by Chris Coventry, CPEM

"Eye-opening" is the best phrase I can use to describe ASEM's webinar series on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE/I) in Technical Management and Technological Development.  In 2021, I was fortunate to discover and become a member of ASEM in time to attend this important series.  As a practicing Engineering Manager who has worked for companies with strong DE/I commitment for many years now, I thought I'd heard it all when it comes to this subject.  I realized though that everything I'd done in this space - every training, every book, every discussion - was focused on the human resources part of the equation (i.e., recruiting, hiring, promoting, and developing employees in a more equitable way - all worthy goals, to be sure), but never had I considered how DE/I issues factor into technology itself.  I'd fallen into the trap, as Dr. Rosalyn Berne described in her talk on 

Race Matters in Engineering and Technology, of assuming that technology is "value neutral".  This series showed me that is not the case. Dr. Berne's presentation revealed that technological devices are actually part of complex systems and that in fact it is not possible to separate technology from its environment, the values of its creators and users, and all of the social, political, financial, and regulatory systems that it exists within.  Thus, technology is inevitably influenced by the same systemic racism and other biases that exist in broader society.

Annie Jean-Baptiste's talk on Product Inclusion provided further evidence of this and made the argument for diverse perspectives throughout the product life cycle.  The example of the hand-held pulse oximeter was used as a case study and cautionary tale in this area.

Dr. Ayanna Howard's seminar on Diversity & Inclusion in Robotics discussed how bias can find its way into even a highly technical field like robotics and the dangers that presents, especially in the emerging field of Artificial Intelligence.  Again, the influence of humans on their technology creations was an important theme.

My takeaway from all of these was a greater understanding of the permeation of DE/I-related issues and problems into technology, be it research, product design, manufacturing, or automation.  At first this may seem a bit discouraging since we as Engineering Managers can't fix all of society's problems in this area to prevent that permeation.  But the more hopeful note here is we do have the power to continue building awareness on DE/I topics – by educating ourselves, by having conversations with colleagues, by taking action when needed – and in doing so we can gradually ingrain more positive, inclusive values into our technology systems.  This series has done us a real service in that regard.

If you weren't able to catch these webinars the first time around, I would highly recommend checking them out; those available publicly have been linked within this article.  Perhaps together we can open some more eyes.

About the Author

Chris Coventry, CPEM is the Process Engineering Leader for Corteva Agriscience, a leading pure-play agriculture company founded on the rich heritages of Dow, DuPont and Pioneer. In this role, Chris manages a team of engineering professionals dedicated to designing and optimizing agricultural chemical manufacturing processes. Chris is a graduate of Queen’s University (Kingston, Canada) with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering. In 2021, he became a Certified Professional in Engineering Management and member of ASEM.