Digital Ethics
The research group studies how professionals can design meaningful digital innovations, taking into account the needs and values of all parties involved and how professionals can develop the necessary digital and ethical skills.
Lines of research within the research group
Within the program line Digital Innovation for Education (DIO), research is conducted on how digital innovations can be meaningfully applied in education. To effectively contribute to societal challenges, young professionals are required to possess a broad set of academic, communicative, ethical, and digital competencies. DIO explores the extent to which innovative technologies can enrich and optimize learning environments to develop these competencies among young professionals. In the development of these learning environments, human values are critically considered from the perspective of students, teachers, and other professionals.
Within the program line Digital Innovation for Public Organizations (DIPO), researchers investigate how digital innovations can be meaningfully utilized in the public domain. Public organizations increasingly need to engage with new technological developments. These organizations are seeking practical tools to shape that process. DIPO develops knowledge, products, and software for public organizations so they can effectively leverage technologies to achieve policy ambitions. This involves taking into account the values of those involved by weighing them against each other and creating opportunities to better balance these values.
The program line Digital Innovation for Health and Well-being (DIZOW) examines how digital innovations can be meaningfully implemented in the health and welfare sector. The healthcare sector is heavily investing in technological innovations. While these offer opportunities, they also raise new ethical questions, directly impacting both the care for and well-being of individuals. To equip healthcare professionals for the responsible development and use of innovations, DIZOW investigates the skills necessary for ethical digital innovation.
Digitalisation and the Human Dimension
ProjectInterviews with various public service providers show that providing the “Human Dimension” (“Menselijke Maat”) to citizens is often not secured in regular work processes and customer systems of public organizations. This is a major focus of both the government and KIA MV and too often leads to escalation of (complex) questions to customized solutions.
LOKET - Logistic chain management for inner-city construction
ProjectLOKET Logistic chain management for inner-city construction
Publications
- Data Science and criminal law
- Discovering operational decisions from data a framework supporting decision discovery from data
- Improving User’s Confidence to Act When Using Advice Algorithms Through Interactive Use of Counterfactuals
Education
Digital Ethics contributes to digital innovation for educational purposes and the development of digital and ethical awareness of (upcoming) professionals. We are involved in the Digital Twins Lab and have strong ties with the Institutes for ICT, Engineering & Design, Media and Archimedes.
“Digital services should not only be meaningful in the sense of being directly valuable to an organisation or customer, but also meaningful in an ethical sense. Ethical policy must therefore be an integral part of the organisational design.”
Marlies van Steenbergen Professor of Digital Ethics
Collaboration
Organizations are looking for ways to responsibly leverage digitalization. Domain expertise and knowledge of ethics and IT are brought together. The research group works on assignments and projects covering this; it performs research with partners; sometimes with (co) financing.
