The Observatory for Human-Centered Engineering (ECHOlab) advances public engagement with technology and conducts research on technological problems in society through the integration of computational, ethnographic, and participatory methods.
As a platform for collaboration, public outreach, and methodological experimentation, ECHOlab is anchored with the sections for Science and Technology Studies and Organization Science and Technology at the Division for Business Studies and Technology, DTU Management.Our approach
Technology is always for someone. In that sense, engineering is human-centered by definition. But that does mean that technology is for everyone. In a pluralistic democracy, different people with different stakes in a problem, different values and different politics, will also have different ideas about what counts as good solutions.Human-centered engineering therefore necessitates deep, scalable, and dynamic knowledge of who they are, what their differences are about, and how they can be integrated in democratically responsible technology development. Faced with shifting societal challenges and rapid technical innovation, that question calls for new methods.In line with DTU’s overall strategic direction, technology for people is technology for different people. ECHOlab advances our understanding of who they are and how to engage them.