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1. Robo-Identity: Exploring Artificial Identity and Multi-Embodiment

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3434074.3444878  

   Lee, Minha; Kontogiorgos, Dimosthenis; Torre, Ilaria; Luria, Michal; Tejwani, Ravi; Dennis, Matthew J.; Pereira, Andre (March 2021, HRI '21 Companion: Companion of the 2021 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction)

   null (Ed.)

   Interactive robots are becoming more commonplace and complex, but their identity has not yet been a key point of investigation. Identity is an overarching concept that combines traits like personality or a backstory (among other aspects) that people readily attribute to a robot to individuate it as a unique entity. Given people's tendency to anthropomorphize social robots, "who is a robot?" should be a guiding question above and beyond "what is a robot?" Hence, we open up a discussion on artificial identity through this workshop in a multi-disciplinary manner; we welcome perspectives on challenges and opportunities from fields of ethics, design, and engineering. For instance, dynamic embodiment, e.g., an agent that dynamically moves across one's smartwatch, smart speaker, and laptop, is a technical and theoretical problem, with ethical ramifications. Another consideration is whether multiple bodies may warrant multiple identities instead of an "all-in-one" identity. Who "lives" in which devices or bodies? Should their identity travel across different forms, and how can that be achieved in an ethically mindful manner? We bring together philosophical, ethical, technical, and designerly perspectives on exploring artificial identity. 

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2. Inventive Identity Toolkit

   Buning, Nyssa; Garner, Joanna K; Hintz, Eric S; Hodges, Grace; Howard, Callie; Kaplan, Avi; Lovejoy, Jesse (January 2025, Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)

   The Change Your Game | Cambia tu juego (formerly Game Changers) project has developed an Inventive Identity Toolkit for wide distribution across the informal science learning (ISL) community. The toolkit is aimed at exhibition designers and informal science educators; it provides practical tips to help visitors explore their inventive identities so they can see themselves as creative problem solvers. The toolkit first offers background on Joanna K. Garner and Avi Kaplan’s theoretical frameworks, the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI), and the Visitor Identification and Engagement in STEM (VINES) model. The toolkit then includes design tips for applying the DSMRI-VINES models and encouraging visitors’ inventive identity exploration in unstaffed exhibition galleries. Similarly, the toolkit offers specific facilitation techniques (and associated training exercises) to help educators encourage inventive creativity in informal learning spaces staffed by facilitators. The toolkit also provides a catalog of verbal and behavioral indicators that signify when a visitor has activated their inventive identities; this will help researchers and evaluators measure the efficacy of exhibitions, learning labs, and other informal learning environments that strive to foster these kinds of identity shifts. Finally, the toolkit provides a template for designing public programs and community events around inventiveness in sports. We have shared the Inventive Identity Toolkit with the informal science learning (ISL) community at informalscience.org. 

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3. Documenting Engineering Identity: Electrical and Computer Engineering Departmental Documents and Student Identity

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--30343  

   Friedensen, Rachel; Doran, Erin; Rodriguez, Sarah (June 2018, 2018 ASEE Annual Conference)

   As concerns about the preparation of engineers grow, so has interest in the dimensions of engineering identity. By having a thorough understanding of engineering identity, departments will be better able to produce engineers who understand their role as a member of the profession. Generally, engineering identity literature has not focused on specific disciplinary identities, instead looking at engineering as a whole. Previous literature has utilized role identity theory (e.g., Gee, 2001) and identified key dimensions of engineering identity, including one’s performance/competence and interest in engineering courses and recognition as a current/future engineer (Godwin, 2016; Godwin et al., 2013; Godwin et al., 2016). This paper deepens our understanding of electrical and computer engineering identities. As part of research activities associated with National Science Foundation grant looking at professional formation of socio-technically minded students, we analyzed texts and documents from an electrical and computer engineering department to examine the department’s professed priorities. Using document analysis, we answered this research question: How is a department’s commitment to undergraduate engineering identity development expressed in departmental documents? Document analysis focuses on texts to describe some aspect of the social world (Bowen, 2009). This analysis was performed with two types of departmental documents: front-facing documents (e.g., websites, newsletters) and internal documents (e.g., ABET self-studies, program evaluations) from an electrical and computing engineering department at a public research university. Analysis employed a priori and emergent coding schemas to formulate themes related to identity, performance/capability, interest, and recognition present in departmental documents (Bowen, 2009; Godwin, 2016). Specifically, we skimmed documents to ascertain inclusion status; read and coded documents in depth; and identified broader themes across documents (Bowen, 2009). One broad theme was a lack of attention to identity; another showed emphasis on technical skills/competencies. By interrogating absences, we found that there is little attention being paid to identity development or its components in these documents. In other words, these texts do not indicate that the department is invested in supporting students’ senses of interest, performance, and recognition as electrical and computer engineers. Rather, we found that these texts emphasize the acquisition of specific concepts, skills, and competencies. Overall, analysis indicated that the department does not cultivate holistic engineering student identities. The resultant implications are by no means irrelevant—a focus on identity over specific skills could increase retention, increase student satisfaction, and produce better future engineers. 

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4. A generalization of Franklin’s partition identity and a Beck-type companion identity

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11139-025-01121-7  

   Gray, Gabriel; Hovey, David; Kronholm, Brandt; Payne, Emily; Swisher, Holly; Watson, Ren (July 2025, The Ramanujan Journal)
5. EWSR1 maintains centromere identity

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112568  

   Kitagawa, Risa; Niikura, Yohei; Becker, Argentina; Houghton, Peter J; Kitagawa, Katsumi (June 2023, Cell Reports)