcycle enthusiast and author of a bestseller book on Moto Guzzi published by Mondadori in 2007.

Speaker: Goffredo Puccetti, NYU Abu Dhabi

Hosted by the Engineering IDBE Committee, this event is a roundtable panel discussion between female students and researchers from the NYUAD Engineering and members of the Lean In Equity & Sustainability non-profit organization. The panel will include discussions about women in the energy sector; overview of women in STEM fields; women and the academia to industry pipeline; early barriers to girls in STEM; and barriers to women’s leadership, among others. This event was held in hybrid format.

In the IDBE in Engineering seminar, Dr. Heather Metcalf will share her applied research on gender, intersectionality, and the STEM workforce. She will review the intersectionality framework, based in women of color feminisms and social justice movements, that guides her work and demonstrate how those working on inclusion, diversity, belonging, and equity in STEM can use it in research, policy, and practice. 

Heather Metcalf, PhD, is the Director of Research and Constituent Relations for the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). She serves as an investigator on several NSF-funded initiatives including the ADVANCE Resource and Coordination (ARC) Network, which focuses on gender equity in academic STEM through an inclusive, intentional, and intersectional lens; ACCESS+, which works with STEM professional societies to create intersectional gender equity; and the I-Corps Inclusion and New Jersey Equity in Commercialization Collectives, both of which aim to create more equitable and inclusive STEM entrepreneurship ecosystems. Dr. Metcalf has undergraduate degrees in applied mathematics and computer science from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, master’s degrees in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and gender studies from the University of Arizona, and a doctorate in higher education, focused on science and technology policy, from the University of Arizona.

Speaker:
Dr. Heather Metcalf, WEPAN, The Women in Engineering ProActive Network, USA

May 10, 2022 | 6pm GST

Date: Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Time: 6-7pm

May 9, 2022 | 7pm GST

In the US, White, Christian, male, heterosexual, cis-gendered, citizens have privileges associated with each of these aspects of identity. Throughout the world, privilege is accorded to some and not others according to identity instead of values or skills. In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, the consequences of lack of privilege lead to a loss of talent that impairs our ability to solve the grand challenges that face us. Indeed, privilege affects our recognition of the grand challenges that face our society and our world. By understanding privilege and then harnessing the power afforded to those with privilege, we can begin to understand and hopefully address this loss of talent and build a more equitable and just world.

Naomi Chesler is a Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UCI and Director of the UCI-Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Cardiovascular Innovation and Research Center (CIRC). Her contributions to research are in two main areas: cardiovascular biomechanics and mechanobiology and engineering education. She is also passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. In recognition of her work in this area, she received the 2014 Diversity Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society and the 2017 Diversity Award from the UW-Madison College of Engineering. She is also the founder and principal of Building STEM Equity, LLC (buildingSTEMequity.com), which exists to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

Speaker:
Prof. Naomi C. Chesler, University of California Irvine, USA

April 8, 2022 | 5pm GST

An event that is tailored to exchange information between graduate students, postdoctoral associates and undergraduate students. The event aims to provide Engineering undergraduate students with useful information that can help them decide about enrolling in graduate studies, and navigating the potential graduate school years.

Panelists:
Samuel Sofela - Postdoctoral Associate - Mechanical Engineering
Gaby Hannoun - Postdoctoral Associate - Civil Engineering
Prashant Rajput - PhD Student - Computer Engineering
Haneen Alsuradi - PhD Student - Electrical Engineering

March 28, 2022 | 6pm GST

I will discuss a line of work that uses causal modeling to understand algorithmic fairness. Rather than attempting to make minimal assumptions and provide robust inferences, this approach uses strong assumptions for the sake of interpretability, transparency, and falsifiability. Although we focus on fairness, causal models can be applied in similar ways toward achieving other values or objectives in responsible AI.

Joshua Loftus is an Assistant Professor of Statistics at the London School of Economics. Joshua's research goals are to improve practices in data science and machine learning to reduce the impact of bias, particularly biases causing social harms or scientific irreproducibility. Before joining LSE Joshua earned his PhD in Statistics at Stanford University, was a Research Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute affiliated with the University of Cambridge, and then was an Assistant Professor at New York University from 2017-2020.

Speaker:
Dr. Joshua Loftus, London School of Economics, UK

March 7, 2022 | 6pm GST

Dr. Jo Handelsman's knowledge of diversity in science stems from her personal experience with prejudice, which led to her work aimed at introducing evidence-based training to enhance the representation of women in academic science and the challenge of diversifying the scientific community in her role as a science advisor to President Obama. She will present data about the impact of bias in the workplace, argue that enterprises cannot achieve their potential without dismantling these barriers, and suggest strategies to do so.

Dr. Jo Handelsman is currently the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a Vilas Research Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. Previously, she served for President Obama for three years as the Associate Director for Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). She received her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Molecular Biology and has served on the faculties of UW-Madison and Yale University. Dr. Handelsman has authored over 200 papers, 30 editorials and 6 books. She is responsible for groundbreaking studies in microbial communication and work in the field of metagenomics. She is also widely recognized for her contributions to science.

Speaker:
Prof. Jo Handelsman, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA

February 7, 2022 | 6pm GST

It is widely acknowledged that the factors that have resulted in marginalized communities being the hardest hit by health and environmental challenges related to poorly-performing housing are rooted more in past decisions than in present events or market dynamics. Social scientific research has demonstrated that redlining, historical and ongoing disinvestment, inequitable planning processes, and environmental racism have led to unequal and racialized landscapes in the built environment. STEM researchers and scholars often prematurely develop projections of a future desired state without first understanding the history of discrimination that have contributed to inequalities for affected communities. This presentation reflects on three critical questions: 1) What has led to a given community’s state of disadvantage compared to other communities? 2) How does this community define (racial) equity and environmental sustainability? and 3) How will the community’s knowledge and lived experiences inform – and ideally drive – technical solutions to energy poverty and unsustainable building performance?

Dr. Obonyo is the Director of the Global Building Network, a partnership between the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and Penn State. She is also an Associate Professor of Engineering Design and Architectural Engineering. Dr Obonyo was a 2015/ 2016 Jefferson Science Fellow placed with the USAID Global Development Lab in DC. Between August 2004 and July 2015, she was a faculty member at the University of Florida's (UF) Rinker School of Construction Management. Dr. Obonyo has extensive industry experience, having worked as a Construction Engineer, Project Manager and Innovations Analyst in several engineering and construction companies in Kenya, the United Kingdom and the United States. Her work has been disseminated through over 100 journal papers, conference proceedings and presentations. She is on the editorial board of three Journals – Journal of IT in Construction, Buildings and Intelligent Systems. She was also guest editor for the Journal of Sustainability.

Speaker:
Dr. Esther A. Obonyo, Pennsylvania State University, USA

January 10, 2022 | 7pm GST

All communities deserve clean air and water, and one’s life expectancy should never be determined by zip code, race or income. Building a green economy can open a vast array of new economic opportunities, bringing good paying jobs and investment to communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by pollution and climate change. For this to happen, equity must be at the core of efforts to fight climate change, poverty and pollution. Greenlining’s Environmental Equity team has led the drafting and passage of crucial laws to improve health and environmental quality for low-income communities and communities of color and bring green dollars to these communities. This session will give an overview of our environmental equity theory of change and the many ways that we work to ensure these policies get implemented effectively across issues of climate change, adaptation and resilience, clean transportation and mobility, and community development.

Hana Creger, Environmental Equity Program Manager, works on the development and implementation of policies leading to clean transportation and mobility investments that will benefit low-income communities of color. She was the lead author of the Mobility Equity Framework, a tool that can be used to maximize equity outcomes and community engagement in transportation planning and decision-making. Hana was also the lead author of Autonomous Vehicle Heaven or Hell? Creating a Transportation Revolution that Benefits All, a report outlining policy recommendations to ensure mobility, health, and economic benefits to marginalized communities. She serves on a number of advisory committees for cities, agencies, universities, and nonprofits for projects relating to shared mobility, public transit, electric mobility and autonomous vehicles. Hana holds a B.A. in sustainability from San Diego State University.

Speaker:
Ms. Hana Creger, The Greenlining Institute, USA

December 6, 2021 | 6pm GST 

Michael Wiklund has spent his career helping manufacturers ensure the safe, effective, and satisfying use of their products. During his online seminar, he will describe the human factors engineering (HFE) process and its central role in assuring that products meet users’ needs. He will highlight the need to design for a broad spectrum of users as opposed to just the majority. As such, he will draw a strong link between applying HFE and designing with diversity and inclusivity in mind. As someone who has focused his work largely on medical technology, he will cite examples of how some products have succeeded and others have failed to meet the needs of the entire set of intended users. For example, he will speak about surgical instruments that are better suited for use by people with large versus small hands, which means that a large proportion of women will be systematically disadvantaged. As another example, he will speak about products that are better suited for use by people who are more versus less educated, younger versus older, able-bodied versus disabled in some manner, and more or less familiar and comfortable with specific, culture-based design norms. He will explain why designing products to accommodate the widest possible spectrum of product users is not only good for the users, but also good for business in terms of sales, customer goodwill, and minimizing financial risk.

Michael is General Manager of Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research & Design team, which is the largest, global consulting practice focused on medical technology. He is a board-certified human factors professional. He is also a Professor of the Practice at Tufts University, where he has taught human factors for 30+ years and focused the human factors program on the application of human factors to medical technology. He has been a major contributor to several US and international standards on human factors, including IEC 62366-1, IEC 62366-2, AAMI HE75, and more. Michael is author, co-author, and/or editor of multiple books on human factors including User Interface Requirements for Medical Devices, Designing Usability Into Medical Devices, Usability in Practice, Handbook of Human Factors in Medical Device Design, Usability Testing of Medical Devices, Medical Device Use Error: Root Cause Analysis, Writing Human Factors Plans and Reports, and Designing for Safe Use.

Speaker:
Prof. Michael Wiklund, Tufts University, USA

November 2, 2021 | 6pm GST

This talk looks at transportation from a social point of view. In addition to poverty, social exclusion is a major cause for capability deprivation. When addressing poverty and inequality, policy-makers tend to focus on education and jobs, without much focus on access to jobs. Research has shown that there is a strong link between physical mobility and social mobility. Access to jobs and education expands economic opportunities for people, which in turn allows them to improve their lives. 

Rana Tomaira is a lecturer and research scientist in the Social Research and Public Policy program at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). She holds a PhD in City and Regional Planning and a Masters in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley, and a BSc in Architectural Engineering from the University of Jordan. Her research interest is in comparative development policies and practices with a focus on the Arab world.

Speaker:
Dr. Rana Tomaira, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE

October 4, 2021 | 5pm GST

In this session, participants will be invited to question equity barriers within STEM courses and teaching and imagine particular practices that they can try to enhance equity. Participants will learn about the multiple dimensions of oppression and social injustice, the different levels of oppression, and the relationships between equity and care. They will also develop some strategies (Roumy cheese analogy) and decide which practices are suitable for their particular context.

Speaker: Dr. Maha Bali, American University in Cairo, Egypt

September 6, 2021 | 6pm GST

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential in today’s world to achieve individual and collective research goals and quality education. In this talk, the speaker will discuss various diversity, equity, and inclusion-related initiatives that the speaker took during his tenure at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Toronto, and Howard University.

The speaker will also discuss some best-practice strategies to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the engineering community, institutions, and research labs. Using his research, the speaker will highlight how low-income people’s access to transportation is related to transport equity issues. Finally, the speaker will shed some light on the connections between COVID-19 and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Speaker:
Dr. Md Sami Hasnine, Howard University, Washington DC, USA