2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Affective Technology: Ethical Challenges to Engineering Education

Presented at Engineering Ethics Division (ETHICS) Technical Session 6

Affective and derivative empathic technologies will become essential in the future of human-to-machine effectiveness. The discussion presents a brief review of the breadth and depth of how affect, valences, and emotions are measured and used. Reasoning mandates that the machine take-on this burden of understanding human perspective rather than humans forced to comprehend machine machinations. Potential applications will be found embedded in virtually every AI application. To maintain responsible and ethical use of this Affective Technology in the engineering educational system will need to incorporate an evolution due to the challenges presented by systems that use confidential and very private information and knowledge about the users of technology. In addition to the challenges, it also presents solutions this new breed of faculty must accept, adopt, and optimally develop to assure future ethical engineering practitioners.

Authors

Angelo Ferraro University of South Carolina [biography]

Angelo Ferraro, a retired research executive and engineer, and currently a PhD candidate (A.B.D.) with Research Fellowship and Assistantships at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. His research interests include nature inspired AI, Affective and Empathic Computing domains, and Human-to-Machine Collaboration. Ferraro received the M.E.E.E., B.S.E.E., and B.S.C.E. degrees with post graduate research in Biocompatibility, Medical Imaging, and Radiology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, and formerly a Visiting Scientist for the DoD and DoE. He is an ASEE member, also an Eta Kappa Nu (ΗΚΝ) and Life Senior Member of IEEE. He holds several officer positions in standards development for the governance of ethically responsible AI technology and of Human Rights including privacy. Contact: aferraro@email.sc.edu

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