WORKSHOP: Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems Research Summer Institute 2019

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports junior researchers' participation in the Consortium for the Science of Sociotechnical Systems Research (CSST) Summer Institute. The consortium fosters trans-disciplinary research into the interplay of humans and technology in complex computational systems, bringing together scholars from intellectual communities such as computer and information science, computer supported cooperative work and human computer interaction, social computing and social informatics, psychology and sociology, organizational studies and information technology, and education and learning sciences. The institute is a way to bring these scholars together, providing expertise and mentoring in conducting sociotechnical research, opportunities for creating new connections and collaborations across disciplines, learning and assessing new research methods and approaches, and in general foster convergence-style research in line with NSF's strategic goals. The funds will support junior scholars who are in most need of these kinds of connections and mentoring opportunities, increasing both the size and the diversity of the sociotechnical research community and strengthening the research capabilities of individual members. The institute will take place at Rutgers University in June 2019. Participants will be recruited through a number of channels, including the existing CSST network, discipline-specific channels for announcing events, and organizations dedicated to broadening participation in STEM fields. Up to 50 participants will be invited, with selection criteria aimed at maximizing diversity of fields, research topics, methods, institutions, and backgrounds, emphasizing opportunities to applicants from universities with smaller research portfolios and thus fewer opportunities for research mentoring. The institute itself will conduct a number of activities as part of this mentoring, including chances for participants to discuss their work with close peers and mentors, opportunities to develop new collaborative activities, and plenary discussions of professional development in the space of sociotechnical systems. 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.