The Future of Work at the Human – Technology Frontier
SRI International and the National Science Foundation are hosting a series of workshops to define current research needs, identify and convene relevant stakeholders, and inform a framework for future collaboration.
2022 PI/Co-PI meeting for awardees of the FW-HTF Big Idea Program
The National Science Foundation’s Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) Big Idea Program supports convergent research at the intersection of future work, technology, and workers. On behalf of NSF, SRI International hosted the 2022 virtual PI/Co-PI meeting for FW-HTF Big Idea Program awardees on June 27-28, 2022. For the meeting, PIs and Co-PIs created posters highlighting their current work and their unique approach to convergent research.
Posters
Meeting recordings
- 2022 Annual PI Meeting – Harry Holzer
- Identifying Ethical Questions and the Implications for Policy
- Panel – Mapping the Human-Technology Partnership
- 2022 Annual PI Meeting – Mandy Pant
- 2022 Panel – Restructuring the Physical and Virtual Workspace
- 2022 Annual PI Meeting – Nicole Smith
- 2022 Annual PI Meeting – Panel
2021- 2022 Principal Investigator (PI) Meet-ups
On behalf of the National Science Foundation (NSF), SRI International hosted a series of virtual meet-ups for PI/Co-PIs who have received funding through the NSF Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) Big Idea Program.
The goal of the meet-ups was to connect FW-HTF stakeholders with one another, learn more about the portfolio of existing projects, exchange ideas, and form collaborations for prospective Future of Work projects. The meet-ups occurred in December 2021, February 2022, and April 2022. Posters were bundled by topic area and may be downloaded using the links below.
Meet-up 1 Presentations
- Ethics, Equity, and Inclusion
- Knowledge and Creative Work
- Technology Acceptance, Workforce Preparation, Training and Skilling
- Robotics, Wearables, and Future work
Meet-up 2 Presentations
Meet-up 3 Presentation
Through its Big Idea initiative, NSF seeks to understand the future of work at the human-technology frontier and fund useful, convergent research on human-technology partnerships. NSF’s work will inform the design of new technologies to augment human performance, illuminate the emerging socio-technological landscape, understand the risks and benefits of new technologies for workers, and foster lifelong and pervasive learning.
The FW-HTF program charged the Center for Innovation Strategy and Policy (CISP) at SRI International to design and implement a series of virtual workshops. Workshop participants included representatives from industry, academia, non-profits, intergovernmental organizations, and state and federal government agencies.
2020 Workshops
Restructuring the physical and virtual workspace
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New technologies will enable non-traditional work arrangements, such as on-demand and flexible schedules, and, at the same time, allow for a more complete oversight of tasks and performance. Businesses and workers will have to define new, highly flexible relationships.
Exploring the Human-Technology partnership
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Labor- and time-intensive tasks, as well as those with a high level of routineness, are among those most likely to face disruption and automation. Workplaces of all kinds face this disruption, and leaders and workers alike will need to rethink how they interact with their built environments and their new digitized coworkers.
Fostering reskilling, upskilling, and lifelong learning
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The increased rate of change and diffusion of new technologies places a new imperative on employers to substantially increase investment in worker training. Upskilling in concert with technology investments offers challenges to both the business and the worker.
Ethical questions and the implications for policy
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Although new technologies have the potential to provide enormous social benefit, they also carry with them social, ethical, and legal risks. The difficulty of auditing the component parts of an algorithm expose individuals and society as a whole to bias and injustice. The use of robots may displace workers, change the social and economic status of jobs, and affect our perception of self.
Relevant links
2020 PI/Co-PI meeting for awardees of the FW-HTF Big Idea Program
On behalf of NSF, SRI International hosted a virtual PI/Co-PI meeting for FW-HTF Big Idea Program awardees on December 9, 2020. For the meeting, PIs and Co-PIs prepared lightning talk presentations highlighting their unique approach to convergent research. Slides from the presentations are bundled by topic area and may be downloaded from the links below.
- New awardee-PI
- Construction; infrastructure; agricultural sustainability; food
- Workplace of the future; gig and self-employed workers
- Health, healthcare; point of care
- Knowledge; learning; learning systems; creative service workers, designers and educators
- Skill enhancement, reskilling and collaboration
- Manufacturing; transportation, logistics and emergency systems
Roland Stephen, Ph.D., has more than 20 years of leadership and project management experience in policy analysis, strategic planning, and program evaluation.
Roland Stephen
Executive Director, Center for Innovation Strategy and Policy