TSRB’s Richmond Wong Receives Grant to Foster the Landscape of “Critical Computing” at Georgia Tech

Richmond Wong, an Assistant Professor in Georgia Tech's Digital Media program, is leading a new project that explores the intersection of technology, ethics, and social values. Funded by a seed grant from the Georgia Tech Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), Wong’s project — Fostering the Landscape of “Critical Computing” — aims to create a transdisciplinary research community focused on the ethical dimensions of computing.

Wong also leads the Creating Ethics Infrastructures Lab and has built his career around studying how technologists can make ethical decisions in real-world contexts. His lab uses an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from design, science and technology studies, human-computer interaction, and computer-supported cooperative work. The lab's mission is to develop social and cultural infrastructures that help technologists address the ethical implications of their work.

The newly funded project, co-led with Professors Heidi Biggs, Betsy DiSalvo, and Carl DiSalvo, explores how computing applications influence social values and can sometimes unintentionally embed biases. Wong notes that while new technologies like AI offer transformative potential, they often overlook critical, social, and ethical impacts. His research team aims to address these issues by bringing together researchers across disciplines to consider how to design technology in more ethical and culturally appropriate ways.

At the project's core is a working group and symposium series focusing on the history, approaches, methods, and evaluation of critical computing research. Wong hopes the initiative will create meaningful conversations about how to build technologies that better align with societal values and explore new forms of expression while resisting unethical practices. “Technology is not neutral," Wong said in an interview. "It often embeds biases, just like humans can.”

By encouraging cross-disciplinary dialogue, Wong’s work in critical computing seeks to challenge the status quo and promote more equitable and just approaches to technology development.