IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2018 - 1

president's message

Paul M. Cunningham

Operationalizing
SSIT's 5 Pillars

his month I will briefly discuss SSIT Pillar 4,
which is dedicated to
Societal Impact of
Technology. Pillar 4
focuses on highlighting and supporting the development of technologies
that incorporate the principles of safety, security, and privacy by design.
This is an ambitious objective which
requires consideration of both major
themes as well as a number of major
technological areas. Major themes
include privacy, security, safety, ethical, legal, and political implications
of current and emerging technologies
and applying lessons learned from the
past based on the often unintended
and unanticipated implications of technological innovation and adoption.
Major technological areas that
the SSIT community must address
include:
■ Data-driven technologies (e.g.,
big data analysis, Internet of
Things (IoT), personalization,
social networks);
■ Cloud-based technologies (e.g.,
cloud-based computing, cloudbased transactions);
■ Smart and autonomous systems (e.g., smart homes and
devices, semi-autonomous and
autonomous vehicles, surgical
and medical robots, non-human
intelligence);
■ Human-centered technologies
(e.g., HCI, ergonomics);
■ Human enhancing technologies
(e.g., augmented and virtual reality, genetics and neurology, cyberphysical systems).

Pillar 4: Societal Impact of Technology
It is clear that addressing this
breadth and depth of technological complexity requires a humanvalues-based impact assessment.
This can only be achieved through
cross-disciplinary and interdisci plinary collaboration between engineers, technologists and scientists,
medical practitioners and legal
scholars, philosophers and ethicists.
In the light of this requirement, Pillar 4 will prior itize multi- st a ke holder collaboration across IEEE
societies, as well as engagement
with non-IEEE stakeholders across
the public, private, education and
research, and societal sectors. This
is essential to develop ethical based
technological, standards, and policy-related approaches to mitigate
and ameliorate some of the identified safety, security, and privacy
issues identified.
We hope you will be encouraged
to prepare paper, panel and workshop submissions to the Call for
Papers for IEEE ISTAS 2018 (Washing ton, DC, N o ve m b e r 13 -14),
which will be addressing many of
these issues.

Call for Volunteers
I invite you to help SSIT continue
to make a difference in an arena of

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2018.2837538
Date of publication: 31 May 2018

june 2018

∕

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

enormous complexity. Other volunteer opportunities include:
■ Serving your local community
throug h a n ex isting or new
SSIT Chapter.
■ Contributing to the work of SSIT's
committees (including our Standards committee).
■ Volunteering to host SSIT Distinguished Lecturers.
■ Submitting articles or review submissions to IEEE Technology
and Society Magazine.
■ Reviewing submissions to IEEE
ISTAS, Norbert Weiner, IEEE Ethics, IST-Africa Week, and other
SSIT supported conferences.
■ Supporting activities of the IEEE
SSIT IST-Africa SIGHT in IST-Africa Partner Countries.
■ Representing SSIT on IEEE committees (TAB, BoD, Standards,
Future Directions Initiative).
■ Serving on the SSIT Board of
Governors.
If any of these oppor tunities
are of potential interest or if you
would like to recommend someone,
please contact me (Subject: Volunteer for IEEE SSIT - ) and I will
direct you to the responsible team. If
you have not received a response to
(continued on page 17)

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