NRT-FW-HTF: Socially Cognizant Robotics for a Technology Enhanced Society (SOCRATES)

The popular vision of ubiquitous robot assistants that improve the quality of life remains mostly a vision. A key challenge of the program is Robotics for Everyday Augmented Living (REAL), semi-automated systems that focus on tasks and work within daily life. To make this vision a reality, important considerations include safety, adaptability to human desires, and nuanced societal impacts, such as dignity, consent, privacy, and fairness. Traditional social sciences often study the effects of technology on individuals and society only after it is deployed. Given the potential impact of robotics as well as the potential for unintended negative social consequences, technology should adapt to humans rather than the other way around. Current robotics training does not equip researchers with the interdisciplinary tools necessary to address this challenge. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award to Rutgers University will train a new type of professional, the socially cognizant roboticist, with the skills—in technology, social science, and public policy—needed to bridge this gap. This training program aims to instill an awareness of human involvement into every phase of the design of new technology, so that these technologies can provide positive human value wherever they are introduced. The training program anticipates training over 35 graduate students (MS and PhD), including 17 NRT-funded trainees, by integrating technology domains (robotics, machine learning and computer vision) with social and behavioral sciences (psychology, cognitive science, and urban policy planning).

The program will integrate the training of technologists, who are able to develop robots that can coordinate with people, and social scientists, who can translate studies regarding the social effects of robotics into actionable lessons. Robotics is defined broadly here to include intelligent systems encompassing smart buildings and embedded infrastructure. Program participants will be trained in 1) technology: building and controlling robots, collecting, and learning from large datasets; 2) cognitive science: designing socially cognizant systems; 3) policy: assessing unintended consequences and planning for positive societal impact. The program lays the groundwork for this training via a new curriculum for a robotics specialization that combines existing technology and social science courses, as well as new interdisciplinary courses. The program will emphasize experiential learning, through the Rutgers Robotics Live Lab and interdisciplinary research projects from the partnering graduate programs, as well as internship opportunities through an Industry Consortium. Trainees will engage in fundamental research to understand and model the social dimensions of robot deployments and advance the long-term goal of dignified living and working in a technologically enhanced society. An important program objective is the recruitment and retention of diverse trainees through a multi-faceted strategy, including a student-led robotics club that focuses on a novice-to-expert strategy, an annual robotics workshop, and a Faculty Talk-it-up Robotics Series for underrepresented populations.

The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The program is dedicated to effective training of STEM graduate students in high priority interdisciplinary or convergent research areas through comprehensive traineeship models that are innovative, evidence-based, and aligned with changing workforce and research needs.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.