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Dear SSIT Members,
We hope that this newsletter finds you well! Read on for the following reports, updates, news items, and more…
- The recent “IEEE Quarter Tech Talk Table” on Generative AI at Chandigarh University (Punjab, India).
- An IEEE Tech for Good funding opportunity (deadline 31 March!).
- The CFP for the 2024 IEEE Digital Platforms and Societal Harms Conference.
- This month’s SSIT Standards Association Column, featuring Maike Luiken, Working Group Chair for P7800 TM, Recommended Practice for Addressing Sustainability, Environmental Stewardship and Climate Change Challenges in Professional Practice.
- Several publication and conference opportunities.
As always, we invite submissions of content for inclusion in future newsletters. Please send along announcements for and reports on local chapter meetings, events, or outreach activities. In addition, we would love to hear about upcoming events, webinars, and conferences relevant to SSIT members.
Please send the proposed content via email to [email protected]. The deadline for inclusion in the next newsletter is 8 April 2024.
Best wishes to you all.
Sincerely,
Heather Love (SSIT Newsletter EiC)
Shannon Lodoen (SSIT Newsletter Associate Editor)
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All SSIT members are invited to submit brief reports and updates about upcoming and completed presentations and activities you are part of that are relevant to SSIT!
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Submitted by Ramneek Kalra
A group of IEEE Young Professionals & Impact Creators gathered on 19 February 2024 (09:00 AM – 5:00 PM IST) for the “Quarter Tech Talk Table 12.0 (QT3),” which comprised a Panel Discussion on the topic - “Generative AI: Where Creativity Meets Code." The event was conducted in collaboration with the IEEE Chandigarh University Student Branch, IEEE SSIT, IEEE TV and host institution, Chandigarh University (Punjab, India).
Event Details: This was the 2nd fully in-person Quarter Tech Talk with 100+ Participants across Chandigarh attending. Ramneek Kalra (IEEE Impact Creator) delivered a keynote address titled “Spark to Impact: Igniting your IEEE Journey.” Panelists included Ayush Sharma (Cloud Support Engineer II | Amazon Web Services), Monika Mehta (Research@AI & Assistant Professor at NIFT), and Balaji Parthasarthy (Professor | IIIT Bangalore), Nidhi Shingade (IEEE Impact Creator), as well as Bozenna Pasik Duncan (Professor at The University of Kansas), Prashant R Nair (Chair, IEEE.tv Advisory Committee), and Ramalatha Marimuthu (Director at iExplore Foundation for Sustainability Development).
Along with above, Host Members including Dr. Vikas Wasson, Dr. Sugandha Sharma and Shruti Kuhar supported us to host this edition smoothly and flexibly under their IEEE Chandigarh University Student Branch.
Some of the main session’s points of discussion were:
Discussed points:
- Transitioning to the impact of GenAI on industries, Ayush provided a detailed overview of how advanced AI technologies are reshaping various sectors. Overall, Ayush's descriptive insights provided valuable guidance to newcomers, equipping them with the knowledge and resources needed to embark on a rewarding journey in AI/ML and navigate the transformative landscape of GenAI across diverse industries.
- Monika, an independent researcher in AI, highlighted various research pathways available to undergraduate students interested in the field. She provided insights on Gen AI starting from basic to advanced applications.
- Balaji Sir highlighted the need for transparency, fairness, accountability, and privacy protection in AI systems to mitigate potential risks and biases. He emphasized that while technological advancements drive progress, ethical considerations and robust policies are paramount for ensuring the positive impact of AI on society's development. He gave an introduction about the role of IEEE TechEthics.
- In summary, the key points discussed were related to various aspects of AI, its impact, and ethical considerations. GenAI's influence on industries and career prospects highlighting its transformative potential, including roles in data science and AI research were discussed.
Speed Mentoring: IEEE QT3 ended with guidance from our invited panelists and volunteers who are currently working with renowned MNCs and academics. The basic idea behind organizing speed mentoring was to have a direct interaction with the panelists and volunteers.
Diverse Audience: This edition was joined by 100+ participants including 21 (IEEE Members) and 80 (Non-IEEE Members); the latter were encouraged to become IEEE members post-event.
Are you interested in hosting the next edition? If yes, you can nominate yourself at: https://bit.ly/CallForHost_IEEEQT3 and explore more details on the Event at: https://ieeeqt3.org
For any queries/clarifications, please feel free to connect with [email protected].
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Submitted by Julianna M. Pichardo, Humanitarian Activities & Sustainable Development Manager, IEEE Corporate Activities
The IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board (HTB) inspires and empowers IEEE volunteers around the world carrying out and supporting impactful humanitarian technology activities at the local level. Its IEEE Tech4Good program offers funding opportunities to support grassroots technological projects, led by IEEE members, that address local challenges related to sustainable development.
Applications may be submitted using the Online Funding Opportunities Portal through 31 March 2024 and will be reviewed on a rolling basis. We encourage applicants to submit their proposals as soon as they can.
Potential applicants are encouraged to visit the HTB website to see the technology impact categories, the funding specifications, evaluation criteria and the detailed Call for Proposals. There is also a blank application form available to help with planning and preparation. For any questions about the suitability of your proposal, or for promotional materials to share with your Chapter or Student Branch, please write to [email protected].
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The 4th IEEE Digital Platforms and Societal Harms (2024 DPSH) will take place 14-15 Oct. 2024 at American University, Washington DC, USA. This conference facilitates discussions and collaborations among researchers and practitioners addressing today’s massive propagation of harmful information on digital platforms, including hate speech, discrimination, violent extremism, child sexual abuse, disinformation and misinformation. In addition to research papers for presentation and publication in the proceedings, abstract only (non-publication) presentations on relevant initiatives in government, civil society, and academia are welcome.
Topics of Interest include but are not limited to:
- Law and public policy, such as Approaches to harm minimisation; Trade offs between competing legal and policy incentives; Global trends in government responses and intervention to social harms; Human behavior and emotional regulation; Public-private cooperation to address social harms
- Tech/private sector policy and governance, such as Development of corporate policies and safety by design; Responsible tech governance, management and oversight; Corporate governance structure design; Protection, ranging from whistleblower protection to protection of designs as project progress; Transparency; Balance competing policy incentives (free speech and harm minimisation)
- Information aspects, such as Definitions of information trustworthiness, authenticity, integrity and credibility; Information quality and content moderation; Boundaries of journalistic behavior online; Suitability of news content from journalistic entities to surface ground truth
- User aspects and psychological features, such as Definitions and analysis of online authentic behavior; Human behavior analysis; Cognitive tagging; Trust mechanisms; Moral foundations & ethical frameworks; Evolutionary features of online hate speech and disinformation; Hatred basis against various religious and ethnic groups; Human performance against DeepFake media; User views on government or corporate approaches to mitigating harms; User reporting mechanisms design; User safety
- AI and digital harms, such as Ethical, Explainable and Sustainable AI; Algorithmic bias and discrimination; New datasets and evaluation methodologies; New approaches for ground truth labeling; DeepFake media generation or detection; AI chatbots as information assistant or opinion influencer; Open-source toolkits, Serverless AI Applications
- Media propagation aspects, such as Propagation mechanism; Propagation and authenticity; Conspiracies, disinformation and propaganda; Regional and local media; Media fragmentation and changing patterns of media consumption and usage; Risks and opportunities of new media usage; Media representation, inequalities, and minorities; Media and information warfare
Important dates:
- Full paper submission: 15 April 2024
- Acceptance notification: 31 July 2024
- Camera Ready Manuscript: 15 August 2024
Sponsorship opportunities (open to corporate, government, and civil society) close 9 August 2024. See website for details.
For more details, visit the event website.
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This is the seventh installment of a new column introducing SSIT members to our Standards Committee activities. For previous installments, see the September 2023 - February 2024 issues (available at the SSIT Newsletter Archive).
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Maike Luiken, IEEE SSIT Standards Committee Working Group Chair P7800TM, Recommended Practice for Addressing Sustainability, Environmental Stewardship and Climate Change Challenges in Professional Practice
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What is this standard?
The IEEE P7800TM standard is being developed as a Recommended Practice for Addressing Sustainability, Environmental Stewardship and Climate Change Challenges in Professional Practice. (Chair, Maike Luiken; Vice Chair, David Gonzalez; Secretaries, Aiste Rugeviciute and Susan Dickey).
The Project Authorization Request’s scope is as follows: This recommended practice provides a framework for exercising sound professional judgment, to be applicable to all aspects of professional practice including engineering, technical practice, and technological innovation. This recommended practice encourages and helps engineers, scientists, technologists, and other professionals consider the implications of climate change and the need for sustainable development and environmental stewardship. Considerations include opportunities within their practice, impacts on societies, and means for creating a clear record of the outcomes of those considerations.
This recommended practice is expected to provide a coherent approach to the development of any project or service, such that climate change, environmental stewardship, and sustainability are considered and incorporated from project initiation to project completion.
Why is it important?
This recommended practice is important for project execution by individuals or by multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary teams working in the global context of climate change, ecosystem deterioration and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
These challenges have been recognized by other organizations over the past couple of decades, and various engineering associations have developed guidelines to be used in addition to their organizations’ code of ethics (for example, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and Engineers Canada). These guidelines call for engineers to take either climate change or sustainability/environmental stewardship (or both) into consideration during project planning and execution.
As a small team of IEEE members looking at adopting a similar approach (developing a set of guidelines to be used alongside the IEEE Code of Ethics) for the work carried out under the IEEE Joint OU Ad Hoc on Sustainable Development (SDAH), we quickly recognized that we should use the standards process to develop a recommended practice beyond IEEE Members; furthermore, it became obvious that this recommended practice should be applicable to and used by all participants (team members) of a given project: engineers, technologists, government officials, business people – in other words, all stakeholders. This is becoming more and more important, as we need to keep in mind and address the critical challenges posed by global warming, ecosystem degradation, the need to minimize waste (that is, achieve a circular economy), and the need to achieve the UN SDGs. Hence, the PAR’s scope as quoted above.
What is a real-world example/case study of how this might help?
An example might be a project to adapt to impacts of climate change; e.g. the ocean levels are rising, and coastal populations need to face and deal with the consequences. This could involve a project considering a stretch of coastal lands threatened by flooding. There are options: moving the population, re-generating coastal wetlands to protect the populated areas from high waves, building fortifications, or a combination thereof. I grew up right at the North Sea coast on land re-gained from the sea, and these are options that come to mind. All these options require local context, local stakeholder engagement, common language, and so on. The IEEE P7800TM Working Group is developing a suite of recommended practices for these transdisciplinary teams to work together successfully towards a common goal.
What stage is it at?
The working group has developed an outline of eleven Recommended Practices at this point. Currently, the team is working on detailed descriptions, including sub-recommendations for potential actions.
What is the current geographical or disciplinary spread of your working members?
The membership of the working group originates from different regions around the globe with a majority of active members residing in North America. There is participation from multiple scientific and engineering disciplines within academia, industry, and government.
What type of people might be interested or well suited for this standards group?
This Standard’s Working Group is of interest to people from many professions, backgrounds, and locations who identify with the scope. The recommended practice standard is aimed to provide scope recommendations for transdisciplinary project teams to include consideration in their work of: the challenges of achieving sustainability, environmental stewardship, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. This includes, for example, design for a circular economy and regenerative design.
What triggered your own interest in this area?
I have been very interested in sustainability-related questions and issues since reading, a long time ago, “The Limits to Growth” by Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Jørgen Randers, and William Behrens III (free download available here). Later, I led a Sustainability Initiative for several years. While I was attending IEEE Board of Directors meetings as Region 7 Director-elect and as Region Director, (2016-19), the wording ‘environmentally sustainable economies’ was introduced into IEEE Policies, Section 9.18: Environment, Health, and Safety.
In November 2019, the IEEE Board of Directors passed a motion encouraging OUs to engage in sustainability-related activities. As one of the original 3 co-chairs – together with Bruno Meyer (TA), Robert Fish (SA) of the IEEE Joint Organizational Unit (OU) Ad Hoc on Sustainable Development (SDAH) – I was looking at what other organizations were doing to integrate sustainability, sustainable development, environmental stewardship, and climate change related goals into their policy and guideline documents. If we truly want to achieve a long-term, sustainable, healthy planetary biosphere, this goal must be part of our decisions and actions. This led to the concept of a set of guidelines alongside the IEEE Code of Ethics and the Code of Conduct. We formed a small volunteer team, supported by IEEE SA staff, to work on this concept.
Around the same time the ‘Sustainable Infrastructures & Community Development Program’ of IEEE SA Industry Connections was initiated by the SDAH, and this project became a part of this industry Connections Activity. Reflecting on the membership of IEEE (in the order of 50% engineers), these guidelines had to be valid for professionals with a variety of backgrounds. An initial draft set was shared with the IEEE Joint OU Ad Hoc on Sustainable Development. The members of SDAH recommended using the SA standards process to continue developing this concept. Thinking further brought us to the realization that such recommendations should be valid for all members and stakeholders of a project team.
Those deliberations in turn led to the decision to prepare a PAR for a standard – a Recommended Practice. And, in the fall of 2022, invitations to participate were distributed and the IEEE P7800TM Working Group was formed: an excellent multi-disciplinary team.
Call to Action
You are invited to join us! If you would like to participate, please get in touch and email me at [email protected] or contact the IEEE Standards Association Program Manager, Christy Bahn, [email protected] to indicate your interest. You can also see the entire PAR and indicate your interest at https://sagroups.ieee.org/7800/.
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Information About the Journal
IEEE 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.
Find out more about the publication’s scope, topics, and article submission guidelines here, and visit the IEEE TSM section of the SSIT website to read about current and past issues.
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Call for Special Issue Proposals
The Co-Editors-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society (IEEE TTS or Transactions) are calling for special issue proposals from interested members of the international community: informed academics, practitioners, government representatives, and third sector advocates and volunteers, inclusive of independent researchers. This call pertains to special issues that will be scheduled for publication in 2025-26.
- The special issue proposals should be in line with IEEE TTS’ fields of interest and address an interdisciplinary space or theme with researchers who have strengths in two or more fields, and, more broadly, in technology and society.
- The special issues must address contemporary, real-world challenges of significance to individuals, communities, organizations, industries, and or society more broadly. The challenges or special issue themes proposed should transcend borders and demonstrate complexity, while relying on multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary approaches.
- The focus of topics identified in the special issue proposals should deal with the prominent areas of consideration relevant to the identified special issue theme, and the call should be layered allowing for theoretical and methodological contributions, and diverse empirical analysis that is qualitative, quantitative, or experimental, with clearly identifiable objectives.
Please click here to view the full details and requirements, as published in IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society.
Information About the Journal
The IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society 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.
Find out more about the publication’s scope, topics, and article submission guidelines here, and be sure to visit the Transactions section of the SSIT website to read about current and past issues.
For expressions of interest to serve on the editorial board as an ongoing reviewer or associate editor, or for other inquiries please email the founding editor-in-chief at [email protected].
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The IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society (TTS) has launched a call for papers for an upcoming special issue on the theme “Imagining Tomorrow’s Infrastructure.”
Guest Editors:
- Dr Lindsay J. Robertson, Massey University
- Dr Lucy Resnyansky, Defence Science and Technology Group, Australia
- Professor Clinton J. Andrews, Rutgers University
Current infrastructure has served billions of people around the world and has achieved efficiencies and economies of scale. Most of it was built using assumptions of perpetual growth and demographic and socio-economic stability but once in place it has also generated vulnerabilities and a need to protect against the exploitation of those vulnerabilities. The relevance of some foundational assumptions is decreasing, and further changes may be expected. The precise scope of what counts as ‘infrastructure’ varies by jurisdiction and ideology, yielding almost arbitrary distinctions between it and other equally essential services (banking and finance, health services, communications, logistics and food distribution, etc.) that are left to be provided by the marketplace. There is similar variation in whether public or private actors provide infrastructure services. Paradoxically, we have seen a deterioration of mental health in an era when the infrastructure required for the provision of basic physical needs has seldom been better, and similarly we have seen a pandemic of loneliness in an era when the infrastructural means of communications have never been better. Finally, although the phrase “revolutionary technology” has been overused, technological changes have generated new design opportunities that may yield more robust performance of infrastructural systems.
Noting that many of the original drivers for infrastructure development have changed and worrisome vulnerabilities and interdependencies have emerged, it is timely to assess the future of infrastructure systems. Assessments should consider the diversity of economic conditions, network effects, and broader environmental and cultural changes. Some adaptations to the scope of “infrastructure” may be needed. Sewage treatment, roads/rails and bridges, power transmission, potable water provision and administrative accommodation have been traditionally considered as essential infrastructure, but financial services, healthcare and communications may claim to be equally foundational. Basic needs must not be forgotten but long-term changes to the definition of “basic needs” served by infrastructure warrant consideration. Less centralized and more mobile human populations (whether voluntary migrants or refugees) create specific infrastructure-planning challenges that deserve assessment of issues including unequal access, variations in the timing of demand, and a desire for greater interoperability.
Family members and local social networks once informally satisfied many human needs such as friendship, child-support, medical treatment, and care of the elderly. Now many people look for these services in the marketplace or from infrastructure providers. Changing patterns of mobility (and provision for those living with disability) and opportunities for remote working have disrupted historical approaches in surprising ways. In a society whose demographics and means of economic production are changing fundamentally there are challenges in building infrastructure that offers improved ability to meet real human needs. Efforts to augment physical infrastructures with sensors and autonomous intelligence are underway, leaving open questions about their economic, social and ethical implications.
Let’s apply our research to identifying/evaluating the social changes that would be required to support radically changed infrastructure. Let’s imagine which infrastructure investments will retain value if disruptive technologies such as telemedicine, local energy storage, or local food and medicine synthesis mature. Let’s consider whether it is feasible to predict the advent of disruptive infrastructural technologies – and finally let us consider how infrastructure systems can make graceful transitions to future scopes and future configurations.
Acceptable types of paper may include:
- Interdisciplinary considerations connecting technical perspectives on future critical infrastructure to socio-cultural and political-economic theories
- Papers approaching critical infrastructure as a social construct shaped by socio-historical contexts, competing discourses and visions of the future
- Examinations of theoretical concepts and broader sociocultural ideas for approaching the future critical infrastructures problem
- Investigations that describe and explain change in infrastructure systems. Reviews of literature on one or more of the proposed themes
Special issue submissions may be focused upon, but not need not be limited to, the following topics:
- Resilient and robust infrastructure
- New and changing infrastructure scope
- (Re)distributed infrastructure
- Connectedness and meeting real human needs
- Supporting a next-generation infrastructure
- Disruptive infrastructural technology
- Sociotechnical and economic transition options
- ”future proof” infrastructure approaches
Important dates:
- Submissions open: NOW
- Submissions close: 29 March 2024
- Author latest notifications of acceptance: June 2024
- Subsequent review rounds: June-September 2024
- Final receipt of final files 01 October 2024
- Publication of special issue (tentative): 01 December 2024
Full details and submission information are available here.
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Early Bird Registration Ends Soon for SusTech 2024: Inspiring Technology Solutions for Climate Sustainability
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14 – 17 April 2024
Portland, Oregon
The 11th IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability (SusTech 2024) is designed to explore development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. SusTech brings together scientists, engineers, technologists and scholars from multiple disciplines to hold a dialogue on environmental issues and collaborate on ideas to develop and utilize innovative tools and intelligent systems to address the need for Sustainable Infrastructure. For the 10th Anniversary we will also look into the diffusion over the past decade of sustainable technologies into practice (e.g. design and implementation).
Attendees will learn about the emerging technologies, latest tools, and proactive solutions to take their sustainability programs to the next level. Papers are solicited from industry, government, and academia (including collegiate students) covering relevant research, technologies, methodologies, tools and case studies. Conference content that meets IEEE quality review standards and format will be submitted for inclusion into the IEEE Xplore Digital Library.
Registration information:
Early Registration ends 30 March 2024
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Evolution: IEEE Life Members Conference
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14-16 April 2024
Hyatt Regency, Austin, TX
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We are excited to announce the inaugural Life Members Conference, designed to strengthen the engagement of IEEE's 38,000 Life Members in shaping our collective future. Life Members represent all disciplines across the IEEE's fields of interest. We are also dedicated to giving back and sharing our expertise with the next generation.
The conference has three tracks:
1. Emerging Technologies – that impact seniors
- Technologies of the Future and the Next Chapter
- Aging Society and Technology Progress
- Renewable Energy and Sustainability
2. Applications – technologies used by aging populations
- Financial and Investment Strategies
- Smart Systems, Infrastructure, Equipment and Living
3. Contributions – members sharing resources with future leaders
- Mentors and Influencers in the Modern Society
- Professional Development, Sharing and STEM Education
Our growing list of speakers include Rodney Brooks (iRobot), John McDonald (GE), Whurley (Strangeworks), Manuela Veloso (JP Morgan), Bernie Sander (AMD), Julie Shah (MIT) (and more!). Speaker commitments are ongoing and over the summer and fall, we’ll have a large list of exciting and engaging speakers, keynotes and topics to share.
Join other Life Members, Senior Members, influencers, innovators, technical professionals, and members of the STEM community in Austin for this inaugural event.
Full details available here.
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20-24 May 2024
Virtual event
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Supported by the European Commission (EC) and African Union Commission (AUC), IST-Africa 2024 (May) is the nineteenth in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Policy, Research and Innovation Conferences. IST-Africa 2024 is technical co-sponsored by IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT).
The IST-Africa Conference Series provides a world-class strategic platform rotating around Africa to strengthen technology-enabled Innovation, Science and Technology and Entrepreneurship related policy dialogues within Africa and between Africa, Europe and the rest of the world, Global Development, Research and Innovation Cooperation and Community Building. It also provides an opportunity to identify potential partners for future research cooperation under Horizon Europe and other international funding programs. IST-Africa is a unique community that brings together cross-disciplinary stakeholders from public, private, education and research, societal, funding and international donor sectors with end user communities focused on ICT and STI Research and Innovation and Technology-enabled Entrepreneurship.
Full conference details available here.
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18 – 20 September 2024
Puebla, Mexico
SSIT’s annual flagship conference, the 2024 International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) will take place from 18 - 20 September in Puebla, Mexico focused on the theme: The Social Implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The conference CFP is now live on the conference website.
SSIT invites participation from practitioners in academia, industry, and government who contemplate the impacts of technology on today’s society in the areas of ethics, sustainability, and equity, and who particularly examine social values within the tech industry. We also invite individuals involved in Technology Policy that would like to better understand the social implications that will arise with the use of AI. Virtual participation is available for authors and attendees outside of Mexico.
The conference seeks to foster multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary interactions with cross-sector conversations about legal and economic issues of AI and challenges for policy makers. Examples of risks include inadvertent malicious use of AI, or security risks when, say, medical guidelines produced by these systems may contain false information and cause the death of a patient. Plagiarism may occur with the use of AI in education, industry or government. As Society becomes more dependent on the use of AI, new social challenges will arise when AI and automation eliminate manufacturing jobs, requiring re-education of the work force. AI offers new challenges in cybersecurity as well as new approaches for national and international security, AI ethics, ethics in autonomous weapons systems and the use of autonomous transportation vehicles.
Visit the conference website for the full list of topics of interest.
Important Dates
- Paper submission deadline: 31 May 2024
- Notification: 30 June 2024
- Camera-ready paper deadline: 26 July 2024
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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 2025 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), and at Purdue University (2023) with satellite activities in India 2014, 2016, 2018.
An announcement for 2025 is expected soon; expressions of interest are welcome for 2027.
If you are interested in hosting one of these events, please contact SSIT Conferences Chair, Jay Pearlman at [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
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Thank you to the SSIT Members and Chapters who have responded to date to the invitation to contribute content for publication on the SSIT website. We look forward to receiving regular contributions. Please send articles, event notifications and other relevant content including pictures to Miriam Cunningham, SSIT Web Committee Chair.
SSIT Chapters, Distinguished Lecturers and SSIT supported Events are invited to provide Miriam Cunningham with recordings of Guest Lectures and other relevant content linked with SSIT’s Technical areas and field of interest for publication in the SSIT Society Channel on IEEE.tv. Please send a link by email to download the .mp4 file, include SSIT branding in the recording, and ensure that you have written permission from the speaker to publish it.
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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. Further information on recipients can be found at https://technologyandsociety.org/member-resources/awards-programs/barus-award-recipients/.
The Brian M. O’Connell SSIT Distinguished Service Award is for SSIT volunteers who have demonstrated outstanding service for the benefit of SSIT. More information on this award can be found at
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