The Association of German Engineers (VDI) has elected the Professor of Technology Assessment and Deputy Head of ITAS-KIT as Chairman of the Advisory Board "Society and Technology".
Two European conferences (2013 in Prague and 2015 in Berlin) aimed at taking stock of and supporting exchange on TA capacities available in Europe are being organised in the framework of the FP7 funded project “Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment” (PACITA).
Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 9:00am - Friday, February 27, 2015, 6:27pm
Two European conferences (2013 in Prague and 2015 in Berlin) aimed at taking stock of and supporting exchange on TA capacities available in Europe are being organised in the framework of the FP7 funded project “Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment” (PACITA).
Technology assessment is essentially an approach, a collective of the systematic methods used to scientifically investigate the conditions for and the consequences of technology and technicising and to denote their societal evaluation. It is an investigation about the technological developments as well as an evaluation of its potential impacts on society. The assessment of emerging technologies, however, requires special attention. Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is an emerging technology which allows for the direct communication between the brain and an external device. It is a truly direct connection, with no use of the normal output pathways of peripheral nerves and muscles, allowing for the brain to have control over objects and software without intermediates. To address these kinds of technologies at early stages of development, Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA), a member of Technology Assessment approaches, has been considered as one of the most fitting approaches. As an emerging technology, BCI is at its early stages of research and thus many challenges are still ahead. Mainstream adoption is not expected in least 10 years many challenges are yet to be overcome. Therefore, the objective of this article is to discuss and present a methodological approach to assess brain-computer interface technology considering constructive technology assessment and future oriented technology analysis as the main processes to undertake the assessment. The assessment will focus only on the non-invasive type of BCI and for medical applications in three defined areas: Communication & Control, Motor Substitution and Motor Recovery for a time horizon of 10 years, 2022. These areas were chosen based on the capability of BCI to serve as a replacement of normal neuromuscular pathways. That makes it one of the best technologies to help people in activating and controlling assistive technologies which enable communication and control of the environment. However, the real impacts of BCI will depend directly on the development of competing technologies, and also on the improvement in BCI research. Only then, the potential applications and end users could grow dramatically.
The project started in 2009 with the support of DAAD in Germany and CRUP in Portugal under the “Collaborative German-Portuguese University Actions” programme. One central goal is the further development of a theory of technology assessment applied to robotics and autonomous systems in general that reflects in its methodology the changing conditions of knowledge production in modern societies and the emergence of new robotic technologies and of associated disruptive changes. Relevant topics here are handling broadened future horizons and new clusters of science and technology (medicine, engineering, interfaces, industrial automation, micro-devices, security and safety), as well as new governance structures in policy decision making concerning research and development (R&D).
Since 2011 the Doctorate conferences on TA are held in framework of the PhD programme. The webpage of these conferences (http://eventos.fct.unl.pt/phdconference-ta/) present the publications and other documents relative to events
GrEAT é o acrónimo de Grupo de Estudo sobre Avaliação de Tecnologia. É um grupo fundado em 2010 e tem o seu campo de actuação localizado em Portugal. Actualmente, representa a rede nacional de especialistas em avaliação de tecnologia