About

Empathy, a unique human capacity to think from others' perspectives and feel for others, is an essential skill that will not be replaced by automation. While empathy is valued, there have been serious concerns about its absence in technology development.

The EAGER project seeks to address that gap by developing hands-on labs to train high school students and to increase their empathy for others so that they can identify cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) ethics issues. The hands-on labs developed in this project will be made publicly available so schools or teachers may freely use them. These labs, workshops, and summer camps will improve high school students' knowledge of, as well as skills and career interests in, cybersecurity and AI ethics. These activities will also foster high school students' empathy for others, especially young children.

This project will help the next-generation workforce learn and apply knowledge and skills in designing and using future technologies in a secure and ethical manner.

This project is undertaken by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Colorado, and University of Denver. It is estimated to run from July 2021 to June 2023.



Publications



Grant information

This project received generous funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) program Secure & Trustworthy Cyberspace.

The grant name is: NSF SaTC-Edu: Teaching High School Students about Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence Ethics via Empathy-Driven Hands-On Projects, total ~$300K, UIUC $154,754.



Contact

Email: yvw AT illinois DOT edu
Lab Phone: 217-244-0401
Address: SALT Lab, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820-6211


Openings

Motivated students interested in qualitative and quantitative data analysis, graphic design, web/mobile app/smart contract development, and professional writing. Please send resume to Prof. Yun Huang. and Prof. Yang Wang.