Societal awareness: Programs stress the interaction of engineering, environmental issues, and policy

Abstract

The age of activism is in full swing, No longer do consumers accept technological advances at face value; they want to know what effect each will have on society and the environment. Such questions have made it urgent for scientists and engineers to become knowledgeable about the interaction between science, technology, and society. “I think we have to teach students how to deal with this kind of ambiguity because that's what their lives have to deal with,” said Walter R. Lynn, director of the science, technology, and society program at Cornell university.