Past CSPO Events

  • March 04, 2014
    CSPO DC - New Tools for Science Policy

    Ethics and the New Engineer

    Teaching, Research and Practice

    Reports from the National Academy of Engineering have visualized The Engineer of 2020 (2004) and delineatedGrand Challenges for Engineering (2008). The reports fall short, however, on plotting a clear course for the new engineer in contributing to the achievement of ethical and socially responsible outcomes.

    Joseph R. Herkert

  • February 28, 2014
    CSPO DC - New Tools for Science Policy

    Design Thinking, Sustainability and the Future City

    The perceived future impacts of emerging technologies, including nanotechnology, hinge largely on the conventional risk-benefit paradigm. This paradigm oversimplifies the complexity and inter-linkages between technological innovation and the evolution of urban form.

    Darren Petrucci, Rider W. Foley

  • January 29, 2014
    CSPO enLIGHTeNING Lunch

    Science And Climate Change Diplomacy Cognitive Limits And The Need To Reinvent Science Communication

  • December 10, 2013
    CSPO DC - New Tools for Science Policy

    Factory Meat and Designer Food

    Soon at a Store Near You?

    Policy makers must grapple with the social implications and governance issues surrounding emerging technologies.  The August 5, 2013 introduction of the first factory hamburger, made from stem cells in a production facility, followed by its ceremonial consumption, is one well-publicized example.

    Braden Allenby

  • November 04, 2013
    CSPO DC - New Tools for Science Policy

    Africans Dial Up Innovation

    A New Paradigm for Development in the Sub-Saharan

    The people of the Sub-Saharan region are participating in an historic shift in the ways they relate to science and technology. From Accra to Nairobi, from Lusaka to Bamako — Africans have gone from concentrating almost wholly on absorbing new technologies created by distant innovators to energetically and optimistically creating some of their own technologies, developed to an unprecedented degree by home-grown African innovators.

    G. Pascal (Gregg) Zachary

  • October 16, 2013
    CSPO DC - New Tools for Science Policy

    Do Renewable Energy Innovations Mean a Death Spiral for Electric Utilities?

    Renewable energy options, led by rooftop solar, have recently transitioned from a luxury good available to few customers to increasingly cost-effective and mainstream sources of electric supply within the reach of many.

    Elisabeth Graffy

  • October 07, 2013
    CSPO DC

    Is STEM Crisis a Myth?

    It’s an issue that has been repeated in countless reports and news stories: the United States is facing a looming shortage of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians—a STEM crisis, that is. It’s time for a reasoned, informed dialogue about STEM literacy in the United States, without the political hysterics and contrived logic. Join CSPO co-director Dan Sarewitz and Robert N. Charette, author of the recent IEEE Spectrum article, “The STEM Crisis Is a Myth,” for an in-depth look at this issue and the potential pitfalls and solutions surrounding it.

    Robert Charette, Daniel Sarewitz

  • June 05, 2013
    CSPO DC - New Tools for Science Policy

    Navigating the Commons

    How Science and Management in the Mission Agencies Create Disruptions and Spur Innovations

    The Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes (CSPO) hosted a series of informal exchanges between science policy practitioners (i.e. program managers) in government, academia and scientific societies about the challenges and opportunities for innovating in path dependent institutions.

    Doug Austen, Adam Parris, David Cleaves, Joe Thompson