Anna Melnyk
Biosketch:
Anna Melnyk is a Ph.D. candidate in the Ethics & Philosophy of Technology section at TU Delft, the Netherlands. Before joining TU Delft, she obtained MSc in Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Society (University of Twente), specializing in technologies and values. Her current research is a part of the ERC Advanced Grant research project "Design for Changing Values in Socio-Technical Systems," where she explores changing values in the course of the transition to community energy systems. Anna supervises and consults interdisciplinary student projects that involve the development of artificial intelligence, agent-based models, and technological designs receptive to social and moral values (and their potential to change). She is an active member of the Energy Transition Lab at TU Delft, the Dutch Research School of Philosophy and the 4TU Center for Ethics and Technologies.
Abstract research:
The introduction of innovative technologies and policies that embed important values like sustainability has created opportunities for local communities to decide whether they want to stick to the traditional centralized energy infrastructures or build bottom-up their community energy systems. In her project, Anna explores the interplay between technologically (and institutionally) induced value change(s) and the decarbonization of the energy sector through community engagement. Her interdisciplinary research develops a philosophical perspective on the way values may change in the course of climate change and energy transition and integrates these insights in the (re)design of (new) energy systems and their technological and institutional components. Anna uses Agent-Based Modeling to explore the hypotheses about the potential mechanisms of value change and their relation to the social innovation in the energy sector and the design of energy socio-technical systems. An ultimate goal of Anna’s research is to develop and test strategies that advance equitable, adaptable and resilient features of socio-technical systems for sustainable community energy.
