The Art of Transdisciplinary Research in the Information Systems and Technology Disciplines
Extraordinary Women Extraordinary Science Seminar Series
Katina Michael, Roba Abbas
Society on the Social Implications of Technology
Seminar Title: The Art of Transdisciplinary Research in the Information Systems and Technology Disciplines: Reflections from the Field
Abstract:
In this seminar we will present research that we have jointly been engaged in since 2005 with respect to public sector information systems and emerging technology. We will begin by defining interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinary research, and then offer our own unique perspective on the potential for transdisciplinarity in a complex socio-technical ecosystem. We will reference some of our early work on public sector information availability, followed by research on the topic of location-based services with respect to both regulation and emergency management (e.g. pandemic outbreaks). We will then highlight the outcome of this work through the demonstration of a theoretically and methodologically grounded process that can be applied to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and the Internet of Things. We will extend the discussion to aspects relating to long-term collaboration across a range of projects, emphasizing the virtual and cross-institutional contexts, and the role of IEEE through the editing and publication process.
Biography
Katina Michael is a professor at Arizona State University, a Senior Global Futures Scientist in the Global Futures Laboratory and has a joint appointment in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence. She is the director of the Society Policy Engineering Collective (SPEC) and the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. Katina is a senior member of the IEEE and was the founding chair of the first globally accredited Masters of Science degree in Public Interest Technology at ASU. She has worked for OTIS Elevator Company, Andersen Consulting, and Nortel Networks between 1994-2001. At the University of Wollongong, Katina was the Associate Dean - International for the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics. She has been funded by the National Science Foundation in the United States and the Australian Research Council for research into citizen-centred smart cities and smart living, adaptive AI robotic training systems, and location-based services.
Roba Abbas is a Senior Lecturer and Academic Program Director with the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She has a PhD in location-based services regulation and has received competitive grants for research addressing global challenges in areas related to co-design and socio-technical systems, operations management, robotics, social media and other emerging technologies. Her current research interests include methodological approaches to complex socio-technical systems design. More recently, she has delivered talks and co-organized panels for Yale University, The Alan Turing Institute, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Arizona State University and Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences. Dr Abbas is Co-Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society and was the Technical Program Chair for the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS20) hosted by Arizona State University in November 2020. From 2005 to 2010, she was a Product Manager with Internetrix, Wollongong.