Artificial intelligence, climate change, pandemics, and the erosion of democratic institutions are routinely called existential threats. Engineers design, operate, and evaluate the systems at the center of all of them. Over two days we ask where we are, and what we can do.
The International Network for Engineering Studies brings together scholars who study engineers and engineering — historians, sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, engineering educators, and engineers themselves. This workshop is our annual gathering, held online so that members on several continents can take part.
Much of the public argument about existential risk has been carried by philosophers and social scientists. Engineers are rarely at that table, though they build and run the systems in question. The first day takes stock of where we are. The second turns from diagnosis to action, with colleagues from engineering practice and engineering education.
The workshop is online and free for INES members. Register so we can send you the joining link and the final program; it takes under a minute and we ask only for your name, email, and affiliation.
Not a member yet? Joining takes a few minutes, and a membership taken out now runs through all of 2027. The rates are below.
One session on 14 January is given over to lightning talks of about seven minutes each. Tell us what you are working on, a question you are stuck on, or a project you want collaborators for. Proposals are due Friday, 5 December 2026.
If you cannot make the live session because of the hour, you can send a recording instead — say so on the form.
Membership is what pays for this work, and this workshop is one of the things it buys you. It also includes a one-year subscription to our journal, Engineering Studies, and the networking and mentoring events we are planning as a follow-on to the workshop. Memberships run the calendar year, so one taken out now covers all of 2027.