Getting some emails from younger folks, high-schoolers, and college students. Excited for you to be a part of this movement! This thread is specifically for you.
Please tell us what grade/year you’re in and whatever you’re noticing/experiencing/want to share.
I am a 3rd Year Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies Major, studying at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. This unique program that I am a part of allows students to choose an Engineering concentration and Liberal Arts concentration; for these I have chose Comptuer Science (my previous major) and Psychology.
I am currently looking for guidance on where to go – both academically and career wise. I know that my goal is to become an expert in Human Tech, which I believe will put me more on the psychology side. However, after I graduate from Cal Poly next year I’m not sure where to go next. I’m most likely going for a Master’s in HCI, but also considering a Ph.D and potentially doing Cognitive Science. The top two graduate schools I’m looking into are Carnegie Mellon University and Georgia Tech.
In regards to my future, I’m looking for advice on a few questions:
I’m very excited to get involved with Humane Tech! I look forward to where my academic studies will take me, and hope that one day I can gain the expertise to design software that really focuses on being nothing more than a tool; to design software that lets the user go; to design software that instead of taking advantage of human vulnerability enables human strength.
Thank you for any help and insight you can provide!
I think you’re smart to be going for an internship at Facebook. stanford’s Persuasive technology lab is another good one, but your instincts are on point that a good way to learn about this stuff is to do some work or studying in the belly of the beasts!
Hope this helps, having a deep understanding of artificial intelligence will be key as well.
not sure of other specific programs.
Hey! The original post is from February but I figured I’ll share with you my story!
I started out as a product design bachelors student in Lisbon. Designing furniture, objects and other physical products that supposedly ‘solved solutions’ (or not, but at least they looked good right? 
).
Soon I started asking the question: “is this what we really need? more stuff?” . I realised that I could use my creativity and use design as a tool create bigger social impact and start asking the questions.
So I moved to the Netherlands and I’m now in my 2nd year of Strategic Design Master at TU Delft to learn how can I tackle design problems in a more strategic level. I’m exploring how design can influence and shape the future of digital technology and what is the ethical role of the designer (are we really just throwing ‘stuff’ out there? and what is the impact of that ‘stuff’? How can we change the mindset and business models?).
You can check my website to know a bit more about me: pedrogilfarias.com
PS: I’m currently looking for a graduation opportunity concerning ethical role of design and the human impact of digital technology. If you know something or want to collaborate, that would be great!
Very interesting @Pfarias. Maybe you can combine this with things happening in our community and we can help you in your work. The topic is very interesting for HTC and part of our fourth strategic pillar ‘Applying Humane Design’ (the most important one).
PS. Note that your site says that it is private, and nothing more.
I’m still exploring my way into the community, but I would love to help where I can!
(Website is already up I was making some changes to the website and completely forgot to put it online again…)
Hi @Pfarias,
maybe you could be interested in this campaign proposal. Think how you could contribute (maybe designing alternative social media UI without metrics or other harfful features…).