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AUSTIN, Texas – Ethics will be at the forefront of robotics education thanks to a new program from the University of Texas at Austin that trains tomorrow’s technologists to understand the positive – and potentially negative – effects of their creations.
Much of robotic technology today is developed without considering its potentially harmful effects on society, including how these technologies can invade privacy or exacerbate economic inequality. The new UT Austin program will fill an important educational gap by prioritizing these topics in its curriculum.
“We will be living more closely with robots in the next 10 years, and we want to make sure these robots are fair, inclusive and free from prejudice,” said Junfeng Jiao, associate professor in the Faculty of Architecture and the Lead program. “And because the robots we develop are a reflection of ourselves, it is imperative that technologists receive excellent ethics training. We want our students to work directly with companies to develop practices and technologies that are just and fair. “
Called CREATE (Convergent, Responsible, and Ethical AI Training Experience for Roboticists), it offers graduate courses and professional development in responsible design and implementation.
CREATE is a collaboration between Texas Robotics, industry partners and the UT research initiative Good Systems for the Grand Challenge, which aims to develop AI technologies that benefit society. The program recently received a $ 3 million grant from the National Science Foundation as part of its Research Traineeship program, which supports 32 PhD students in obtaining courses, mentoring, professional development, internships, and research and public services.
In particular, students focus on how to ethically design, develop, and deploy service robots that do the deliveries, work in factories, and clean houses. You will consider factors such as the design of delivery service robots so that they are more inclusive and can reach everyone, and how to ensure that home service robots protect the privacy of residents. Several well-known robotics companies have announced that they will offer internships to students, including Sony AI, Bosch, Amazon, SparkCognition, and Apptronik.
The researchers involved in the program tick off many disciplines at the UT, including computer science, architecture, engineering, information and public affairs. Faculty members in these units will teach courses as part of the curriculum, and two faculty members will mentor each trainee during the five-year program. In addition, each trainee is supported with career development, scholarship writing and contact with local startup companies.
More than half of the program’s trainees are selected from underrepresented groups in STEM education, including women and ethnic minorities, to help bring the much-needed diversity to the field of robotics. The course component, which includes five classes in ethical robotics, is institutionalized as a graduate portfolio program and is available to all STEM students at UT Austin.
“This program will enable us to train versatile robotics scientists who are not only familiar with the technical details of designing and building autonomous robots, but are also able to fully understand the societal impact of their work,” said Peter Stone, director from Texas Robotics and Professor of Computer Science. “This is a missing part of robotics education in the US and the world. We believe this is a game changer for the future of robotics. “
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