Technology & Society Division:
Home of the Engineer-
Advocate
"The
professional opportunities and responsibilities of
engineers increasingly demand appreciation of the
environmental, social, legal and political context
in which engineer's work is
embedded.”
The common
issue that concerns members of the Technology
& Society (T&S) division is how our
actions – as engineers, technologists,
teachers and leaders – impact greater
society today and in the future. Established in
1972 during a time of global energy crisis, rising
air and water pollution, cold war politics and at
the dawn of the computer age, ASME created the
division to respond to rising concerns about the
limits of technological progress and its ensuing
impacts on society. Throughout our
division’s history we have sought to explore
emerging technologies and their impact on greater
society around the world while helping students,
engineers and leaders build professional networks
and advocate change.
As a 6,000 member ‘general interest’
technical division within the Engineering & Technology
Management Group, we pursue our
mission through the identification, development
and delivery of technical information, public
statements, policy advice, continuing education
and social responsibility awareness programs and
forums to broad audiences within ASME as well as
to other technical communities within greater
society. We currently deliver these programs
through five program committees within the
division. Each committee focuses on a specific
aspect of the T&S mission and coordinates
volunteers’ actions to achieve it. These
committees include:
-
Emerging Technology &
Society - Strives to understand
the complex relationships between technology
and society, and to establish cooperation
between engineers around the world to promote
the safe and responsible use of new
technologies.
-
Energy &
Economics - produces and delivers contents on technical subjects related to
energy and economics that affect engineers as well as societies in general.
-
Engineering Public
Policy - Coordinates closely
with ASME’s Board on Government Relations
to help formulate ASME positions on public
issues and to study legal and legislative
aspects of the interface of technology with
society.
-
Ethics & Technology
- In coordination with ASME’s Board
on Professional Practice and Ethics, studies
ethical questions involved in engineering that
involve the indirect effects of engineering
work on greater society and finds means to
solve possible conflicts between such
responsibility and responsibility to an
employer.
-
Intellectual Property
- Focuses on delivering professional
development programs to practicing engineers
and researchers in the areas of technology
transfer, patent protection and knowledge
management.
-
Sustainable
Engineering - In coordination
with ASME’s Environmental Engineering
Division, Promotes technology assessment,
development and application to the
interdependence of communities, systems,
environment and societies and promotes optimal
and effective engineering solutions and tools
to enhance, apply and measure targeted
sustainable outcomes.
These
committees primarily fulfill their objectives by
organizing forums for pertinent knowledge exchange
and dissemination, including the delivery of
technical sessions at ASME-sponsored
conferences, publishing technical
articles in the Engineering & Technology
Management (E&TM) newsletter,
issuing public statements, contributing to public
policy discussions and hosting discussion and
networking events.
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Last
Revised: February 2007
