Challenging Convention Human Rights-Centered Engineering at UConn Highways that help some get to work faster but cut others off from physically accessing education. Internet that connects people to the world but leaves private data vulnerable to cyberattacks. A new sanitation system in a remote village that relies on forced labor for its construction. Even a […]
Challenging Convention
Human Rights-Centered Engineering at UConn
Highways that help some get to work faster but cut others off from physically accessing education. Internet that connects people to the world but leaves private data vulnerable to cyberattacks. A new sanitation system in a remote village that relies on forced labor for its construction. Even a curb cut that allows people to cross the street but prevents a parent with a stroller or someone using a cane from safely reaching the sidewalk.
Technological innovations can enhance connectivity, economic mobility, and access to commerce and public services - but innovators are responsible for developing solutions to improve societal outcomes that are ethical and accessible, considering the most basic rights afforded to all human beings.
At the University of Connecticut, engineers and human rights experts are collaborating to evolve engineering education and practice to ensure advancements, from transportation systems to AI and quantum technologies, are inclusive and equitable.
"We're equipping engineers with the skills to be optimally competitive and really globally minded, to increase the productivity of industry and the usefulness of infrastructure to foster shared prosperity," says Shareen Hertel, co-director of the Engineering for Human Rights Initiative and the Wiktor Osiatyński Chair of Human Rights and professor of political science and human rights. "UConn is saying, how do we harness the benefits of engineering to be pre-emptive about problems, enhancing the way we do things to benefit people and the planet."
Harmonizing With Human-Related Outcomes
"If you ask any engineer, does your work contribute to society? They will say yes," says Davis Chacón-Hurtado, co-director of the initiative, which is a partnership between the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute (HRI) and the College of Engineering. But there's no formal way to measure those contributions, and "many engineers still struggle to see connections between their work and societal issues such as social exclusion, poverty, and hunger."
Chacón-Hurtado, Hertel, and colleagues have developed a framework through which engineers can assess the impacts of their work based on human rights principles. Under the framework published in the journal Science, Technology, and Human Values, engineers can apply a preventive, remedial, or proactive approach to their work, guided by five principles: distributive justice, participation, consideration of duty-bearers, accountability, and the indivisibility of rights.
"The Engineering for Human Rights framework simply aims to connect, to harmonize engineering technology development with real, human-related outcomes that we can measure," says Chacón-Hurtado, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and human rights. "While the commitment to upholding human welfare and the environment is already embedded in engineering codes of ethics, this framework formalizes how these principles are assessed and implemented in practice, ensuring a more structured and measurable approach."
Davis Chacón-Hurtado, co-director of the Engineering for Human Rights Initiative at the University of Connecticut, introduces students to the Engineering for Human Rights framework.
In-the-Water Thinking
Through cross-listed courses, a new multidisciplinary engineering major, the option to double major or minor in human rights, certificate programs and more, UConn engineers can tap into the full breadth and depth of HRI. The collaboration has already begun to shift the mindset in the College of Engineering.
"There's a language around engineering for human rights in the College that feels like it's in-the-culture, in-the-water type of thinking," says Desen Özkan, an assistant professor who teaches a section of the Human Rights for Engineering course.
Assistant professor Desen Özkan, teaching a section of the Human Rights for Engineering course, says the Engineering for Human Rights Initiative was a draw for her when deciding to come to the University of Connecticut.
"It invites engineers to rethink default narratives of engineering by bringing societal contexts in from the outset - both in defining and solving problems," says Özkan. "Those that participate come away with expanded ways of thinking."
Samia Begum - a senior who will be the first to graduate in the recently launched multidisciplinary engineering major on the human rights and sustainability track - says that applying these lenses to her studies has helped her understand the ethical weight of the work she will do as a professional engineer.
Born in Bangladesh, Begum came to the U.S. at age 8. She has landed a job for when she graduates and hopes to one day return to her home village to build clean water systems.
"We are the future of the country, and it's really important to consider how our work might impact different societal groups and future generations," Begum says. "Having the idea of human rights implemented in engineering so early in our careers can only help our work going forward."
UConn students from the University chapter of Engineers Without Borders participate in a ceremony honoring Mother Earth with local community leaders in Cusco, Perú. "Pago a la Tierra" is a sacred ritual performed annually by Andean communities to express gratitude to the Earth. The ceremony was conducted in recognition of the work UConn was doing at the Community Center in the potato-farming community of Thastayoc, which included excavations to install sanitation systems.
A Deeply Rooted Commitment
Faculty spanning the colleges of Engineering and Liberal Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business, Law, Medicine, and Social Work contribute to research across six areas of focus, including engineering education, within the Engineering for Human Rights Initiative.
"Working on human rights within the engineering space - not humanitarianism alone, and not social justice alone, but human rights - is novel in the country, and something that other programs are starting to try to model," says Kathryn Libal, director of HRI and professor of social work and human rights.
The initiative is the newest arm of a longstanding tradition of interdisciplinary human rights study, research, education, and outreach at UConn's renowned Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute. The institute comprises more than 100 faculty across the University, including 15 primary and joint appointments. Chacón-Hurtado is the first joint appointment between HRI and the College of Engineering - also a first in the country, according to Libal.
"Our University has been very open to crossing disciplines, even in our tenure-track appointments," says Libal, who credits UConn leadership over the past 30 years with dedicating considerable resources to interdisciplinary human rights study, beginning with the 1995 dedication of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
The Dodd Center for Human Rights at UConn's main campus in Storrs is home to robust academic programs and innovative external engagement in human rights.
Since 1998, alumnus Gary Gladstein and his family have given $9.5 million to support human rights initiatives at the University.
"The Gladstein family and many other donors stepping up is a key part of the story," says Libal. "And the University at every turn made decisions to support joint appointments and providing those lines, highlighting the importance of cross-disciplinary, cross-University work - every president we've had, every provost.
"If we hadn't had that University support, it wouldn't have been nearly that impactful - it's the combination of student demand, faculty commitment, University leadership, and donor support that has made human rights part of the DNA of UConn."
"The Engineering for Human Rights Initiative demonstrates not only our commitment to finding practical solutions for real-world problems, but the unique collaborative potential that can only exist at a world-class research university," says UConn President Radenka Maric. "Many people would not initially see a natural connection between engineering and human rights but breaking down those artificial barriers between disciplines is a core part of our identity."
