Podcast on Inclusive Research and Innovation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

Stakeholder involvement we have been discussing as core element developing concepts such as Responsible Research and Innovation or Values by Design. Yet how can we involve stakeholders, i.e. those affected by innovation and research processes and outcomes – yet not able to influence them. Dr. Almudena de la Mata (CEO of BlockchAIn Intelligence) shares her methodological insights of how to do this....

In health care women are still treated as if they are small men even though they are not. We know very well that women and men suffer from different illnesses, present with different symptoms while suffering of the same illness, and react differently to medication. While there are some best practices scattered across the various disciplines of medical health, an overarching picture of what is need...

Data is a major challenge for IRI in STEM. Collecting data of diverse individual human beings comes with at least two major challenges. The first one is being in line with the legislation on privacy and data use. This often includes dealing with ethical issues that might arise. The second one is analysing this data in a meaningful way. In this podcast we meet Dr. Nikolas Dintzer and Dr. Santosh Il...

Policy can be a crucial enabler of IRI in STEM. In this episode, Dr. Frauke Frauke Hoss, policy officer at DG GROW working on policy for internal market and industry at the European Commission, explains how this is possible to the host, Dr. Claudia Werker, Delft University of Technology. Frauke has been working diligently to make products safer for all kinds of users in the past. One important ste...

In this episode we look back at what we learned from our guests in season one of this podcast series on IRI in STEM. TianQing Yen and I discuss what stood out and what is our take-away. We end with a brief peak-review for season two.

David Abbink from Delft University of Technology, the current winner of the prestigious Stevin bonus, shares insights on his research on the future of work. Together with the host, Dr. Claudia Werker from the same university, he has been working together in a vision team on robots at work. This is the last episode of our podcast series on Inclusive Research and Innovation (IRI) in Science, Technol...

Needs in mobility differ considerably for people of different age, gender, income, and environmental awareness. In the episode of our podcast series on Inclusive Research and Innovation (IRI) in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Mara Tanelli from Politecnico di Milano shares how to develop inclusive mobility systems for everyone with the host, i.e. Claudia Werker from Delft U...

How can researchers make the design of medical devices more inclusive? Measuring characteristics of patients correctly can make all the different, e.g. in surgery, because it improves effectiveness of outcomes. In this episode of our podcast series on Inclusive Research and Innovation (IRI) in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Prof. Dr. Domenico Della Volpe from Geneva Unive...

We are halfway through our first season and thought it was time to introduce the host of the podcast series Inclusive Research and Innovation (IRI) in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) ! In this special mini-episode, research assistant Tian Qing Yen interviews the host of the series Dr. Claudia Werker from Delft University of Technology. Claudia explains how she became intere...

Speech recognition and processing tools are everywhere – from speech-to-text transcription, to voice commands on your phone, to filtering background noise in video calls. However, many automatic speech recognition systems do not perform as well with diverse speakers, i.e. people with an accent, with a speech impediment, or even young or old speakers. Adjusting this technology to recognize differen...

It is easy to recognize that social media feeds or search results vary for different people. However, it is less clear how much of that bias comes from the way people interact online, and how much is the result of algorithms that are used to filter or rank content. Scholars trying to disentangle this bias recognize the importance of considering diversity in their research. However, analysing algor...

We have known for decades that human beings have differing symptoms and reactions to treatment in the medical sector. Yet progress regarding inclusive medical research and health seems to be slow. To give an example: trials for developing medical drugs usually only include healthy men between 18 and 45 years of age. This means that these trials do not show how medical drugs work for women, childre...

Crash-test dummies have not been mirroring the bodies of women and men of all sizes and shapes. We know from research that women – although less frequently involved in accidents – are more severely injured and more often die if they are. Would diversifying crash-test dummies help make more people more safe and secure? Are there other aspects that will ensure better safety and security protection i...