Trustworthy Autonomy Systems (TAS)

Reimagining Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS) with Disabled Young People (DYP)’ has been an interdisciplinary and collaborative project using methods of co-production and makerspaces (collaborative workspaces for making, learning, exploring and sharing) to explore TAS.

Photograph of toy robots lined up against a green background
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Trustworthy autonomous systems are technologies that we might use in our everyday lives and that assist us, work with us to complete tasks, and we might trust them to do things for us. Disabled young people are key end-users and potential co-designers of these future systems, although their experiences and aspirations are rarely acknowledged. 
 
This interdisciplinary project has brought together young people, social and computer science researchers and school and industry partners. We have centralised the expertise and aspirations of our young co-researchers around questions of trust, resilience and capacity in relation to autonomous systems; thus embedding inclusion, equity, responsible research and innovation in studies of TAS. The project team worked with 9 co-researchers who are students at Greenacre Special School in Barnsley. The team hosted a series of workshops exploring technology, TAS and robots and set about designing and making our own together with the team maker{futures}.
 
To celebrate the culmination of co-production from this project, the team has launched an animation. This animation showcases the importance of inclusive methods and ways of working collaboratively to ensure that young people are not only potential end users of technology and TAS, but designers and makers for the future. 

The animation is available to view here: 

Animation illustrating the TAS project

For more information, please visit the TAS website.

For more info, please contact Dan Goodley d.goodley@sheffield.ac.uk or Lauren White l.e.white@sheffield.ac.uk 

Young people operating circuitry

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