Dr. Joel Alejandro Mejia

Dr. Mejia’s research focuses on the social, educational, and ethical dimensions of emerging technologies, particularly how AI is transforming engineering education and the ways students learn, create, and participate in technical fields. One of his main focus areas is how engineering students develop critical consciousness and how that is reflected in the technologies they design (e.g., Whose knowledge is included? Whose experiences are missing? What assumptions are being built into the system?). He is also interested in the ways in which AI has become a fundamental piece of the discursive practices of engineers and the role AI has on the epistemic agency of engineers. Much of his research examines questions of equity, identity, and belonging in engineering, and he sees AI as raising new and important questions about who has access to these technologies, whose knowledge and experiences are represented in AI systems, and how AI may reproduce or challenge existing inequities.

In his teaching, he is increasingly interested in how generative AI can impact engineering students’ agency, critical thinking, and responsibility. He is especially interested in interdisciplinary collaborations that bring together perspectives from engineering, education, the humanities, and the social sciences to examine AI as a technology embedded in broader social and cultural contexts.