Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture (IPEC) News Blog

Tag: faculty

Spring 2024 IPEC Seed Grant Awards Announced

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The Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture (IPEC) announces the Spring 2024 Research Seed Grant award recipients. Congratulations to each of the awardees.

The principal investigators of the awarded projects include:

Faculty Small Seed Research Grants:

  • Erika Vye (GLRC)
  • Mark Lounibos (HU)
  • Dana Van Kooy (HU)
  • Mary Cyr (VPA)
  • Chuck Wallace (CS)
  • Alexandra Morrison (HU)
  • Rich Canevez (HU)
  • Mark Rouleau (SS)

Graduate Student Research Grants:

  • Kyle Parker McGlynn, Ph.D. student — Industrial Heritage and Archaeology
  • Aritra Chakrabarty, Ph.D. student — Environmental and Energy Policy
  • Kendall Belopavlovich, Ph.D. candidate — Rhetoric, Theory and Culture
  • James Akinola, Ph.D. student — Rhetoric, Theory and Culture
  • Emma Johnson, Ph.D. student — Rhetoric, Theory and Culture
  • Rachael Hathcoat, M.S. student — Rhetoric, Theory and Culture
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Reminder: Seed Funding Applications Close April 12

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IPEC’s seed funding applications for both faculty and graduate students close on April 12, 2024.

Description: Small Grants are available to Michigan Tech Graduate Students to conduct preliminary research in areas that intersect with Policy, Ethics, and Culture, including but not limited to (1) Social Media and Society; (2) Human Machine Culture; (3) Justice and Security in Energy Transitions; (4) Ethics in STEM; and (5) Algorithmic Culture. Funds can be used for hourly pay, conference travel, or travel to collect data and access primary sources.

Contact: If you have any questions about whether or not your research project fits with IPEC’s research scope, reach out to IPEC’s Associate Director Soonkwan Hong at shong2@mtu.edu.

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Now Streaming: IPEC Presents Dr. Mark Rouleau

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In this episode of IPEC Presents, we examine our new season’s theme of ethics from a different perspective. Dr. Mark Rouleau brings with him insights from an IPEC-sponsored trip to Brazil. Mark participated in the Summer School on AI technologies for trust, interoperability, autonomy, and resilience in Industry 4.0. The summer school was a one-week hands on training hosted at the University of São Paulo focused on using automation techniques in Multi Agent System (MAS) environments to solve practical industrial problems. Topics covered through this hackathon style training included the following: Web of Things, Knowledge Graphs, Multi Agent Systems, and Responsible and Trustworthy AI.

Check out the podcast on Spotify!

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Now Streaming: Alexandra Morrison on IPEC Presents

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In our new season of IPEC Presents, we contemplate ethics as it relates to interdisciplinary research.

Our first guest this season is Dr. Alexandra Morrison, an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Humanities here at Michigan Tech. Alexandra is also the Ethics and Philosophy minor Advisor, overseeing undergraduate students from all across campus. Her main research areas include 20th century Continental Philosophy, especially Phenomenology. She also publishes in Feminist Social and Political Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Technology and STEM Ethics pedagogy and is currently working on several interdisciplinary projects in STEM ethics, as well as a manuscript that makes a phenomenologically based critique of recent approaches to an ethics of AI.

Tune in on Spotify and Apple Podcast!

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This Week’s IPEC Programming

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This week, IPEC is co-sponsoring the event Speaking Truth to Power: Poets, Writers, Resistance and Resilience

Event Details

PRESENTER | Michigan Tech Art
VENUE | East Reading Room, Van Pelt and Opie Library
WHEN| February 1, 2024 | 12-1 P.M.

Free, light refreshments will be available.

Leading up to the Rozsa Art Gallery exhibition, Simple Machines: Poetry, Letterpress, and the Art of the Little Magazine, please join special guest, Ukrainian poet, Yuliya Musakovska for a poetry reading followed by a panel discussion with Musakovska and Michigan Tech professors Richard Canevez, Stephanie Carpenter, and M. Bartley Seigel. This event is free and open to the public.

CONTENT GUIDANCE | strong language, war, poetry, activism, small press, publishing, printmaking

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Now Streaming: Stefka Hristova and Soonkwan Hong on IPEC Presents Podcast 

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The fourth episode of IPEC’s monthly podcast is now streaming on Spotify and Apple Podcasts! Our guests, IPEC Director Stefka Hristova and Associate Director Soonkwan Hong discuss how their research relationship has developed over time and spanned university service-related projects, publication collaborations, and research development. Taking a critical perspective on AI and algorithms, we dive deep into the power relations at play in today’s techno cultural environment. Join us for a riveting discussion and learn how, as a general AI user, we can better educate and protect ourselves when interacting with these black box technologies.

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This Week’s IPEC Programming

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We have two great events scheduled this week!

  1. Guidance for (Land) Acknowledgement Statements in Ojibwa Homelands
    • CANCELED Thursday, November 30 from 5:00-6:30pm in Walker 120A
    • See event page for more information.
  2. Algorithmic Culture Brown Bag with Stefka Hristova and Soonkwan Hong
    • Friday, December 1 from 12:00-1:00pm in Peterson Library (Walker 3rd Floor)
    • Description: The sheer presence of algorithms poses existential questions about how deeply computational mechanisms have come to permeate everyday life. Join IPEC’s Director and Associate Director in discussing biases and unintended consequences of algorithms and AI.
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This Week’s IPEC Programming

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Dr. Jason Archer’s Guest Appearance on IPEC’s podcast streams tomorrow, November 7! In our third episode, host Kendall Belopavlovich and Jason discuss his research in human machine communication, haptics, and sensory studies. Check out our podcast page for more.

On Thursday, the Graduate Student Government will be facilitating a 3 Minute Thesis competition. The finals will be held from 6-8:00pm, November 9, at the Great Lakes Research Center.

Finally, Friday is set to see IPEC members Charles Wallace and Susanna Peters facilitate a Computer Science Colloquium from 3-4:00pm in Rekhi 214. This event is also available as a webinar. See the event page for more details!

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