The Centre of Management and Humanities (CMH), Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be University), Chandigarh, organized an expert talk for B.Tech. 2nd-year students on the topic “English and the Digital World: Humanities, Computing, and Engineering” by Prof. John Shanahan on 25 August 2022 as a part of lecture series commemorating PEC Centenary Year Celebrations.The event began with a floral welcome to the resource person by Dr Anju Singla, Head of the Department, CMH.
Prof. John Shanahan, a visiting Fulbright Specialist and Professor of English, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, DePaul University, Chicago, acquainted the students with the possibilities of crossbreeding of disciplines of literature, computing and engineering in a socially relevant manner. He explained some common research roots and goals, followed by examples of research and teaching initiatives that combine literary studies, computing, and engineering. Prof. Shanahan shared some pioneering studies of cultural and political dynamics of Engineering and proto-Engineering and research possibilities in this field. He also talked about the collaborative teaching course, “I-Robot: Imagining and Engineering Robot Autonomy”, the purpose of which is to accelerate the working together of engineers, humanists and social scientists. Overall, he emphasized the fact that the students and teachers from science and technology should engage with humanities departments and vice-versa more intimately. He also appraised the students of the ethical concerns involved in the development of new technology. For instance, automated text generation combined with “print on demand” or “e-book on demand” can lead to disinformation. The AI statistical analysis of the cultural texts can also upset the accepted wisdom of humanities.
The session progressed with a question-answer session with the students, followed by an interaction with Prof. (Dr.) Baldev Setia, Director, PEC. He appreciated the theme of the talk and emphasized the need for the interdisciplinary collaboration of Science, Technology and Humanities in current times. The session ended with Dr Anju Singla, Head of the Department, CMH presenting a memento to the resource person and encouraging students with her motivational words. Almost 120 students, faculty members and research scholars attended the session. The students found the session immensely insightful and look forward to attending such sessions in the future.