SSIT logo
IEEE logo
 

SSIT Insights

OCTOBER 2026

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Call for Nominations for President-Elect of IEEE SSIT

Submitted by Terri Bookman

The Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) is seeking nominations for the President-Elect of the Society. The President-Elect candidates make a six-year commitment. This includes

  • President-Elect (1 January 2027 – 31 December 2028), 
  • President (1 January 2029 – 31 December 2030) 
  • Immediate Past President (1 January 2031 – 31 December 2032).

All candidates should submit a self-nomination here that must include:

  1. Technical and Professional Experience summary, not to exceed 250 words in length, describing the nominee’s professional experience outside the IEEE and SSIT activities.
  2. Summary of the candidate’s current and past service to the SSIT, not to exceed 250 words in length.
  3. Summary of the candidate’s current and past relevant IEEE (non-SSIT) and non-IEEE volunteer experience and accomplishments, not to exceed 250 words in length.
  4. A high-resolution digital photograph of the candidate taken within the last 2 years.
  5. Statement of candidacy, not to exceed 250 words in length.

If the nominee is selected for the ballot, the information provided in the nomination form will be provided to the voting members of SSIT Board of Governors exactly as submitted and no modifications or edits will be made. It is suggested that the candidate include any information relevant to their possible contributions to the Society. The information can include previous experience with respect to conferences, publications, finances, chapters, standards, education, governance, and any relevant experience of use to SSIT.

 

The deadline to receive President-Elect nominations is 11:59 PM (Eastern US Time) 27 September 2026.

 

The President-Elect of the Society shall be elected by the BoG for a two-year term. Following completion of that term, the individual automatically becomes President of the Society for a single two-year term. Upon completion of the two year term as President, the individual shall serve a two year term as Immediate Past President of the Society. (From SSIT Constitution Article V Section 6 and 7).

 

The President, under the direction of the Board, shall have general supervision of the affairs of the Society. The President shall preside at meetings of the BoG, at general meetings of the Society, and have such other powers and perform such other duties as may be provided in the Society Bylaws, or as may be delegated by the Board. (From SSIT Constitution Article V Section 13).

 

Candidates for President-Elect shall be SSIT members in good standing who have held SSIT membership since January 1 of the year preceding the year of election and who are eligible to hold an elected position in accordance with IEEE governance documents, with a record of service on the SSIT Board of Governors. Associate Members and SSIT Affiliates are not eligible. (From SSIT Bylaws 4.3.1)

 

For more information:
Potential candidates are welcome to contact the SSIT Nominations Committee Chair Luis Kun ([email protected]).

President’s Message: Ethics to the Forefront in IEEE SSIT

Submitted by Murty Polavarapu

Across today’s technological landscape, concerns around ethics (from AI governance and bioethics to research integrity and publication standards) are intensifying rapidly. While all IEEE Technical Societies are increasingly called to address these challenges within their respective domains, IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (IEEE SSIT) occupies a unique position: ethics is explicitly embedded at the heart of our field of interest.

There has never been a more crucial moment for IEEE SSIT to lead this conversation across IEEE.
To reflect this responsibility, we recently updated our society governance by elevating the former Technical Activities Committee on Ethics and Human Values into a Major Standing Committee: The Ethics and Social Responsibility Committee. Its expanded scope encompasses the following:

  • Ethical workplace practices across engineering disciplines.
  • Research and innovation ethics, ensuring scientific and publication integrity.
  • Responsible design, development, deployment, and use of emerging technologies.
  • Engineering and technology ethics education for current and future practitioners.
  • The role of engineers, technologists, and organizations in shaping public policy and addressing societal challenges.

 We are actively establishing the operational framework for this committee, including new ways to engage both IEEE members and the broader public across these five core dimensions.

 

Leading IEEE Ethics Week 2026


To catalyze ethics-focused collaboration across the entire institute, IEEE SSIT is proud to lead the inaugural IEEE Ethics Week, taking place 12–20 September 2026. Funded by the IEEE Innovation Committee, IEEE SSIT serves as the central coordinating hub for this IEEE-wide initiative. IEEE Ethics Week directly operationalizes IEEE’s core value of Integrity in Action and advances its 2025–2030 strategic goal to drive technological innovation while promoting scientific integrity and the ethical development and use of technology.

 

Through this initiative, we will

  • highlight ethics-related activities across all IEEE organizational units,
  • foster deeper engagement with the complex dilemmas inherent in modern technological development, and
  • showcase IEEE’s global leadership in responsible innovation.

IEEE SSIT is mobilizing the full breadth of the IEEE ecosystem, encouraging Societies, Councils, Technical Communities, Regions, and local Sections to host webinars, panels, and workshops. In partnership with the IEEE TechEthics Program, we are also curating accessible content, including high-impact video series designed for professional members and the public alike.

 

Flagship Leadership: IEEE Ethics Moves to an Annual Cadence


Reflecting the surging global interest in ethics of technology, our flagship IEEE ETHICS Conference will now be held annually, transitioning from its previous biennial schedule.

 

As sole financial sponsor, IEEE SSIT is thrilled to announce the next edition: IEEE ETHICS-2027, taking place 25–27 June 2027 at Duke University in Durham, NC, USA. The conference will center on the theme: “Cultivating Ethical Technology: Character, Leadership, and Education.”

 

IEEE ETHICS-2027 will convene interdisciplinary researchers, educators, industry leaders, and policy experts to explore how we cultivate moral character and leadership in the next generation of technological innovators.

 

Your expertise and leadership are essential to making these initiatives a success. We invite you to host a local Ethics Week event, contribute to IEEE ETHICS-2027, or volunteer with the IEEE SSIT Ethics and Social Responsibility Committee.

 

Together, let us keep ethics at the heart of technological progress.

 

Author Information


Murty Polavarapu is the president of Space Electronics Solutions, Oakton, VA 22124 USA, and the managing director of the Virginia Microelectronics Consortium, Fairfax, VA, USA. He is also the 2025–2026 president of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology. Email: [email protected].

 

To view the full version of the article, as published in IEEE Technology and Society Magazine’s September 2026 issue, click here.

IEEE GHTC 2026: Registration Still Open!

Submitted by Heather Love

Registration remains open for the 2026 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), taking place 7–10 October at the University of Colorado Boulder. GHTC is an IEEE flagship conference focused on research and innovations that address pressing global sustainability and humanitarian challenges.

Conference program highlights include:

  • 80+ technical sessions featuring peer-reviewed research and case studies
  • 10+ workshops and special sessions
  • Two featured keynotes by Kentaro Toyama (University of Michigan) and Abigail Abe Hamwada (Design without Borders Africa)
  • Banquet hosted at the Club Level of Folsom Field (CU Boulder’s football stadium)
  • Ample networking opportunities to engage with a vibrant community dedicated to sustainable development and humanitarian engineering! 

GHTC thematic areas include:

  • Technology themes: Addressing engineering and innovation in healthcare, education, connectivity, water, food, energy, climate resilience, and disaster mitigation, preparedness, and recovery.
  • Research & practice themes: Empirical studies on the methods, processes, and pedagogies that shape humanitarian engineering, including co-design, community partnerships, broader impacts of engineering, and education. 

Check out the conference’s Schedule at a Glance and Keynotes & Special Sessions for more information!

 

NEWS

Advancing Sustainable and Human-Centred AI: Insights from the IEEE SSIT Webinar

Submitted by Dr. Hema Subramaniam

On 25 June 2026, the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT), in collaboration with Universiti Malaya, hosted an online webinar titled "Sustainable and Human-Centred AI: Carbon-Aware Cloud Systems and EEG-Based Hand Movement Classification."

 

Moderated by Dr. Hema Subramaniam, Senior Lecturer at Universiti Malaya, the session explored two research frontiers driving the future of responsible computing: reducing the operational carbon footprint of artificial intelligence and advancing non-invasive neurotechnology for human-computer interaction.  

The first segment, “Carbon-Aware Cloud Systems: De-carbonizing Digital Infrastructure,” presented by Liow Kai Wen (AI Engineer at Handshakes and Master’s Scholar at Universiti Malaya), addressed the environmental footprint of modern cloud computing. With global data centers consuming nearly 1.7% of world electricity—a demand projected to double by 2030 due to AI workloads—sustainability has moved from an administrative goal to a core technical requirement. To solve this, the presentation detailed CARA (Carbon-Aware Adaptive Scheduling), a framework designed for distributed cloud systems. CARA dynamically aligns asynchronous compute tasks (such as large AI/ML training runs and big-data pipelines) with real-time grid carbon intensity. By leveraging two key strategies:

  • Spatial Mobility: Routing workloads to regions with cleaner energy mixes.
  • Temporal Shifting: Deferring execution to coincide with local solar or wind generation peaks.

In real-world simulations, CARA achieved up to a 75.7% reduction in carbon emissions for a 3-hour ML training task while maintaining 100% SLA compliance. To counter corporate greenwashing, the system generates cryptographically signed execution manifests (SHA-256), providing verifiable audit trails for actual operational carbon savings.

 

The second segment, “Brain-Computer Interaction: Human-Centred Assistive Neurotechnology,” presented by Priyadharshini Jayadurga N. (Assistant Professor at Sri Kaliswari College and Ph.D. Scholar at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham), shifted the focus to human-centred neurotechnology. The talk introduced the Cerebro-Wave Bee Transformer (CWBT), a novel framework designed to improve non-invasive Brain-Computer Interaction (BCI) through Electroencephalography (EEG) signal decoding. Targeted at motor rehabilitation and prosthetic hand control, CWBT addresses traditional limitations in EEG classification, such as slow convergence and noise sensitivity by combining a Transformer architecture with Honeybee Optimization (HBO) to dynamically select learning rates. When tested on benchmark datasets (including BCI Competition IV 2a), the CWBT model achieved 95.60% classification accuracy for multi-class hand movement prediction, outperforming traditional machine learning and standard deep learning baselines.

The presentation highlighted essential ethical considerations, emphasizing brain data privacy, secure EEG data management, and the necessity of Explainable AI (XAI) as these assistive technologies transition from laboratory environments to real-time clinical applications.

 

Together, these presentations underscored a central message for the SSIT community: the future of AI and neurotechnology depends on active, value-driven design. Whether by synchronizing computational loads with planetary clean-energy cycles or engineering intelligent prosthetics with strict privacy safeguards, responsible innovation requires embedding ethical and environmental awareness directly into the core system architecture.

IEEE Planet Positive 2030 Initiative Webinar Now Available on IEEE TV

A recent presentation from Maike Luiken on The IEEE Planet Positive 2030 Initiative is now available to view here on IEEE TV. The presentation discusses some of the initiative’s achievements, outputs and plans forward; for example, standards development.

 

Webinar description: Imagine the future we can build together. Strong Sustainability by Design – Prioritizing Ecosystem and Human Flourishing with Technology-Based Solutions. This is the vision driving the work of IEEE Planet Positive 2030, an initiative created and supported by the IEEE Standards Association that brings together a global, diverse, open community of experts to help chart a path for all people to achieve a flourishing future for 2030 and beyond.

REGULAR FEATURES

SSIT Standards Committee Column: Q & A with Supriya Singh

This is the thirtieth installment of our column introducing SSIT members to our Standards Committee activities. For previous installments, see the September 2023–September 2026 issues  (available at the SSIT Newsletter Archive).

 

Supriya Singh, Chair, IEEE IC25-008

1. What is this standard?

 

This is an IEEE Standards Association Industry Connections Activity which helps incubate new standards and related products and services. It does this by facilitating collaboration among organizations and individuals as they hone and refine their thinking on rapidly changing technologies.

 

Our activity aims to harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to better prevent, address and heal family violence, placing vulnerable communities at the center of design and governance. We are working towards developing personas and scenarios which will be translated into use cases for training guides, recommendations for standards and open-source software.

 

Family violence is a personal and global problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that violence against women ‘is a major public health and gender equality problem and a violation of women's human rights.’ WHO estimates that ‘globally about 1 in 3 (31.6%) of women worldwide (840 million women and girls) have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual IPV or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime’ (World Health Organization, 2026).

 

The understanding of family violence has moved beyond physical and sexual violence to focus on coercive control, such as malicious patterns of emotional and economic abuse. 

 

Our work aims to prevent AI from amplifying the harm of imperfect family violence systems. Police misidentification of women as perpetrators is a major issue in Victoria, Australia. It is difficult to get the exact prevalence of misidentification for different sources cite rates from 10 percent to 50 percent (State of Victoria (Office of the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor), 2021). Victim-survivors from vulnerable communities—such as migrant, refugee and Aboriginal women. women with disability, neurodiversity, and LGBTIQ+ people—are more likely to be misidentified as perpetrators (Malins & Caulfield, 2025). The cultural and social context of family violence, particularly in the global South, is sparsely documented in data bases. An AI trained on sparse and unrepresentative data can solidify and amplify harm, particularly to vulnerable communities. 

 

We hope to design standards that would use AI to foster a partnership between trained community experts and the family violence system. We need an AI with a duty of care that will prioritise dignity, safety, care and community. This will help us better prevent and heal family violence to increase the well-being of women, men and children facing family violence.

 

2. Why is it important?

 

This activity is a compelling opportunity to foster a family violence system that has vulnerable communities at the center rather than as an afterthought. It aims to design a system that hears and explores the experiences of culturally diverse communities, people with disability, gender diverse persons, those suffering mental health problems, and others with remote or no access to services. 

 

It is also important for IEEE members who aim to use technology for the good of humanity to focus on family violence. One in three women across the world are victim-survivors. AI is already being used without guardrails to intensify family violence. The urgency is great because the family violence system as it exists does not fully address the needs of vulnerable communities. If AI draws on an inadequate understanding of the needs of coercive control, particularly in vulnerable communities, it could potentially solidify the biases and amplify harm. 

 
3. What is a real-world example of how this might help?

 

‘Hema’s’ story below is a composite drawn from practitioner experience of a service provider and a research case study of family violence in the Indian community in Melbourne.

 

‘Hema’ is 25-30 years old, from a village in North India. She is married to an Australian citizen and lives with her husband in a joint family household in Melbourne. Hema is socially isolated and still on a temporary visa. She has no money in hand. Hema is not allowed to go to classes to improve her English. Her brother-in-law has kept her jewelry for ‘safekeeping’. Emotional and financial abuse escalates to physical violence. Her husband warns her if she goes to the police, she will be deported and lose her four-year old twins. When the violence becomes unbearable, Hema fights back. Her husband calls the police and says she is the perpetrator. Hema is hysterical and cannot speak. The police label her the ‘perpetrator’. After going to several family violence services, the label is changed. In the meantime, Hema is homeless, with no support. She returns to her children and tells herself she was wrong to resist.
 
Designing an AI with a duty of care can help cement the links between community and family violence services. 

 

Relevant personas depicting broad cultural contexts can help community leaders trained and updated in family violence matters to design community education and skills workshops camouflaged in social meetings, festivals, celebrations, and religious services. These personas can help us recommend how training guides for the various service providers and community can better prevent, address and heal family violence.

 

4. What stage is it at?

 

We are at the halfway mark in our activity. We have moved from the usual design personas directed to one user for one objective to design adaptive personas for multiple users such as the community, the police as first responders, grassroots and specialist service provider, legal and health professionals. 

 

We are moving beyond our initial focus on the evaluation of family violence. We now aim to prevent, address and heal family violence, recognizing it is not a linear process. There is an emerging consensus in the group that we need an AI with a duty of care. We are exploring recommendations for standards around the concepts of safety, dignity, community and care. 

 

5. What is the current geographical or disciplinary representation of your working members?

 

Our geographical spread is uneven. Australians are the dominant group among our 68 members in mid-August 2026. India is the next group with substantial participation. We have a few members from the UK, US, Canada, Europe, Japan and South Africa. 

 

We would welcome members from Africa, South-east Asia, the middle East, the Pacific and Latin America, as well as better representation from the West. They would add community expertise and nuanced attention around access to AI across genders, AI literacy and human readiness to interact with AI. 

 

Our disciplinary spread is across the social sciences, technology and human-centered design. We have members from academia, service providers and grassroots family violence organizations. 
We would welcome more government, non-government and corporate organizations are trying to use AI while preventing harm. 

 

We would also like to work with regulators, policy makers and peak family violence bodies around the globe so that we can successfully mesh our work for greater community well-being. 

 

6. What type of people might be interested or well-suited for this standards group?

 

People who worry about how AI can amplify the harm to vulnerable communities of a one-size-fits-all family violence system would be interested to join us. Family violence is a case study for technologists who seek to design AI to address social problems where present knowledge is insufficient. People in our group are willing to learn how to communicate and collaborate across disciplines and the academic/practitioner/policy divide. 

 

We are asking: How can we design AI so it can say it does not know when it has insufficient knowledge? How best can we train community leaders to a greater understanding of family violence and coercive control?  How can organizations, government bodies, and service providers in the family violence system know the limits of their cultural knowledge? Can we use AI to direct first responders, service providers, health and legal professionals towards a greater partnership with community expertise? 

 

7. What triggered your own interest in this area?

 

I am a sociologist of money, a survivor of economic abuse, and a founding member of the Multicultural Women’s Alliance Against Family Violence in Melbourne, Australia. I am aware the family violence system in Australia is imperfect in preventing, addressing and healing family violence. It remains a one-size-fits-all system, despite Aboriginal and culturally diverse communities being at greater risk. Most family violence workers only speak English, though in 2021, nearly half the Australian population was born overseas or had one parent born abroad. A quarter of the Australian population was non-European and three per cent were indigenous. Funding is minimal for grassroots organisations that work with communities and deal with victim-survivors within their cultural context in their language. 

 

I became part of the SSIT network in 2024 because of previous work on user-centered design of technologies. One of my doctoral students from 20 years ago is a committed member. I found it difficult to hear dry discussions of ethical and responsible AI with no reference to the personal and global devastation of family violence. This led to a panel for the 2024 Australian workshop on “Dignity, Inclusion, Identity, Trust, and Agency” (DIITA) which is another IEEE SA Industry Connections Activity. I then discovered that family violence practitioners talked of increasing technology-facilitated abuse. But they did not see better design and governance of technologies could be part of the solution. This led to five of us in Melbourne initiating this Industry Connections activity in 2025. 

 

8. Call to Action

 

We are calling for family service providers and grassroots organizations dealing with vulnerable communities to have a voice in designing the governing principles of AI. Policy makers, peak family violence bodies, regulators and service organizations join us to prevent AI inadvertently leading to harm. Technologists that want to increase family and community well-being, help us translate the lived experience of family violence to an AI that has a duty of care.

 

If you are interested in joining the activity or learning more, please reach out to me at [email protected] or contact the IEEE Standards Association Program Manager, Jessica O’Hanlon at [email protected] 

 

References


Malins, P., & Caulfield, L. (2025). Harm in the Name of SafetyL Victorian Family Violence Workers' Experiences of Family Violence Policing (SURVIVAL PROJECT REPORT,, Issue. F. O. INC. https://www.flatout.org.au/resources/harm-in-the-name-of-safety

 

State of Victoria (Office of the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor). (2021). Monitoring Victoria’s family violence reforms: Accurate identification of the predominant aggressor. https://archive.fvrim.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-12/FVRIM%20Predominant%20Aggressor%20December%202021_0.pdf

 

World Health Organization. (2026, 18 June). Violence against women. Retrieved 14 August 2026 from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-women

SSIT In Action: “Delegating the Work, Not the Responsibility: Professional Judgment in the Age of AI”

By Haris Hamidovic

When professionals rely on AI-generated results, what happens to professional responsibility?

 

As a professor, engineer, expert witness, IT auditor and CISO, I encounter this question from different perspectives. In the classroom, it is about preparing future professionals. In engineering, it is about professional judgment and responsibility. As an expert witness, it is about whether a professional opinion supported by AI can still be independently justified and substantiated. In auditing, it is about whether we can reasonably rely on information produced by systems whose behavior may sometimes be difficult to explain and whose outputs may be incorrect. From a CISO perspective, it is also about whether the organization has established the governance, security controls, and risk management practices necessary for AI to be used responsibly.

 

Yet this is not an entirely new question.

 

In 1990, Donn B. Parker, et al. published Ethical Conflicts in Information and Computer Science, Technology, and Business, including a case involving civil engineers who increasingly relied on computer programs developed by systems analysts and programmers. The engineers were professionally responsible for safety-critical projects but questioned how they could be responsible for results that depended on programs they could not fully evaluate. The computer professionals, meanwhile, argued that they were merely providing tools.

 

The discussions behind the case, held in 1977 and 1987, reached a conclusion that remains remarkably relevant today: “One can delegate authority, but not responsibility.”

 

The technology was different, but the ethical question was already familiar: does relying on a technological tool transfer professional responsibility to the tool or to those who developed it?

 

More than three decades later, the same question has emerged in engineering practice with artificial intelligence. In NSPE Board of Ethical Review Case 24-2 (2024), the National Society of Professional Engineers examined an engineer's use of AI for written content and AI-assisted engineering design. The engineer thoroughly reviewed the AI-generated report text but conducted only a high-level review of the AI-assisted engineering designs. The client subsequently identified misaligned dimensions and omitted safety features. NSPE concluded that the use of AI itself was not unethical; rather, the ethical concern was whether the engineer maintained sufficient Responsible Charge over the work and exercised appropriate professional judgment and review.

 

What makes this case particularly interesting is that the NSPE Board itself connected Case 24-2 with its earlier BER Case 90-6, decided almost 35 years earlier, concerning computer-aided drafting and design (CADD). The earlier case considered whether an engineer could ethically sign and seal documents prepared using CADD. The Board recognized CADD as a valuable tool but cautioned against allowing it to become a “crutch or substitute for judgement.” The tools may differ, but the underlying professional question remains the same: how can engineers use increasingly capable technologies while retaining professional judgment and responsibility?

 

This principle is also consistent with the IEEE Code of Ethics, which emphasizes responsibility for engineering decisions affecting public safety, health, and welfare; understanding technology and its potential consequences; maintaining and improving technical competence; and recognizing and correcting errors. For professional engineers, these principles remain directly relevant when AI becomes part of the engineering process. For engineering students, they provide an important foundation before entering professional practice. Learning to use AI effectively should therefore go together with learning when its outputs require additional verification, when professional judgment cannot be delegated, and when the consequences of an error demand additional scrutiny.

 

For me, this issue is particularly relevant because I see it from five professional perspectives.

  • As a professor, I believe we must teach future engineers not only how to use AI, but how to question its output.
  • As an engineer, I cannot regard a technically plausible AI-generated result as sufficient. I must determine whether it is appropriate, reliable, and safe for its intended purpose.
  • As an expert witness, I cannot delegate my professional opinion to an AI system. AI may assist with research, analysis, or other aspects of my work, but I remain responsible for the opinion I provide and must be able to explain and substantiate its basis
  • As an IT auditor, I cannot accept an AI-generated result as reliable simply because it appears plausible. Professional skepticism, independent assessment, and an understanding of the limitations of AI systems, including the challenges associated with the explainability of their outputs, remain essential.
  • As a CISO, I must help ensure that AI is used within an appropriate governance, security, and risk management framework.

At the same time, the growing use of AI reinforces a broader professional obligation. Engineers, auditors, accountants, CISOs, expert witnesses, and other professionals must continuously maintain and develop their competencies—not only in AI and emerging technologies, but also in the business processes in which they operate, data, cybersecurity, privacy, legal and regulatory requirements, and ethical considerations relevant to their work. Professional competence cannot remain static when the technologies, risks, and regulatory environments surrounding professional practice are changing.

 

We can delegate tasks, calculations, and analysis to technology. We can even allow AI systems to recommend or initiate actions. But relying on technology does not, by itself, transfer the professional responsibility for deciding whether its output is appropriate to use.

 

The technology has changed. The responsibility has not.

 

PUBLICATIONS

IEEE Technology & Society Magazine

Cover of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, September 2025, featuring a dense jungle scene and the headline "In the Wild": Teaching Generative AI.

September 2026 Issue Now Available!


The September 2026 issue of Technology and Society Magazine (TSM) is now available on IEEE Xplore. This month’s issue is on “Automated Warfare and Civilian Harm.” The contents include topics such as the case for war juries in response to civilian harm from automated warfare, an empirical analysis of human control paradigms in drone attacks, the impact of remote e-working on work exhaustion, and more. There are also open access pieces from SSIT president Murty Polavarapu on the ethical imperatives of IEEE SSIT and from TSM’s editors on the social impact of biomedical devices.

 

Information About the Journal

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine (TSM) is SSIT’s award-winning flagship publication. It features peer-reviewed and general interest articles that explore and analyze the profound impacts of technology on our world.

IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society

Cover for "IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society" featuring a hand holding a smartphone with a text message conversation titled "AI, Empathy, and People," highlighting a difficult dialogue.

Information About the Journal

 

The IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society (TTS) publishes four issues each year (March, June, September, and December); submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.

 

The editorial team seeks research papers on the interactions among technology, science, and society; on the impact of such interactions on individuals and society; and on the ethical, professional and social responsibility in the practice of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 

For expressions of interest to serve on the editorial board as an ongoing reviewer or associate editor, or for other enquiries please email founding editor-in-chief George Roussos at [email protected].

SSIT Insights

ssit insights cover

Information About the Newsletter

The SSIT Insights Newsletter publishes monthly issues that include SSIT reports, announcements, accolades, events, initiatives, conferences, and regular features from our members. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis.


We welcome submissions from all members for future newsletter content. 

CONFERENCES

SSIT Financial Cosponsored Conferences

IEEE GHTC 2026

7–10 October 2026
Boulder, CO, USA

 

The IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (IEEE GHTC) is a flagship, international conference sharing evidence-based technology interventions and effective approaches for addressing the needs of underserved communities around the world. IEEE GHTC 2026 returns to last year’s theme “Technologies in Context,” encouraging authors to present technological solutions situated within their social, cultural, economic, and political contexts, as well as research on context-aware humanitarian engineering practice and education.

ISTAS26

14–16 October 2026

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

 

The 2026 International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS26) brings together engineers, social scientists, policymakers, industry leaders, and community stakeholders to examine the social, ethical, and policy dimensions of technology in the context of sustainable development. The conference is organized by the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT), with technical co-sponsorship from the IEEE Kerala Section and IEEE SSIT Kerala Chapter. The theme for ISTAS26 is "Sustainable Technologies for Global Development."

SSIT Technical Cosponsored Conferences

iSRED 2026: Registration Now Open!

10–11 November 2026

Fukuoka, Japan

 

The 2026 iteration of the International Symposium on Social Robots and Ethical Design (iSRED) features the theme “Leveraging Design Thinking for the Implementation of Responsible Robotics”.

 

As technological progress consistently outpaces traditional legislative processes, there is an urgent need for "compliance by design" in the development of social robots. This symposium explores how Design Thinking—a human-centric, iterative methodology—can serve as a foundational framework for Responsible Robotics. The symposium welcomes submissions that provide a case study/theoretical analysis of socially embedded systems (e.g., healthcare or assistive robots), demonstrating how iterative prototyping and stakeholder feedback loops foster transparency and accountability.

SSIT-Endorsed Conferences

WF-PST 2026
21-24 September 2026
Boulder, CO, USA

 

The third annual 2026 IEEE World Forum on Public Safety Technology (WF-PST),  a ground-breaking event dedicated to addressing current and future needs in public safety technology, will provide an opportunity for attendees to explore advancements in existing and emerging technologies, discover new research, and gain insights into the breakthroughs that are shaping the future of public safety applications.

 

The 4-day in-person program, featuring thought-provoking keynotes, critical-thinking panel discussions, and cutting-edge technical paper presentations, is designed to deliver high-quality, original research, unique innovations, and compelling insights into the future of public safety technologies.

SSIT Relevant Conferences

SANKET 2026
4-5 December 2026
Mumbai, India

 

SANKET 2026, the International Conference on Sustainability through Ancient Knowledge and Emerging Technologies is now being supported by the IEEE SSIT Chapters in the Hyderabad and Uttar Pradesh Sections. The event will be held at IIT Bombay in Mumbai, India. 

 

Focus areas for SANKET 2026 include Energy, Water, Waste Management, and Climate. The conference themes will be of interest to the wider SSIT membership, particularly those working in sustainability, responsible technology, societal impacts of emerging technologies, and interdisciplinary approaches to development. The event brochure features more details and can be downloaded by clicking here.

 

Registration for the conference will be open from 1 October – 30 November 2026.

ONGOING CALLS

Call for Expressions of Interest to Host SSIT Conferences

IEEE SSIT organizes, co-organizes, and sponsors conferences focused on technology, society and ethics. IEEE SSIT is seeking expressions of interest from SSIT members interested in hosting the following conferences around the world.

 

IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS)

IEEE ISTAS is the annual flagship event of the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). It is organized each year by SSIT in cooperation with SSIT Chapters and IEEE Sections. IEEE ISTAS brings together a broad range of disciplines (e.g., natural and social sciences, policy, ethics and education) to share research and experiences about the implications of technology adoption, adaptation and evolution.

 

SSIT is looking toward future ISTAS two to four years from now to allow planning and continuity between annual events. We are issuing a call for proposals for volunteers as organizers of ISTAS in 2026, and beyond.

 

IEEE Conference on Norbert Wiener in the 21st Century (21CW)

The 21CW conference series addresses the technical, social and personal legacy of the founder of cybernetics, control theory, and information ethics, Norbert Wiener. It has been held in Boston (2014), Melbourne (2016), and as a virtual event hosted from Chennai, India (2021), with satellite activities in India 2014, 2016, 2018.

 

Expressions of interest are welcome for 2027.

 

If you are interested in hosting one of these events, please contact SSIT Conferences Chair, Heather Love ([email protected]) to request SSIT’s Call for Proposals Guide, which provides:

  • Guidance for conference organization and operations
  • An overview of expectations for proposal content
  • Background on ISTAS conference (including a list of recent events)
  • A proposal template

Call for New Content: SSIT Website and IEEE.tv Channel

We invite SSIT members and Chapters to contribute content for publication on the SSIT website. Please send articles, event notifications and other relevant content (including pictures) to Terri Bookman, SSIT Administrator. 

 

Videos of Chapter events and other SSIT supported events are also welcome, but please reach out to Terri Bookman first to review speaker permission, SSIT branding and file size. 

Call for Nominations: IEEE SSIT Awards

IEEE SSIT has three major awards, all of which are open for nomination at this time.

 

The Carl Barus Award for Outstanding Service in the Public Interest is open to anyone, or group, who performs an important public service, possibly at the risk of career or reputation. This includes anyone, whether or not in the engineering profession, or a member of IEEE. The annual deadline for nominations is 1 April.

 

The SSIT Norbert Wiener Award for Social and Professional Responsibility is given to an individual or team for exceptional contribution, or outstanding career contribution in the field of the social implications of technology. The annual deadline for nominations is 1 April.

 

The Brian M. O’Connell SSIT Distinguished Service Award is for SSIT volunteers who have demonstrated outstanding service for the benefit of SSIT. The deadline for nominations is 1 July.

 

For award descriptions, including past recipients, and nomination forms please see this webpage.

 

Inquiries about the awards should be sent to Bob Dent ([email protected]).

Home  |   Sitemap  |   Contact & Support  |   Accessibility  |   Nondiscrimination Policy  |   IEEE Ethics Reporting  |   IEEE Privacy Policy  |   Terms  |   Feedback


© Copyright 2026 IEEE - All rights reserved. A public charity, IEEE is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.