Engineering Design to Equip a Neurodiverse Workforce

Neurodiversity visioning event - email banner

This event is postponed until further notice.

Exploratory Domains

The visioning event is focused on identifying and articulating the near and long term strategic focus for engineering research that will place the United States in a competitive position world wide.

This event will be transdisciplinary with respect to engineering disciplines, sectors, and stakeholders interested in inclusion engineering, including researchers, industry professionals, nonprofits, and venture capital firms.

The Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (ERVA), an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation Engineering Directorate, will host a visioning event to identify and collaboratively articulate critical areas of inclusion engineering where engineering research can lead. The goal of this event is to produce a road map for engineering research in the United States capable of overcoming select deficiencies and driving transformative advancements over the next 20 to 30 years to guide stakeholders to propel the nation towards a more competitive future in the global workforce neurodiversity landscape.

THEME OVERVIEW

The so-called “fourth industrial revolution” is transforming the nature of work, education, and modern life. Increasing interconnectivity and smart automation are driving rapid changes to technology, industries, and societal patterns and processes. The future of learning and of work are increasingly characterized by a high degree of cyber-human integration and cooperation; the use of digital technologies to connect learners and workers with classrooms and workplaces across locations, languages, and cultures; and a rise in flexible learning and work arrangements. However, the modern classroom, workplace, home, and many public spaces are not universally designed to support thriving across neurological differences. Innovations supporting inclusion and empowerment are needed for people who sensorily experience the world differently, learn differently, communicate differently (verbally and non-verbally), express and perceive intent differently, or have cognitive profiles that are ill-served by traditional forms of teaching, workplace management, and daily living.

Almost 20% of the population is neurodiverse (e.g., autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other neurocognitive differences; “neurodiverse”) and, as a result of environmental and cultural factors, are currently far from being fully included in education and the workforce under conditions that would support their creativity and productivity. For example, some 80% of autistic adults are either unemployed entirely or grossly underemployed relative to their capabilities. This prevents them from contributing their talents, which could yield an estimated nearly $100 billion for the US in potential economic productivity annually.

The use of engineering tools, design, research, and thinking to create environments and capabilities whereby neurodiverse individuals are allowed and supported to become whole people, with rich thoughts, senses, emotions, speech, interests, and quirks. They should be able to thrive with a high quality of life, fully in control of their everyday lives, and able to grow up within their families, attend their local schools, work in jobs related to their education and interests, and have families of their own. Progress in these areas has been greatly facilitated by the growing collaboration between engineering and researchers in other fields. However, these approaches have often been siloed into medical-model categories such as rehabilitation engineering or curative therapy. Reapproaching this grand challenge from a strengths-based neurodiversity paradigm promises to inspire innovations that empower individuals across neurological differences—to reach their goals and fully integrate themselves into society. It may even pave the way to a new subfield of engineering that engineers solutions for inclusion even more broadly construed: Inclusion Engineering.

AGENDA HIGHLIGHTS

The event will focus primarily on the engineering needed to create the wrap-around systems of supports for neurodiverse individuals in all of the “spaces” that define modern life—the home, the classroom, the workplace, public spaces and leisure activities—such that they can more successfully learn, more readily maintain or pursue meaningful employment, and more generally experience a life of thriving. The fundamental engineering research thrusts would be in the contexts of:

Interpersonal communication: Person to person
Tasks of daily living: Person to environment
Sensory experiences: Person to self
Scaling from the individual user to broad adoption: Person-to-culture

Within each thrust, we will consider the technological innovations needed across the continuum from sensing to interpretation to decision making to action to organizational/cultural barriers to adoption. We will approach these engineering and design challenges from the perspective of enabling independence, equity, and inclusion in the various spaces and contexts, and importantly supporting the realization of each person’s potential to contribute. We will therefore include considerations of how to inspire and motivate broad adoption of the envisioned engineering solutions by involving Human Factors Research and Stakeholder-Engaged Technology Design and Development. Some specific areas of engineering and technology that are likely to be engaged include: Machine Learning and AI, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, (Non-intrusive) Physiological Sensing, Emotion Recognition and Generation, Models and Frameworks of Neurodiverse Cognition, Emotion, and Communication, Human-in-the-loop Engineering, and others.

We envision the resulting technologies could eventually be commercialized and deployed through civic partners including: Public and private vocational training centers (targeting training and upskilling); schools and clinics (targeting independence, social skills, and collaboration); workplaces (targeting communication and collaboration); and living environments and public spaces (targeting independence and multisensory support and integration). We anticipate interest not only from engineers, scientists, and technologists, but also from these civic stakeholders, as well as investors and social-impact entrepreneurs.

Breakout Sessions/Topics:
Interpersonal Communication: Person to Person