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Dear SSIT Members,
Conference travel has delayed the circulation of the May newsletter slightly, but we hope that you will enjoy this brief set of updates, which include:
- The announcement of Roba Abbas as new Co-Editor in Chief of IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society (Dr. Abbas joins Katina Michael in this role)
- A brief synopsis of the recently completed IEEE ETHICS-2023 Conference, which wrapped up on 20 May at Purdue University (Indiana, USA)
- Registration information for an upcoming webinar on “Empowering Women for Sustainable Climate Resilience” by Prof. Parkash Lohana (Usman Institute of Technology, Pakistan)
In addition, be sure to browse through the Publications and Conference sections below, and please consider submitting content for inclusion in future newsletters! We welcome 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 that might be of interest to SSIT members.
Submissions for future newsletters should be sent via email to [email protected]. The deadline for inclusion in the next issue is 9 June 2023.
Best wishes to you all.
Sincerely,
Heather Love (IEEE SSIT Newsletter Editor in Chief) and Shannon Lodoen (IEEE SSIT Newsletter Associate Editor)
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The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) announces the selection of Roba Abbas of the University of Wollongong, Australia, as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society (TTS), beginning 9 May 2023.
Professor Katina Michael of Arizona State University, USA, has begun her second accomplished three-year term as TTS EIC. Due to the rising number of submissions and international growth of SSIT publications, the Board of Governors has approved the co-EIC model across its publications.
“Our new Co-EIC is internationally recognized, as a leading voice in the socio-technical field, chairing the Socio-Technical Systems Technical Committee at the IEEE Society on the Social Implications of Technology, and bringing a unique skillset to the T&S community at large. Dr. Abbas’ interdisciplinary skillset is evidenced in her experience across Business, Informatics, and Engineering Schools and in her time in the industry,” said Michael.
Dr. Abbas has held numerous governance and teaching roles at the University of Wollongong’s Faculty of Business and Law. She has Guest Edited several special issues and sections of TTS and TSM over the past decade, as well as serving in numerous official IEEE roles, such Co-Editor, Associate Editor and Administrator of IEEE publications, the IEEE Australia Council Student Activities Coordinator and Conference Technical Program Chair. Her research interests focus on complex socio-technical systems design, emphasizing transdisciplinarity, co-design and the intersection of society, technology, ethics, and regulation. Her teaching experience is in courses such as information systems, operations management, human-centered design, e-business management, engineering design and logistics systems.
“I’m looking forward to co-developing TTS to a recognized interdisciplinary journal within the IEEE and beyond, where we will strive for positive contributions to processes, procedures, and production-related initiatives in service of SSIT’s pillars and mission,” said Abbas. “As we face increasingly complex challenges, I firmly believe in the significance of collaboration, ethics and interdisciplinarity in socio-technical studies, and advocate for research and projects that advance our understanding of the responsible and ethical implementation of these systems and of the social implications of technology.”
“I encourage all readers to engage with Roba’s seminal contributions over the years especially in the domains of socio-technical co-design, public interest technology, and regulation,” said Michael. “Roba’s research into socio-technical systems design and public consultation processes, provides a valuable approach to design with members of society, and ethical and regulatory considerations, in mind,” she continued.
Dr. Abbas can be reached at [email protected] and her IEEE Author Profile can be accessed at https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37543144600.
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IEEE ETHICS-2023 “Ethics in the Global Innovation Helix” took place from 18-20 May 2023 at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana, USA), and was a great success.
The event’s ~150 attendees enjoyed a rich program that included three plenary sessions, six hands-on workshops, eight thematic panels, six peer-reviewed paper panels, an evening poster session, and numerous opportunities to meet and socialize.
Congratulations and kudos to the IEEE ETHICS-2023 Organizing Committee, many thanks to the conference’s sponsors and partner organizations.
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IEEE SSIT Representatives (l-r) Greg Adamson, Tom Creely, Ketra Schmitt, Heather Love, and Joe Herkert at the SSIT table during the IEEE ETHICS-2023 Poster Session.
In addition, the fourth iteration of the IEEE Conference Series on Norbert Wiener in the Twenty-First Century (21CW) convened in a by-invitation, interdisciplinary pre-conference workshop on the topic “The Future of Work in the Age of Automation.”
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21CW Workshop Attendees at the end of a day-long exploration of “The Future of Work in the Age of Automation” from multiple disciplinary perspectives.
Stay tuned for a more detailed report and information about the ETHICS-2023 and 21CW conference proceedings and affiliated special issues in upcoming newsletters.
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As we mentioned in the last issue of this newsletter, the IEEE Humanitarian Technologies Board Ad Hoc Committee on SIGHT Best Practices is cooperating with a number of IEEE OUs including IEEE SSIT IST-Africa SIGHT, IEEE Bahrain Section SIGHT, IEEE Philadelphia Section SIGHT, IEEE Karachi SIGHT and IEEE UK and Ireland SSIT Chapter to organize a series of lectures during 2023.
IEEE Members, SIGHT Members and SSIT Members as well as non-IEEE Members are invited to Register and participate. The next lecture is as follows:
Prof. Parkash Lohana, Usman Institute of Technology, Pakistan
Empowering Women for Sustainable Climate Resilience
14 June 2023, 10:00 ET / 3pm GMT+1 (Click here to convert to your local time)
Registration link: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/352720
Focus: Climate change and disasters are major challenges in most Asia Pacific regions. It is deeply shaping the lives of communities, women are extremely sensitive to these changes given their lack of access to essential resources such as land, finance, or information, and also affects food security, nutrition, clean water, health, and livelihood. In particular, remotely habitant women, children, the elderly, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities, and other disadvantaged groups bear the brunt of climate change due to the social inequalities that limit them. Climate change, in turn, widens the social and economic space, trapping communities in a vicious circle. This webinar will focus on how women can be empowered for tackling climate change, especially by using their knowledge, skills, and abilities to adapt and mitigate climate change.
Recordings of past lectures (by Miriam Cunningham, Dr. Pritpal Singh, and Dr. Nizar Rokbani) are available at https://sight.ieee.org/resources/sight-best-practices-lecture-series/
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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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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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This CFP is for a Special Issue that will be developed in affiliation with the IEEE ISTAS 2023 Conference.
Guest Editors:
- Antoine Harfouche, University Paris Nanterre, France
- Mohammad I. Merhi, Indiana University South Bend, USA
- Abdullah Albizri, Montclair State University, USA
- Denis Dennehy, Swansea University, Wales
- Jason Thatcher, Temple University, USA
Sustainable development builds on the premise that development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (United Nations). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are global, grand challenges that are inherently complex, multi-faceted and socially embedded (Henriksen et al., 2021). The SDGs inevitably encounter tensions between their design and implementation, representing design-reality gaps (Pradhan et al., 2022; Heeks, 2020a; Dennehy et al., 2014). While optimism is relatively high about the role of technology and analytics in supporting sustainable global development (Smidt & Jokonya, 2022), significant learning remains about how best to use them as ‘platforms that mediate development’ (Heeks, 2020b).
There is increasing awareness and expectation that the academic community has an active role in achieving sustainable development that includes three interconnected elements, namely, economic well-being and social inclusion (Baghdadi, et al. 2020; Johnson et al., 2021), and environmental protection (Dennehy et al., 2021; Dwivedi et al., 2022). Despite the efforts made by scholars to advance the understanding of applying technology and analytics to encourage sustainable development and energy conservation (e.g., Albizri, 2020; Khene & Masiero, 2022; Masiero & Arvidsson, 2021), a concerted effort by academic disciplines, policymakers, practitioners, and the intended beneficiaries of the SDGs is required to discover and create better ways to build an inclusive, sustainable and resilient future for people and planet (Harfouche et al., 2019; Harfouche et al., 2022).
This Special Issue of the journal Information Systems Frontiers brings together contributions from various perspectives, disciplines, and communities to advance knowledge of how to apply technological innovations and data analytics for sustainable development to make the world a better place for all (Walsham, 2012). Some organizations focus on driving business value and keeping ahead of competitors. At the same time, others focus on facilitating societal change by generating both business value and social value. For this reason, organizations are investing more in responsible technological innovations, including responsible AI (Johnson et al., 2021; Merhi, 2022) for an ethical and inclusive digitized society. To further understand how to apply technology innovation and analytics to encourage sustainable social and economic development, we seek interdisciplinary papers that bridge domains including information systems, organizational science, strategic management, and information science.
Important Dates:
- Submission deadline: 30 September 2023
- Notification of first round reviews: 15 December 2023 § Revised Manuscripts due: 15 February 2024
- Notification of second round reviews: 30 April 2024
- Final version due: 30 June 2024
See the full Special Issue CFP for details regarding topics of interest and submission guidelines.
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This CFP is for a Special Issue that will be developed in affiliation with the IEEE ISTAS 2023 Conference.
Guest Editors:
- Ransom Bawack, Audencia Business School, France
- Sian Roderick, School of Management, Swansea University, Wales, UK
- Abdalla Badhrus, Muslim Education and Welfare Association (MEWA), Kenya
- Denis Dennehy, Swansea University, Wales
- Jacqueline Corbett, Faculty of Business Administration, Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada
This Special Issue of the journal Information Technology for Development aims to stimulate rigorous scientific research on the role of indigenous knowledge in IT for sustainable development. Heading into the critical second half of the SDG 2030 agenda, this Special Issue focuses on how to leverage and integrate indigenous knowledge to increase the contribution of IT solutions to the achievement of the SDGs. It aspires to demonstrate how strengthening the involvement of indigenous peoples, local communities, and their knowledge can influence the impacts of IT-based development strategies that meet the needs of poor and marginalized communities. Thus, we welcome papers that reveal the positive and/or negative aspects of associating indigenous knowledge and IT for sustainable development.
This Special Issue welcomes papers from all disciplines and encourages multidisciplinary that apply quantitative, qualitative, design science or mixed-methods research approaches.
Important Dates:
- Deadline for submission: 15 January 2024
- Notification of initial acceptance: 31 March 2024
- Deadline for revised papers: 30 June 2024
- Notification of final acceptance: 30 September 2024
- Tentative publication date: December 2024
See the full Special Issue CFP for details regarding context, aims, and scope; topics of interest; and submission guidelines.
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Happening This Week! IST-Africa 2023
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31 May – 02 June 2023
Tshwane, South Africa
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Hosted by the Government of South Africa through the Department of Science and Innovation and Supported by the European Commission (EC) and African Union Commission (AUC), IST-Africa 2023 is the eighteenth in an annual series of Technology Research, Innovation and Policy Conferences. IST-Africa 2023 is technical co-sponsored by SSIT.
Following three years of successfully organising IST-Africa as a virtual event to protect the health and well-being of IST-Africa Community Members due to the unprecedented circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic, IST-Africa 2023 will take place as a physical in-person event in CSIR International Conference Centre, Tshwane, South Africa from 31 May - 02 June.
IST-Africa 2023 will provide a world-class international forum to showcase existing technology-enabled Research, Innovation and ICT4D activities and capacity in Africa, Europe and other parts of the world. IST-Africa directly supports Innovation, Science and Technology aspects of the Africa-EU Strategic Partnership, the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024) and national policies including ICT and Digital Economy Masterplan for South Africa, National Digital and Future Skills Strategy and Foundational Digital Capabilities Research – Decadal Plan.
IST-Africa 2023 Advance Program
The IST-Africa 2023 Conference Program incorporates a mix of strategic plenary sessions, complemented by a scientific program featuring technical and case study papers and oral presentations.
The IST-Africa 2023 Advance Program incorporates 31 thematically focused sessions featuring over 90 presenters from the public, private, education, research and societal organizations from 25 countries addressing eHealth, Societal Implications of Technology, Next Generation Computing (including Artificial Intelligence, BlockChain, Internet of Things), Cyber Security, eGovernment, Technology Enhanced Learning, eAgriculture, Environmental Sustainability, Global Development, Content Technologies and Collaborative Open Innovation.
Registration
Click here to learn more about registration.
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IEEE ISTAS 2023: Technology and Analytics for Global Development
13-15 September 2023
Swansea University, Swansea, Wales
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The IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS) is the flagship conference of the IEEE’s Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT). ISTAS is a multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary forum for engineers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, philosophers, researchers, social scientists, and technologists to collaborate, exchange experiences, and discuss the social implications of technology.
ISTAS23 aims to bring together contributions from a variety of perspectives, disciplines, and communities for the advancement of knowledge regarding Technology and Analytics for Global Development. Participation is invited from academics and practitioners who are engaged in current debates about the role and significance of technology and analytics, and who are interested in topics related to sustainability, ethics, equity, and social values for global development.
You can visit the conference website to find out about the fantastic confirmed Keynote Speakers:
- Prof. Sajda Qureshi (University of Nebraska, Omaha)
- Prof. H. Raghav Rao (University of Texas at San Antonio)
- Adballah Badhrus (Muslim Education and Welfare Association [MEWA], Kenya)
Registration details are available now; the registration portal will open in the coming month.
IEEE ISTAS 2023 is Technical Co-sponsored by IEEE Region 8, IEEE UK and Ireland Section, IEEE UK and Ireland SSIT Chapter, and IEEE UK and Ireland Education Chapter.
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2023 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)
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12 - 15 October 2023
Villanova University, USA
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IEEE GHTC focuses on advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. This cross-disciplinary annual conference provides the perfect venue for those interested in humanitarian projects to join their peers in October 2023 at Villanova University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA.
GHTC is an international flagship conference, focused on bringing together people working on the application of technology to address critical issues for the benefit of the resource-constrained and vulnerable populations in the world. It is a forum where IEEE works with developers and NGOs to identify the most pressing needs. We encourage participants from academia, for-profit and non-profit businesses, governmental and non-governmental organizations to attend and present research, ideas, and other considerations for the creation of effective humanitarian technology. We also invite participants to share case studies and lessons learned from the deployment and application of humanitarian technologies.
For more information, visit: https://ieeeghtc.org/
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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 2024 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 2025.
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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