Innovation

Promoting equity in innovation for a more dynamic and just future

Centering equity in the innovation process requires moving away from traditional policy- and agenda-setting institutions, such as government, industry, universities, and foundations, to include more community expertise in the entire process and model. STPP promotes broadening our understanding of expertise, developing new ways to assess technological design, and establishing new institutions and public policy to serve the public interest that innovation will truly work for the good of everyone.


 

 

  • Todd Allen, Chihiro Kikuchi Collegiate Professor and Glenn F. and Gladys H. Knoll Department Chair of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences; Director of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project; Director of the Fastest Path to Zero Initiative 
    Jesse Austin-Breneman, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering 
    Shalanda Baker, Vice Provost for Sustainability and Climate Action
    Tawanna Dillahunt, Associate Professor of Information 
    Denia Djokić, Assistant Research Scientist, Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences 
    Monica Dus, Director, Office of National Labs, Office of the Vice President for Research; Associate Professor, Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology​ 
    Ben Green, Assistant Professor of Information; Assistant Professor of Public Policy (by courtesy) 
    Robert C Hampshire, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Research Associate Professor at the U-M Transportation Research Institute's (UMTRI) and Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS) 
    Yousif Hassan, Assistant Professor of Public Policy 
    James Holly Jr., Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering 
    Muzammil Hussain, Assistant Professor of Communication and Media and Associate Director, Middle East and North African Studies, International Institute 
    Michael J Imperiale, Arthur F Thurnau Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School 
    Mike Liemohn, Professor, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering 
    Silvia Lindtner, Associate Professor of Information; Associate Professor of Art and Design; Assistant Professor of Digital Studies Institute 
    Timothy McKay, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Physics, Astronomy, and Education; Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts 
    Nigel Melville, Associate Professor of Technology and Operations 
    Jason Owen-Smith, Professor of Sociology; Professor of Organizational Studies; Associate Vice President for Research - Institutional Capabilities and Research Intelligence; Research Professor, Survey Research Center; and Professor of Public Policy 
    Shobita Parthasarathy, Professor of Public Policy; Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy program; Professor of Women's and Gender Studies (by courtesy) 
    Anne Petersen, Adjunct Research Professor, Integrative Systems and Design/Survey Research Center 
    Jodyn Platt, Associate Professor of Learning Health Sciences; Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy 
    Nicholson Price, Professor of Law 
    Joy Rohde, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Associate Professor of History (by courtesy) 
    Misha Teplitskiy, Assistant Professor of Information 
    Kentaro Toyama, W.K. Kellogg Associate Professor of Community Information 
     

Featured Project

Technology Assessment Project: A research-intensive think tank

STPP's Technology Assessment Project (TAP) research anticipates the implications of emerging technologies and uses these insights to develop better technology policies. We use an analogical case study approach to analyze the social, economic, ethical, equity, and political dimensions of emerging technologies, such as nuclear energy, facial recognition, autonomous vehicles, CRISPR therapy in humans, generative AI, and advanced nuclear reactors. Our distinctive evaluation approach can be applied to technologies in a range of areas.
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Innovation Spotlight Event

Webinar: Making Technology Work For Everyone: Empowering Civil Society and Technologists to Work Together to Shape our Future

Learn about our approach to training the next generation of technologists to work with civil society both on the collaborative design of technology, and on building civic capacity for participating in tech-related public and policy discourse.
Read more, and watch the video.

More Featured Events

Featured Innovation News and Updates

A lot of the research I've done along the way has made me quite critical and skeptical of innovation systems, by which I mean the institutions, policies, processes, and norms that shape how we think innovation must be done. At the heart of this is the assumption that innovation must center economic benefit and impact, and that if we do that, we will produce societal benefit along the way – that is, either the economic impact will produce the social benefit, or the technologies themselves will do so. Through different projects, I've learned that it's a far more complicated story.                               

Shobita Parthasarathy, on the intersection of technology, feminism, colonialism, and social justice.