Ensuring Trustworthy, Socially Acceptable Innovations

How is the development of new technologies affected by this?

Prof. Annette Diefenthaler: Any society is made up of very different people with very different value systems, involving these diverging perspectives in the design process is not easy. We plan to do so in three ways:

One is co-designing the research question itself. Currently, researchers are defining which questions matter and should be investigated further. But what does society care about? The first step is to build mechanisms that bring research questions into the university. The second step is actively involving people from society in the ongoing research and design process. The third step is translating scientific insight and knowledge into relevant, practical solutions.

Throughout, there is the question: is this a problem worth solving at all? This criticality is a mindset and an attitude and it requires the courage to possibly take a detour in your process.

In what ways does this field interact with other research disciplines?

Prof. Annette Diefenthaler: Design has always evolved through collaboration with and inspiration from other disciplines. At TUM, we have a special opportunity to advance our own discipline - in terms of methods and content - by collaborating with other fields of research.

Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann: For example, the MDI will support the development of the new Cluster of Excellence TransforM. In this cluster, social science issues and societal implications will be considered in the innovation process from the beginning to find solutions that go beyond just technical and scientific results. Using such integrative design approaches can help us to avoid developing technologies that are not sustainable, societally relevant, or marketable. For this reason, we expect the MDI to be an exciting addition for start-ups in particular.

Design processes also play an important role in the further development of artificial intelligence. How can new AI developments meet social, regulatory and ethical requirements - and thus benefit society as a whole? We are working on such questions at the Konrad Zuse School of Excellence in Reliable AI (relAI) and the Center for Responsible AI Technologies , among others. At the TUM School of Social Sciences and Technology (SOT) and the TUM Center for Educational Technologies , we are investigating how AI will affect the way we will conduct research and impart knowledge in the future, as well as how we can use AI sensibly.

A further step in this direction is the new Master's degree program "AI in Society" . In addition to technical skills, students acquire a deep social understanding and learn to drive responsible AI innovations, steer their complex regulations in the right direction and thus promote technologies for a better future.

In which other areas do we already embody a society-centered attitude?

Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann: It is a fundamental way of thinking that we have begun integrating into research and teaching in various formats. For example, in the TUM: Junge Akademie and TUM Project Weeks , students learn to combine the skills, methods, and tools of different disciplines to develop valuable solutions to socially relevant issues outside of their lectures. Another example is the new TUM Public Science Lab - a participatory laboratory that explores the ways in which science and technology shape society, as well as how societal perspectives can influence research and innovation. Founded during the pandemic, the TUM Think Tank promotes dialogue between the scientific, business, political, and public sectors to develop concrete questions and transform knowledge into new action through cross-sector collaboration and critical debate.

We also take this approach to entrepreneurship. Students work in the THINK.MAKE.START format to develop solutions to real-world problems. They learn by acting and reflecting outside their comfort zones. They engage in iterative innovation processes to incorporate the needs of potential customers when developing new technologies, products, and services. Changing our perspective and facilitating an agile exchange of ideas across thought and sector boundaries opens up new solution spaces.

Prof. Annette Diefenthaler: We see the design of open conversation formats as an important part of the MDI offering. Recently, we introduced the "Creative Collisions" format, which brings together individuals from various fields of science, the industry, society, and design. My students designed these conversations to happen at eye level, with the purpose of generating inspiration and new ideas. We will continue to organize events like these. After all, if we can't engage in conversation on a fundamental human level, we will never be able to make a difference within the society as a whole.

What role does the MDI play in the exchange with industry partners?

Prof. Annette Diefenthaler: We see ourselves as a front door for the industry. We value industry partners as a source of inspiration and technical expertise, as well as subjects of research. These partner organizations can approach us with questions, and we will then convene the right group of scientists to work on them.

Which projects are you currently working on at the MDI, and which ones are in the pipeline?

Prof. Annette Diefenthaler: We are currently laying the groundwork for our research activities by conducting preliminary experiments. We are deliberately exploring a wide range of topics and areas. In nutritional sciences, for instance, we intend to employ design approaches to improve the quality of research data. We plan to do so by redesigning the experience of study participants, in service of, for example, reducing dropout rates.

In the field of robotics, we are researching new design paradigms for the coexistence of humans and humanoid robots. While robots may currently be tolerated or even fascinating to people, they are not yet designed to fit into our living and working environments. There is significant potential here to influence technical progress. We are also working on a machine learning and data science project that aims to simplify participatory decision-making and design processes. Design often requires making many interrelated decisions simultaneously, and understanding how they relate to each other can be difficult. When people outside a core design team are asked to participate, we must clarify which design decisions lead to which consequences. We believe machine learning and digitally supported scenario modeling could be valuable tools in this space.

We also plan to collaborate with materials science and neurodesign, as well as in the field of politics. After all, democracy, the political process and its content are also designed.

What might the future hold for the university as a whole or its administration?

Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann: At TUM, Design will grow far beyond the process of simply shaping products and systems. It encompasses considering the requirements resulting from the intended use of technology, products, or systems to fulfill their purpose with regard to technical function, economic and ecological boundary conditions. This includes the use of materials, cost optimization, and reusability, as well as the interaction with human users in terms of usability and ergonomic aspects. The goal is to establish design as an integral and ongoing part of research, teaching, and innovation. Additionally, the aim is to generate novel, valuable effects in the design of technologies, products, software, and transformation processes across TUM's entire subject profile through collaborative thinking, creativity and system thinking.

Impressions of the "Creative Collisions" event