History of the fPET community

2024 fPET group photo, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Copyright/credit to N. Brahler

The Forum on Philosophy, Engineering & Technology (fPET) is a biennial meeting for philosophers, engineers and other researchers and practitioners related to both fields. The mission of fPET is

  • to encourage reflection on engineering, engineers, and technology and

  • to build bridges between existing organizations of philosophers and of engineers.

fPET follows in the tradition of the 2007 Workshop on Philosophy and Engineering (WPE) at Technical University- Delft. There was second WPE meeting in 2008 at the Royal Academy of Engineering. Rebranding to the current fPET name, a 2010 meeting was held at the Colorado School of Mines, a 2012 meeting at the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, in 2014 at Virginia Tech, and in 2016 at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg. fPET 2023 occurred at the Delft University of Technology. The 2024 fPET was held September 17-19, 2024, at the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology in Germany, with the website: https://www.fpet2024.org/

Plans for a 2026 fPET are in development.

Below lists past fPET book volumes. For information on the early WPE meeting abstracts and conference agenda, see the 2007 and 2008 abstracts. For information on past fPET asbtracts, see 2010 here, 2016 here, 2018 here, and 2020 here.

fPET steering committee (as of 2025 June)

fPET is given its identify and research motivation from its steering committee, which is listed below.

  • Co-chair: Viola Schaffonati (Politecnico di Milano)

  • Co-chair: Zachary Pirtle

  • Neelke Doorn (TU Delft)

  • Richard Evans (Cornell University)

  • Albrecht Fritzsche (IEDC - Bled School of Management)

  • David E. Goldberg (ThreeJoy Associates, Inc.)

  • Rafaela Hillerbrand (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

  • Natasha McCarthy (Royal Society)

  • Diane Michelfelder (Macalester College)

  • Carl Mitcham (Colorado School of Mines)

  • Byron Newberry (Baylor University)

  • Joe Pitt (Virginia Tech)

  • Michael Poznic (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

  • Ibo van de Poel (TU Delft)

  • Andrés Santa-María (Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María)

  • Ashley Shew (Virginia Tech)

Links to past fPET book volumes:

Past fPET research has been published through the Springer series on Philosophy of Engineering and Technology (POET). Many academic institutions have login access to Springer via their academic libraries. The POET series has been a valuable resource to encourage engineers and philosophers to do research in unison. The DOI numbers below link to the book webpages.

  • Didier, Christelle, and Aurélien Béranger, Antoine Bouzin, Hugo Paris, Jérémie Supiot. 2025. Engineering and Value Change. Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-83549-0 

    • Emerging from the 2023 fPET at the TU Delft. 

  • Fritzsche, Albrecht and Andrés Santa-María. 2023. Rethinking Technology and Engineering: Dialogues Across Disciplines and Geographies. Springer Cham https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25233-4  

    • Emerging from the 2020 Virtual fPET organized by Universidad Técnica Federico, Santa-María

    • Springer reports 7k online accesses (as of 2025)

  • Pirtle, Zachary, and Guru Madhavan, David Tomblin. 2021. Engineering and Philosophy: Reimagining Technology and Social Progress.  Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70099-7 

    • Springer reports 13k online accesses, had 27 citations on google scholar as of 2024

    • Emerging from the 2018  fPET at UMaryland, College Park. 

  • Fritzsche, Albrecht and Sascha Julian Oks. 2018. The Future of Engineering: Philosophical Foundations, Ethical Problems and Application Cases. Springer Cham. Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91029-1 

    • Emerging from the 2016 Nuremberg fPET.

    • Springer reports 11k online accesses

  • Mitcham, Carl and Bocong LI, Byron Newberry, Baichun ZHANG. 2018. Philosophy of Engineering, East and West. Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62450-1 

    • Emerging from the 2012 fPET hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Was published through Springer’s Boston Series in the History and Philosophy of Sciences.

    • Springer reports 18k online accesses. 

  • Michelfelder, Diane P.  and Byron Newberry, Qin Zhu. 2017. Philosophy and Engineering: Exploring Boundaries, Expanding Connections. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45193-0 

    • Emerging from the 2014 Virginia Tech fPET.

    • Springer reports 13k accesses. 

  • Michelfelder, Diane and Natasha McCarthy and David E Goldberg. 2013 Philosophy and Engineering: Reflections on Practice, Principles and Process. Springer Dordrecht.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7762-0

    • Emerging from the 2010 Colorado Mines fPET as well as the 2009 Workshop on Philosophy and Engineering in London

    • Springer reports 112k accesses, google scholars shows over 450 citations as of 2024

  • van de Poel, Ibo and David E Goldberg. 2010. Philosophy and Engineering: An Emerging Agenda. Springer Dordrecht.  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2804-4 

    • Emerging from the 2007 Workshop on Philosophy and Engineering in Delft.

    • Springer reports 52k online accesses, google scholar shows more than 450 citations as of 2024.