As artificial intelligence and robotics continue to reshape industries across the country, Michigan State University researcher Jean Hardy is leading a new effort to better understand how rural communities experience and respond to technological change.
Hardy, associate professor in the Department of Media and Information and associate director of the Quello Center in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, has received a $914,904 grant from the National Science Foundation to lead the four-year project, Understanding and Supporting Rural Community Adaptation to Workplace Automation.
The project, co-led by Tara Behrend, the John Richard Butler II Endowed Professor in the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, will examine how rural communities in Michigan have adapted to decades of workplace automation in manufacturing and agriculture and how those experiences can help shape responses to future technological change.
"We're in the middle of another major wave of automation driven by AI and robotics, but rural manufacturing and farming communities have actually been living through automation cycles for decades," Hardy said. "I want to treat these communities as the experts they are, rather than as case studies of decline."
The research will focus on three Michigan counties — Allegan, St. Joseph and Oceana — where Hardy and his team will partner with residents, workers, business leaders and community organizations to document how automation has affected local economies and daily life. Community members will also help design practical strategies that can support future workforce and economic transitions.
Rather than focusing only on jobs lost to automation, the project aims to better understand how families, businesses and local institutions adapt over time and translate those lessons into tools for policymakers, workforce development agencies and rural communities.
For Hardy, the award marks an important milestone in his career.
"This is my very first NSF grant after spending years getting rejected by NSF, so it feels very good to have my work finally recognized," Hardy said. "It comes at an excellent time as I begin my role as an associate professor with tenure and start developing a new area of research focused on the rural impacts of automation."
The project will also create new research opportunities for MSU students. Two graduate students, one from the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and one from the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, will join the research team, with additional opportunities for undergraduate students expected through Hardy's MI 401: Rural Innovation and Computing course.
By Claire Dippel