A New Hope

Well, hello there! Quite surprised to see myself writing another blog post barely within a month and that too, with no errors. No, I have not mastered the art of typing without corrections. This is a one of the first in this new series titled “GRAD5104”. I have been taking this course titled “Preparing the Future Professoriate” and this tag will be connected to the series of weekly blog posts I write about it. This will be a more formal part of the blog with more punctuation, less slang and some more serious talks you would generally expect from people when they have drunk some good wine (I am not drunk at all).

The class started half via zoom since the instructor and the Dean of Graduate School, Dr. Aimée Surprenant is still in Canada and will come in a couple of weeks. We have to have an individual meeting with her soon to discuss something that affects academia in general and the research objectives to cover it for a final project topic. I am still a tad bit stuck between two topics although I am more inclined to discuss with her the “Neutrality of academia”- how to prevent corporate interests from influecning acadmeic results. I remember watching this segment of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Sugar where he discusses how research funded by Sugar companies differs a lot from research funded by the government or independent agencies and that to me, is exciting and at the same time concerning.

I am a Ph.D. student (believe it or not) in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering where there exists a military-industrial complex. Many of my colleagues are funded on Air Force Office of Scientific Research or Office of Naval Research grants or corporate giants like Pratt & Whitney, Boeing in aerospace and BP and Total for ocean engineering (especially multiphase flows which is my sub-area of research). There exists a concern as to would research funded be open to all researchers regardless of their nationalities or would corporate companies known for having an infamous environmental record because of oil spills be willing to share their data or release the results of fellow researchers? Or what if someone is working to develop a torpedo that could be used in aggressive action killing several people? I have noticed a lot of students often getting concerned over these dilemmas and how they struggle with their conscience? Can research really be neutral and if yes, how can we make it more open to discussion and increase its neutrality?

Of course, those are some of the questions I am trying ot think about and work for. Let’s see how the course and my progress with the project goes! See you later!