Newsletter summary from IEEE SSIT August Newsletter. (A great resource!)
By Tonatiuh Rodriguez-Nikl (Professor of Civil Engineering, California State University - Los Angeles)
The Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology (fPET) was held from 9-11 June 2026 at the University of Maryland, bringing together an international group of philosophers, reflective engineers, and science and technology scholars; SSIT President Murty Polavarapu was also present. The forum offered a combination of keynote speakers, panel discussion, and concurrent presentations and was co-chaired by Zachary G. Pirtle (ASU CSPO), David Tomblin (UMCP) and Guru Madhavan (NAE). The conference website – including the schedule and abstracts – can be found here. It was hosted by the Science, Technology and Society programs in UMCP’s Clark School of Engineering.
fPET 2026 conference photo
Ethics formed a large part of the conversation, including nuts-and-bolts discussions about improving ethics education as well as broad questions related to the direction of technological development. For instance, retired engineering professors Thomas Siller and Gearold Johnson proposed moving from an anthropocentric to a biocentric framework in engineering decisions and George Percivall, who is active in IEEE standards, offered ideas for how philosophy can inform socio-technical systems in general. Not surprisingly, AI also formed a large part of the conversation. Perhaps the most impactful session on this topic was a panel of thinkers about, and users of, AI, including recent engineering graduates and current students.
Public policy was also a salient topic. There was a dialogue with policy leaders – including the philosopher Andrew Light, who had been a high ranking policy maker at the Department of Energy- as well as the philosophers Diana Martin, Michael Gifford and STS scholar Matthew Wisnioski. This panel was valuable for understanding how engineering is shaped at the governmental level. There was also a presentation on participatory technology assessment, led by ASU/Mahmud Farooque’s team, that illustrated both the how and why behind understanding and including the public’s opinion in the policy dialogue.
This is a great conference for reflective engineers to nurture their need to think more deeply about their craft. fPET is typically held every two years. Be on the lookout for the next conference. You can subscribe to the email list by clicking the button.