Tenn Hong-Ui is a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Twente in the Human Media Interaction group. He got an M.A. degree from the Institute of Philosophy of Mind and Cognition, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. His Master's thesis focused on the measurement practice of health-related quality of life (HRQL), specifically, the ontological assumptions of causation in the model of HRQL. The work showed one of the ways that philosophical investigation influences scientific practice.
He is now working on the transformation of vulnerability in the context of soft actuators (SOFTWEAR project). Mainly, identifying the key categories of vulnerability, how the vulnerability is transformed by soft actuators, and reflecting on the conceptual tools (i.e. thought experiments, creativity, imagination, models, simulation, etc.) of the value-sensitive designing process of soft actuators.
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The soft actuator is a kind of soft robotics. It is aimed to support human abilities, such as walking longer, affording heavier, etc. The ultimate goal of SOFTWEAR project is to integrate soft actuators into the textiles to overcome the disadvantages of exoskeletons. The designing process of the soft actuators will involve the issues of vulnerability: What kinds of vulnerabilities would be encountered by users? How do these vulnerabilities be transformed by soft actuators? How can we overcome or minimize the risk of soft actuators? Here philosophers intend to analyze the concept of vulnerability and account for the model of it, in order to support the empirical works during the designing process.
And there is another dimension of philosophical work in the design of soft actuators. How do designers come up with solutions to technical and empirical difficulties? How do they evaluate these solutions? Conceptual tools like models, thought experiments, etc. are frequently used. And these conceptual tools will be reflected by philosophical analysis (especially in epistemic debates), which aims to provide better tools for designing soft actuators.
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University of Twente
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Netherlands
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