Our Mission
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The Department of Technology and Society, one of seven departments in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Stony Brook University, applies concepts and tools drawn from natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences to examine and enhance the relationship between technology and our society, both regionally and globally. These concepts include systems theory, methods and tools for decision making, and science-technology-society (STS) frameworks.
Specifically, the Department has a four-part mission:
- Help all students learn to use technology, employ engineering approaches to problem solving, and understand the socio-technological interplay that demands a consideration of scientific, social, political, economic, behavioral, legal and ethical aspects of problems;
- Foster professionals who will become leaders in the effective development, integration, management and assessment of technology for the purpose of improving education, business and industrial processes and systems, and the environment;
- Conduct frontier research in energy, environmental studies, educational technology, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education, technology innovation management, and public policy;
- Establish projects that address current and emerging societal needs ─ greater participation of underrepresented groups in STEM, technology transfer, and readily available knowledge and tools to aid managers and policy makers.
The Department is a national leader in technological literacy. In a recent review of the Department, an external committee commented on the unique role that the Department plays at the University. "The Technology and Society Department has created a new paradigm for education in the academy. Its essence is the unification of traditionally separate disciplines into an integrated unified whole to address problems in society. Technology studies begin with the problem, rather than the structure of a discipline. The department is expert in developing a meaningful whole from seemingly disparate pieces, by making multidirectional intellectual connections among disciplines, ideas, and among diverse groups of individuals and organizations. Inventing and testing models for collaboration is a hallmark of this department, a highly prized activity in the academy today....The Department of Technology and Society has developed a community of learners that extends vertically (e.g., faculty, undergraduates and high school students work together as a community conducting research) and horizontally in the education arena."