| | NOVEMBER 20238IN MY OPINION By Darin Gray, Ed.D. Director, K-12 STEM Center, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern CaliforniaHave you ever seen an ugly car and thought, “How did that happen?”Have you ever wondered “Who thought that was a good idea?” after watching offensive commercials such as the Dove commercial that implies that brown skin is unclean, or the Snickers commercial that suggests that men kissing isn’t manly, or the commercial that intimates that an influencer with a Pepsi can assuage the anger resulting from the death of Black men in police custody? In those instances, like-minded people from similar lived experiences made those business decisions. So, what’s the harm? A car has poor sales. People may be rightfully upset, but no one got hurt. What does this have to do with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)?Imagine if an Artificial Intelligence-driven algorithm, programmed by like-minded people from similar lived experiences, was used by banks to determine creditworthiness, or by policy makers to determine return on investment for public resource allocation, or hiring departments to screen resumes? What if facial recognition software, created by like-minded people from similar lived experiences, was used in the criminal justice system? What would happen if medical decisions and treatments were based on a particular demographic and implemented on the entire population? How much harm would be done if the safety performance of a car didn’t include factors such as wear and tear of potholes and urban stop and go traffic? In each of these and many other areas of STEM, the lack of inclusion, diversity, equity and access (IDEA) can have detrimental consequences for people historically underrepresented in STEM such as racial and ethnic minorities, women, people who are LGBTQ, people from different religious and cultural backgrounds, REPRESENTATION IN STEM MATTERS
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