“Antisocial Today and Also Always”?: A Qualitative Examination of Engineering Students’ Social Considerations in Robot Design for Healthcare

Abstract In this article, we investigate influences of social positionality, designer bias and educational exposure on algorithmic design in healthcare. Against the backdrop of literature on designer bias that points to how it contributes to disproportionate, discriminatory and unethical impacts for racialized and gendered bodies, this study tests this argument with an experiential case study involving Aldebaran’s NAO robot and mechatronics and robotics engineering students at a university in S. E. Ontario, Canada. To conduct the study, we adopted open-ended and semi-structured interviews. The study sought to address questions such as: what other social agents – besides engineers – are/should be involved in design? To what extent do engineers collaborate with other knowledge holders? From students’ point of view, how does engineering education prepare them to tackle ethical and social problems in design? Because of the small sample size, the intention is not to extrapolate beyond the data in this study but for the data to serve exploratory purposes in pursuit of further research.