Responsible Software Engineering and ‘Social Good’

Over the last decade, the software engineering community has emerged as one particularly fertile ground for both asking deep societal questions (“what is social good”?) and developing responsible software engineering practices in answer to such questions. In this talk, I will first, use examples drawn from my own research to illustrate the transformative force of opening up SE research and practice to wider constituencies, and in particular to the hard to reach and vulnerable communities; I will then highlight the key challenges and good practices being adopted by software industry and research to anticipate, mitigate, and reflect on the intended and unintended consequences of the technologies that we bring to life.

Research

With expertise in both human computer interaction (HCI) and software engineering (SE), I adopt agile and participatory methods to software systems design, and I investigate the role of human values in computing and of digital technology in environmental and social change.

Education

• PhD in On-line Intelligent Systems, Computing Dept. UCD, Dublin, Ireland.
• MSc in Multimedia Systems, Engineering Dept., Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
• BA/MA in Philosophy and Social Psychology, Universita’ Cattolica, Milan, Italy.

Positions

• 2021, Senior Lecturer, EEECS, Queen’s University Belfast, UK
• 2016, Lecturer, SCC, Lancaster University, UK
• 2014, Research Fellow, SCC, Lancaster University, UK