Election Science Office Hours with University of Rhode Island's Gretchen Macht: Utilizing Engineering to Sustain and Advance Democracy
Please join us on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 at 11:00 am Pacific for the next installment of Election Science Office Hours, a webinar series presented by the Caltech Election Integrity Project and moderated by R. Michael Alvarez, PhD, Flintridge Foundation Professor of Political and Computational Social Science at Caltech and Co-Director of the Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy (LCSSP) at Caltech.
During this episode of Election Science Office Hours, Professor Alvarez's guest will be Gretchen Macht, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of Rhode Island and Executive Director of the Engineering for Democracy Institute. Professors Alvarez and Macht will be discussing the unique work in the election science space that her team at the Engineering for Democracy Institute (EDI) at the University of Rhode Island where she serves as the founding executive director, conducts in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).
Professor Macht is a computational, community ergonomist who directs the EDI and the Sustainable Innovative Solutions (SIS) Lab. She initiated EDI, formerly the RI VOTES project, in 2017. EDI performs extensive data analysis, simulation, and allocation resource modeling to overcome current, new and future obstacles in the voting and election processes. As the director of EDI, an interdisciplinary group of political scientists, various architects, and engineers, her team explores the role of utilizing engineering to sustain democracy.
Professor Macht's research has been supported by collaborations with the Rhode Island Secretary of State, the Rhode Island Board of Elections, Democracy Fund, Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project, National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission.
Professor Macht received her degrees from The Pennsylvania State University, with her PhD in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in Human Factors and Ergonomics, her M.S. and B.S. in Industrial Engineering with tracks in Manufacturing, as well as a Postdoctoral Scholar in Architectural Engineering.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://caltech.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_a1-meb7tSgSGlR7GMIuN5g
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
For more information on the Caltech Election Integrity Project, please visit our website at https://www.protectingtheelection.us/ or email us at electionintegrity@caltech.edu.