Risk, Contestation, and Learning: Sociotechnical Pathways in Energy and Engineering

This talk explores how sociotechnical systems analytics can bridge engineering education and contemporary energy infrastructure debates. Drawing on an ongoing research project, I compare how engineering and social science students conceptualize energy systems alongside the decision-making practices and risk framings embedded in renewable energy projects. Energy systems—particularly renewable transitions—are not merely technical problems of design and optimization, but are entangled with political contestation, regulatory shifts, and community concerns. As such, they provide a timely pedagogical arena for teaching engineers to navigate and unsettle the dualism between technical and social domains.

The analysis highlights two levels of sociotechnical understanding. First, among students, I trace how disciplinary training shapes perceptions of what “counts” as technical versus social in energy systems. Second, within renewable energy projects, I examine how industry and government actors grapple with evolving risk typologies—ranging from financial and environmental to political legitimacy—as infrastructure becomes a site of intense public debate. By placing these domains in dialogue, I show how education and practice reflect and reinforce one another, shaping the futures of both engineering expertise and energy systems.

The seminar will highlight preliminary findings from classroom-based research and ethnographic study of renewable energy projects, with an emphasis on offshore wind in the United States. Through this work, I argue that sociotechnical systems provide a productive analytic for connecting how engineers are trained with how infrastructure is designed, contested, and governed. In doing so, I suggest possibilities for cultivating sociotechnical engineering judgment rooted in the complexities of energy transition.
 

Bio: Desen Özkan is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and affiliate faculty member in the Neag School of Education Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut. Desen conducts research on sustainable energy systems, sociotechnical engineering education, and offshore wind energy, with specific attention to judgment and decision-making in complex sociotechnical energy systems. She is a co-founder of UConn’s Engineering Education Ph.D. program, teaching the core courses as well as courses in UConn’s engineering and human rights undergraduate initiative. She holds degrees in engineering education (Ph.D., Virginia Tech) and chemical and biological engineering (B.S., Tufts University).