Dr. Xavier Llora is research assistant professor, and member, of the Illinois Genetic Algorithms Lab (IlliGAL) at the University of Illinois. He is also a member of the Data-Intensive Technologies and Applications at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

More information Xavier Llora may be found here.

]]> http://philengtech.org/2009/08/29/fpet-website-sports-new-look/feed/ 0 http://philengtech.org/2009/08/29/ibo-van-de-poel-joins-fpet-steering-committee/ http://philengtech.org/2009/08/29/ibo-van-de-poel-joins-fpet-steering-committee/#comments Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:09:40 +0000 deg http://philengtech.org/?p=126 TUDelft’s Ibo van de Poel has accepted an invitation to join the fPET steering committee:

Ibo van de Poel is an associate professor in ethics and technology at Delft University of Technology. He studied philosophy of science, technology and society, with a propaedeutic exam in mechanical engineering. In 1998, he obtained his PhD in science and technology studies (STS) with a dissertation on the dynamics of technological development; his supervisor was prof. dr. A. Rip. During the last few years, he has done research and published in the following areas: the dynamics of technological development, codes of conduct and professional ethics of engineers, the moral acceptability of technological risks, ethics in engineering design, and ethics and responsibility in R&D networks. He receives regularly invitations for international conferences and workshops and contributions to encyclopaedias in these areas. Since 1997, he is lecturing in ethics and technology for several engineering course programs at Delft University of Technology. He has been involved in several educational innovations in this area, including the development of the web-based computer program AGORA and the first Dutch textbook on ethics and technology.  He was founding co-chair of the Workshop on Philosophy and Engineering in 2008 (WPE-2008).

Additional information is available here.

Dr. Domenico Grasso (b. 1955 Worcester, Massachusetts) is Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate College at the University of Vermont. Prior to holding this position, he was the Dean of the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at UVM. He did his secondary school education at St. John’s High School in Massachusetts and holds a B.Sc. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. from Purdue University and a Ph.D. from The University of Michigan. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the states of Connecticut and Texas, and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers

Prior to joining the University of Vermont, Professor Grasso was Rosemary Bradford Hewlett Professor and Founding Director of the Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, the first engineering program at a women’s college in the United States, and Professor and Head of Department in Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut. He has been a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, a NATO Fellow, and an Invited Technical Expert to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in Vienna, Austria.

In 1998, Professor Grasso served on a World Bank–funded international team of scholars that established the first environmental engineering program in Argentina. In 2000, the Water Environment Federation named him a “Pioneer in Disinfection.” He recently chaired a U.S. Congressional briefing entitled “Genomes & Nanotechnology: The Future of Environmental Research.” In addition, Professor Grasso was co-founder along with Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman astronaut, of TOYChallenge — a national toy design challenge for 5th to 8th graders to excite them about science, engineering and the design process in a fun, creative and collaborative manner, relevant to everyday life.

Professor Grasso is an environmental engineer who studies the ultimate fate of contaminants in the environment and develops new techniques to reduce the risks associated with these contaminants to human health or natural resources. His research focuses on molecular-scale processes that underlie nature and the behavior of contaminants in environmental systems. He views engineering as a bridge between science and humanity, making it particularly well suited for incorporation into liberal arts universities. His classes, although technically rigorous, also explore the societal and philosophical issues facing engineers and scientists.

Professor Grasso is currently Vice-Chair of the United States Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board and Chair of Vermont’s Environmental Engineering Advisory Council. He was formerly President of the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors, Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Engineering Science and Associate Editor of Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology. He has authored more than 100 technical papers and reports, including four chapters and two books. Federal, state and industrial organizations have supported his research work. He serves on advisory boards at Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, WPI and the National Academy of Engineering.

More information is available here.

The business committee for the event consists of forum co-chairs Diane P. Michelfelder (Macalester College) and David E. Goldberg (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) working together with local arrangements chair Carl Mitcham (Colorado School of Mines).  A program committee for the event is being formed.

Papers for the event will be accepted on the basis of short abstracts (Society for Philosophy and Technology style) and will be due in late December.  Formal submission deadlines and a full call for papers will be available shortly.  For more information about the 2010 Forum on Philosophy, Engineering, and Technology email deg@illinois.edu or michelfelder@macalester.edu.