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

Tag: research

Spring 2024 IPEC Seed Grant Awards Announced

Published
By

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
Continue Reading →

Reminder: Seed Funding Applications Close April 12

Published
By

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.

Continue Reading →

Read Our April Member Newsletter

Published
By

The Institute for Policy, Ethics, and Culture has published our latest newsletter, available to the campus community here. IPEC has several collaborative, interdisciplinary funding applications underway that we are proud to report on. Check out our affiliates upcoming events, and see our April 12 deadline for faculty and graduate student seed funding.

Continue Reading →

Now Streaming: IPEC Presents Dr. Mark Rouleau

Published
By

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!

Continue Reading →

Now Streaming: Alexandra Morrison on IPEC Presents

Published
By

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!

Continue Reading →

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

Published
By

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.

Continue Reading →

This Week’s IPEC Programming

Published
By

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.
Continue Reading →

IPEC Seed Research Grant Application Now Open

Published
By

We are excited to announce the opening of our Seed Research Grant Application for IPEC members!

Seed Grants are awarded to individuals and groups to conduct preliminary research that will lead to a larger external grant proposal. Proposals should be in the following research areas without any priority: (1) Social Media and Society; (2) Human Machine Culture; (3) Justice and Security in Energy Transitions; (4) Ethics in STEM; and (5) Algorithmic Culture. 

Evaluation criteria include (a) Potential for future/continuous external funding;  (b) Previous research experience and productivity; (c) Scholarly merit of the proposed research project; (d) Potential for extended/continuous research program; (e) Potential for future collaborative work.

Interested applicants shall submit their applications by Feb. 16, 2024. The maximum funding amount is $5,000 with an expected average of $2,500.

Awardees are expected to submit a report upon completion of the project.

Continue Reading →