Ethics Education Library Blog

Register for the symposium: Climate Change & Ethics: Where are we?

2022-03-08T05:45:00.007-08:00

Date: March 25 and 26, 2022
PDF of Schedule and Program
Register via Eventbrite

A virtual symposium hosted by Elisabeth Hildt and Kelly Laas of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology.

In light of the slow progress being made to mitigate climate change, there is a need to reflect on the ethical considerations at play. How can ethics help structure the discussion and facilitate climate justice?

This symposium seeks to engage stakeholders in a debate around the ethical assumptions implicit in our discussions and actions around climate change.

This event will be held virtually, and there will be no charge for participation. To register, visit our Eventbrite site.

Call for Abstracts: Climate Change & Ethics: Where are we?

2021-12-10T09:56:00.005-08:00

Call for Proposals: Climate Change & Ethics: Where are we?

Virtual Symposium

Date: March 25 and 26, 2022

Proposals Due: January 25, 2022

A virtual symposium hosted by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology.

This symposium seeks to engage stakeholders in a debate around the ethical assumptions implicit in our discussions and actions around climate change.

Topics for contributions may include but are not limited to:

What are the relevant concepts and principles in the ethics of climate change? How can their practical impact be increased?
How can abstract principles like justice, responsibility, and sustainability be materialized?
What responsibility lies on different societal actors in the context of climate change, and how can they live up to it?
How does solidarity inform how we act in the face of climate change?
How can future generations be better taken into consideration?
What role do uncertainty and the precautionary principle play in decision-making around climate change?
How can fundamental ethical considerations be operationalized as legal and political principles to inform and shape climate action?
How can indigenous voices and knowledge have an equal place in decisions on climate change mitigation and adaptation?

For this two-day symposium, we invite presentations from all stakeholders, including scholars, policy-makers, practitioners, journalists, activists, and others.

Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words. Abstracts for 10-15 minute presentations are due by January 25, 2022. Please send your abstracts and questions about the event to csep@iit.edu.

This workshop will be held virtually, and there will be no charge for participation.

To register for this event, please visit our EventBrite page.

Register for the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Annual Conference

2021-11-23T08:27:00.001-08:00

Registration for the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Annual Conference is now open! See more at https://appeconference.org/

Increasing Trust in Artificial Intelligence: Approaches and Limitations

2021-09-14T06:44:00.003-07:00

Register via Eventbrite

September 22, 2021
12:30 PM CDT
Free Webinar

The webinar will explore questions related to trust in AI technology with speakers Jason Borenstein, Hille Haker, and Roberto Zicari.

While artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been transforming our lives and offering valuable applications in a broad spectrum of domains such as business, medicine, and communication, it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand the decision-making processes of this complex technology. To increase trust in AI, criteria like transparency, explainability, privacy, fairness, and accountability have been suggested.

The webinar will explore questions related to trust in AI technology including:

How much trust to put in machines?
How can more insight into the decision-making processes be gained?
What are ways to evaluate and monitor technology?
How can adequate assessments and regulations be developed?
Is trust the right concept at all when interacting with AI?

Speakers include:

Jason Borenstein

Jason Borenstein, Ph.D., is the Director of Graduate Research Ethics Programs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His appointment is divided between the School of Public Policy and the Office of Graduate Studies. He has directed the Institute's Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Program since 2006 and is part of the leadership team for the Ethics, Technology, and Human Interaction Center (ETHICx). Dr. Borenstein is a member of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) Board of Directors, Chair of the APPE Research Integrity Scholars and Educators (RISE) Consortium, and a member of the IEEE SSIT Technical Committee on Ethics/Human Values. His teaching and research interests include robot & artificial intelligence ethics, engineering ethics, research ethics/RCR, and bioethics.

Hille Haker

Hille Haker, Ph.D., holds the Richard McCormick S.J. Endowed Chair of Catholic Moral Theology at Loyola University Chicago. She served on several Bioethics Committees, including the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies to the European Commission, which issues reports on ethical, legal, and social implications of new technologies and fosters the dialogues between science and society.

Her scholarship in bioethics centers on reproductive medicine, genetic diagnosis and gene editing, methods of bioethics, such as narrative bioethics and feminist ethics, and the history of eugenics, racism, and human dignity and vulnerable agency as a response.

Her recent books are Towards a Critical Political Ethics. Catholic Ethics and Social Challenges (2020), and an edited volume Unaccompanied Migrant Children. Social, Legal, and Ethical Perspectives (2019, with Molly Greening).

Roberto Zicari

Roberto V. Zicari is an affiliated professor at the Yrkeshögskolan Arcada, Helsinki, Finland, and an adjunct professor at the Seoul National University, South Korea. He is currently leading a team of international experts who defined an assessment process for Trustworthy AI, called Z-Inspection®.

Previously he was Professor of Database and Information Systems (DBIS) at the Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, where he founded the Frankfurt Big Data Lab.

He is an internationally recognized expert in the field of Databases and Big Data. His interests also expand to Ethics and AI, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. He is the editor of the ODBMS.org web portal and of the ODBMS Industry Watch Blog. He was for several years a visiting professor with the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology within the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at UC Berkeley (USA).

Register for Building Inclusive Ethical Cultures in STEM

2020-10-09T11:59:00.004-07:00

Workshop Date: April 23-24, 2021

Register for free via Eventbrite

Workshop Schedule

This two-day workshop seeks to share best practices to effectively engage students and faculty working in research labs and lab-based classrooms in building inclusive ethical cultures. This training moves beyond traditional research ethics training into frameworks and approaches to strengthen the ethical culture in research labs.

The workshop will feature a series of short presentations and panel discussions that showcase best practices and approaches to embedding educational interventions in research labs and lab-based courses. This will be followed by a discussion of effective frameworks for implementing recommendations made by the panelists as well as best practices and potential hurdles in implementing these frameworks. Participants of the workshop will also be guided through the development of personalized plans for implementing some of these educational interventions in their labs, courses or departments.

The workshop is aimed at:

Young principal investigators/junior faculty who are in the process of building their own research groups;
Instructors from both four-year and two-year colleges who teach lab-based STEM courses;
Departmental chairs interested in programmatic approaches to improving mentoring, research ethics education, and the research culture of their department.

Topics covered will include:

How can meaningful discussions about ethics be effectively integrated into research labs?
What are approaches and tools to effectively integrate research ethics education?
How do we build more inclusive research environments?
How can researchers, junior faculty, and young principal investigators begin to form strategies for building inclusive, ethical lab environments?
How can we better support and empower graduate students to effectively handle ethical questions that arise in research - especially international students and underrepresented students?

This workshop will be held virtually and there will be no charge for participation.
Please register via Eventbrite.

The workshop is part of the NSF funded project “A Bottom-up Approach to Building a Culture of Responsible Research and Practice in STEM”. The workshop is being organized by Elisabeth Hildt (Illinois Institute of Technology), Kelly Laas (Illinois Institute of Technology), Eric M. Brey (University of Texas at San Antonio), and Christine Miller (Savannah College of Art and Design).

Call for Proposals: Association for Practical and Professional Ethics 2021Virtual Conference

2020-08-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

30th Annual APPE
International Conference

FEBRUARY 25 - 28, 2021

VIRTUAL EVENT!

Call for Proposals

The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) seeks proposals for its 30^th anniversary virtual annual international conference to be held 25-28 February 2021.

APPE is a multidisciplinary, international organization advancing scholarship, education, and practice in practical and professional ethics. We facilitate and support scholarly and professional collaborations among teachers, scientists, business practitioners, engineers, government officials, researchers, the media, and all professionals concerned with the practical application of ethics and values.

We invite individuals from every discipline and profession interested in advancing scholarship, teaching and a general understanding of applied ethics to submit proposals based on their work. Our meeting will have sessions in many discipline areas including business, engineering, government, law, media, and science, and on a wide variety of subject areas such as agricultural ethics, bioethics, business ethics, compliance, education, environmental ethics, media ethics, and technology. Proposals can be on ethical issues within or cutting across disciplines and professions.

SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL HERE

Submission Categories
We invite proposals in the following categories: 1) Individual presentations; 2) Case studies; 3) Pedagogical demonstrations; 4) Creative arts; 5) Posters; 6) Panel discussions; 7) Author meets critics; 8) Breakfast with an author; 9) Pecha Kucha/Rapid fire session; 10) Graduate student Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition; 11) Paper competitions and awards (see below for more information). Submissions associated with current events and emerging topics are encouraged.

Submission Deadline: September 18, 2020

Generally, no more than one individual presentation per person will be accepted. There is no limit to participation in co-authored presentations and panels.

Submission Guidelines and Instructions

Special Interest Sections
In addition to papers and sessions on topics of general interest in applied and professional ethics, APPE has Special Interest Sections and program tracks in the following areas:

Bioethics, Health & Medical Ethics
Business Ethics
Early Career Scholar
Education Ethics
Engineering, Science and Technology Ethics (STEM)

Law, Government & Military Ethics
Media & Journalism Ethics
Moral Theory
Research Integrity
Social & Societal Ethics

If you wish your submission to be considered for a particular program track, you may indicate this in your submission form.

Paper Competitions and Awards
Best Formal Paper by an Early Career Scholar: $500 prize
Best Formal Paper by a Graduate Student: $500 prize
Clifford G. Christians Ethics Research Award: $250 prize
Best Formal Paper by an Undergraduate Student: $250 prize

In addition, there is a $250 prize given to the winner of the Graduate Student Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition which takes place and is awarded at the conference.

See Submission Guidelines and Instructions for paper competition guidelines and submission instruction.

For more information about the 30^th Annual APPE International Conference, please see the APPE website at: https://appe-ethics.org.

Join us for a webinar on March 26 - Teaching Engineering Ethics in the Context of ABET Requirements

2020-02-25T12:06:00.000-08:00

The 2nd session in the Online Ethics Center Webinar series, “Bringing Ethics Into the Conversation” will feature Dr. Rebecca Bates, Professor and Chair, Department of Integrated Engineering, Minnesota State University, Mankato. Dr. Bates will speak on teaching engineering ethics in the context of ABET requirements. The webinar will be held at 12:00 pm, EST on Marcy 26, 2020.

Register at https://nasem.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ea_sume6Q9eb3stY90igZg

Join us for a webinar on February 25th - "Working Ethics into the Conversation: Professional Responsibility in Engineering"

2020-02-13T10:21:00.002-08:00

Topic

Working Ethics into the Conversation: Professional Responsibility in Engineering

Description

For a new Online Ethics Center webinar series, “Working Ethics into the Conversation,” Dr. Rosalyn Berne, Director of the NAE’s Center for Engineering Ethics and Society, will host students, academics, and professionals in conversations about teaching ethics.

The first webinar conversation will be broadcast Feb. 25 at 12pm. Dr. Michael Loui, professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will talk on the subject of "What Is Professional Responsibility in Engineering?" and explain why as professionals engineers have special responsibilities. He will be joined by discussant Dr. Jeff Brown, associate professor of civil engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Audience participation is encouraged.

Time

Feb 25, 2020 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

To register, visit: https://nasem.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KmIlPIbtSPC9Fo15Qd7T9w?fbclid=IwAR1AWX7Y56JNQz4bAYTxPYnlaSRXNIC8xBpmd1uTlKEqG-j5DEErJQQIJpg

The Embassay of Good Science

2019-08-02T12:12:00.003-07:00

The European Commission has launched an amazing new web site called the Embassy of Good Science that contains an amazing array of materials on research integrity and the responsible conduct of research, as well as offering training opportunities and allowing authors and educators to share their own resources with the scientific community.

They describe their mission as:

The goal of The Embassy of Good Science is to promote research integrity among all those involved in research. The platform is open to anyone willing to learn or support others in fostering understanding and awareness around Good Science.

The Embassy aims to become a unique ‘go to’ place, a public square where the community of researchers can gather to discuss ‘hot topics’, share knowledge, and find guidance and support to perform science responsibly and with integrity.

We want to focus on researchers’ daily practice. Our ambition is to collaboratively map the laws, policies and guidelines informing good practices and highlight relevant cases, experiences, educational materials and good practice examples. We will also support educators to develop training on research integrity and ethics.

Be sure to check them out!

New Article: Artificial Intelligence: Does Consciousness Matter?

2019-07-02T07:20:00.001-07:00

Our Center Director, Elisabeth Hildt, just published an interesting piece on artificial intelligence and consciousness. Check it out!

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01535/full

Call for Applications: Training STEM Faculty New to Teaching Ethics

2019-05-31T08:19:00.004-07:00

The National Academy of Engineering Online Ethics Center (OEC) of the Center for Engineering Ethics and Society will hold a 1½-day workshop on Training STEM Faculty New to Teaching Ethics. Applications are invited from STEM faculty who wish to identify opportunities to integrate ethics and responsible conduct of research (RCR) guidance in their courses and research environments. Workshop presenters and participants will explore a variety of hands-on tools and approaches, both formal and ad hoc, including the use of the OEC as both a teaching tool and resource for materials. Participants will consider their own classes and research projects as well as the approaches and materials presented to create or enhance a learning activity, such as a class plan, course syllabus, or laboratory practice. This workshop is designed to help faculty and others seeking to fulfill (a) NSF and NIH requirements for providing RCR instruction and (b) ABET ethics education expectations.

The OEC is looking for faculty, researchers, and/or administrators who are eager to develop strategies and plans for incorporating ethics in their courses or research environments. Some spots will be reserved for individual attendees. Applicants are sought who will broadly represent a range of STEM disciplines, including the social sciences; graduate and undergraduate instructors; and a variety of academic institutions (e.g., liberal arts colleges, large public universities, institutions serving underrepresented populations, private research institutions).

The workshop will be held October 22–23, 2019, at the National Academies’ Keck Building in Washington, DC. There is no fee for workshop registration. Participants are expected to cover their travel costs. Limited funds are available for travel assistance in cases of financial need.

Please share this announcement with those you think would be interested.

The application deadline is Monday, July 15, 2019.

To apply and for more information:
https://www.onlineethics.org/Workshop-Application.aspx

Informed Experiences, Designing Consent

2018-12-06T13:53:00.002-08:00

Informed Experiences, Designing Consent is a symposium interrogating the intersections of consent and the design of interactive media and technologies. The symposium is hosted at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions and the HASTAC Scholars fellowship program on April 6, 2019. It is organized by Michael Anthony DeAnda, Elisabeth Hildt, Kelly Laas, and Leilasadat Mirghaderi.

Informed Experiences, Designing Consent is a one-day event intended to bring together researchers, scholars, practitioners, and designers to consider the implications of theoretical, social, and material aspects of consent and design. Some examples of topics include: consent to participate in social media, user agreement, consent in gaming, informed consent to data collection and use, consent in digital humanities research. This workshop will consider ethical approaches to each of these respective fields of study and development. This event emphasizes theory and practice, structured on an iterative process of Learn, Make, Reflect. Here, participants will begin by listening to a panel on the topic of consent and design, then move to a group maker breakout session to design based off key concepts from the panel and return together to reflect on the process.

We invite researchers, scholars, practitioners, designers, makers, and ethicists to submit proposals for 10-15 minute presentations and to attend this event, particularly those interested in consent as it applies to:

Ethics and philosophy
Informed Consent
Design of experiences
Game design and gaming culture
Design and study of User Experience
Website development
Application design and mobile app design
User Interface Design
Data collection
Digital Humanities
Social Media Research
User agreements
Audience studies
Design Research
Research Methods and Practices
Research Design
Storytelling and digital storytelling
Maker spaces and crafting

Proposal submissions should include a title, a 400-500 word abstract, and a bio of 100-150 words in length by January 23, 2019 to this form.

Any further questions may be directed to Michael DeAnda at mdeanda@hawk.iit.edu.

Call for Papers for Special Issue of Science and Engineering Ethics

2018-08-02T13:54:00.002-07:00

Call for Papers

Special Issue of the journal Science and Engineering Ethics

Brain-Based and Artificial Intelligence: Socio-ethical Conversations in Computing and Neurotechnology

Editors: Elisabeth Hildt, Kelly Laas, Monika Sziron, Stephanie J. Bird

We are inviting papers to be included in a special issue of Science and Engineering Ethics that seeks to explore the convergences and disparities in approaches to intelligence in neuroscience and computer science. The topic for this special issue comes from a May 2018 workshop organized by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois Institute of Technology, that reflected on how brain-based intelligence is similar to artificial intelligence (AI) and also how both can be combined in neurotechnology. Papers submitted for this special issue should explore the ethical and social implications that arise in AI and neurotechnology. Here the term “brain-based” intelligence encompasses both human and non-human animal intelligence. This special issue aims to advance an interdisciplinary discussion between scientists, practitioners, and scholars around these questions.

Both conference presenters and new authors are invited to submit an abstract for consideration.

Topics of contributions may include but are not limited to:

● Finding a Common Language: Psychology, Neuroscience, and AI

● Understanding Intelligence: The Physiological and the Mechanical

● Ethics of Anthropomorphic Design and Processes in AI

● Ethical and Social Implications of AI and Neurotechnology

● Rights in AI and Neurotechnology: Policies, Regulations and Legislation

● Similarities and Differences of Ethics in AI and Neuroscience

● Science-fiction: Friend or Foe?

● Merging of Brains and AI Technology

● Brain-Computer Interfaces

● Hybrid Intelligence

Submissions of up to 5,000 words are invited from the fields of neuroscience, computer science, engineering, psychology, philosophy, ethics, law, political science and social science.

Please submit an abstract (or revised workshop abstract) of up to 500 words. Abstracts are due September 15, 2018 and should be sent to Elisabeth Hildt at csep@iit.edu. Authors of selected abstracts will be notified of the editors' decision by October 1, 2018 and invited to submit a full paper. They will also receive further information regarding the formal requirements of the paper.

Full papers, of up to 5,000 words in length, double-spaced and in 12 point font are due December 15, 2018.

All manuscripts will go through the journal’s double blind peer review process.

General Information can also be found on the website of Science and Engineering Ethics (see Instruction for Authors): http://www.springer.com/social+sciences/applied+ethics/journal/11948

Search by Publication Type Available

2018-02-13T07:32:00.000-08:00

Huge thanks to Preyang Shah and Mohamed Azhar Saikh for all of their hard work in repairing the Ethics Education Library search. Users are now able to filter their search by publication type, and should be looking for other enhancements to the site in the next few weeks.

Call for Abstracts: Brain-based and Artificial Intelligence: Socio-ethical Conversations in Computing and Neurotechnology

2018-02-13T07:29:00.002-08:00

Call for Abstracts: Brain-based and Artificial Intelligence: Socio-ethical Conversations in Computing and Neurotechnology

May 10-11, 2018, Chicago, IL
Organized by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology

This workshop seeks to explore the convergences and disparities in approaches to intelligence in neuroscience and computer science. It will reflect on how brain-based intelligence is similar to artificial intelligence and also how both can be combined in neurotechnology. Based on this, the workshop will explore the ethical and social implications that arise in AI and neurotechnology. We are using the term ‘brain-based’ intelligence to encompass both human and non-human animal intelligence. The workshop aims to advance an interdisciplinary discussion between scientists, practitioners, and scholars around these questions.

Invited speakers:

Maria Gini, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota
Mark Coeckelbergh, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna
Mikhail Lebedev, Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University

Topics for presentations may include but are not limited to:

Finding a Common Language: Psychology, Neuroscience, and AI
Understanding Intelligence: The Physiological and the Mechanical
Ethics of Anthropomorphic Design and Processes in AI
Ethical and Social Implications of AI and Neurotechnology
Rights in AI and Neurotechnology: Policies, Regulations and Legislation
Similarities and Differences of Ethics in AI and Neuroscience
Science-fiction: Friend or Foe? Merging of Brains and AI Technology Brain-Computer Interfaces Hybrid Intelligence

We invite presentations from the fields of neuroscience, computer science, engineering, psychology, philosophy, ethics, law, political science and social science. Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words.

Abstracts for 20-30 minute presentations are due by March 9, 2018. Please send your abstract to csep@iit.edu.We also welcome your questions or proposals for additional workshop topics at csep@iit.edu.

The workshop will be held in Chicago at the Illinois Institute of Technology downtown campus.

Fostering Integrity in Research

2017-06-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently put out a report entitled "Fostering Integrity in Research" that updates their publication of the same name published in 1992. This is a fantastic resource for educators, institutions and research involved in research and want to learn more about scientific integrity, ethics education in this area, and best practices for fostering a a culture of integrity.

PLATO Conference: Chicago, IL June 23-24th 2017: Call for Papers

2016-07-27T07:55:00.001-07:00

A Roundtable on Ethics, Privacy, and Research Reviews

2016-07-27T07:46:00.001-07:00

The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) and the Ohio State University's Program on Data and Governance invite you to a roundtable discussion of ethics, privacy, and practical research review in corporate settings that will be held on Tuesday, June 14, 2016, at FPF (1400 Eye Street, NW #450) from 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM EDT. This roundtable is an important extension of FPF's December 2015 workshop, "Beyond IRBs: Designing Ethical Review Processes for Big Data Research," supported by the National Science Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

This timely event, which follows the White House's call to develop strong data ethics frameworks, will convene corporate and academic leaders to discuss ethical review processes in corporate settings. We will hear from key representatives from AT&T; Facebook; Iowa State University; Ohio State University, Mortiz College of Law; and Washington & Lee University School of Law. A major focus of the roundtable will be on a new paper by Facebook's Molly Jackman and Lauri Kanerva entitled, "Evolving the IRB: Building Robust Review for Industry Research."

This event is free and open to the public, but please register
as space is limited.

New Report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues: Bioethics for Every Generation: Deliberation and Education in Health, Science, and Technology.

2016-05-12T09:31:00.002-07:00

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (Bioethics Commission) has published a new report, Bioethics for Every Generation: Deliberation and Education in Health, Science, and Technology.

Since 2010, Bioethics Commission has completed 10 projects on topics as diverse as privacy and whole genome sequencing, ethics and Ebola, and neuroscience and society. Presented with topics that involve deeply held values, public concern, and controversial questions, the Bioethics Commission approached each project with reasoned deliberation, inviting testimony from experts in various disciplines and from across the country and the world to weigh in, soliciting input from the public, and conducting almost 200 hours of public discussion. Deliberation has been a key feature of this Bioethics Commission’s work.

In addition, in each of its reports, the Bioethics Commission’s substantive recommendations have included suggested improvements in ethics and bioethics education to advance ethical decisions and policymaking. Following the release of each report, the Bioethics Commission published educational materials to amplify its analysis and recommendations, tailoring its work to diverse stakeholders.

The Bioethics Commission chose deliberation and education as its capstone topic to underscore the importance it places on these two tools, and to demonstrate how deliberation and ethics education mutually reinforce one another to create a more democratic and just society. The report offers eight recommendations to advance the use of both tools as they intersect with bioethics.

· Read the full report

· Read the Bioethics for Every Generation press release

· Read more about Bioethics for Every Generation on our blog

· Access all of the Bioethics Commission’s educational materials

Repost: Relaunch of the Online Ethics Center

2016-04-06T07:41:00.001-07:00

The National Academy of Engineering recently relaunched the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (OEC). Previously focused primarily on ethics issues in engineering and research, the redesigned website has expanded to encompass ethics issues in the sciences.

The mission of the site is to provide engineers, scientists, faculty, and students with resources for understanding and addressing ethically significant issues that arise in scientific and engineering practice and from developments in science and engineering.

The new site features case studies, educational activities, and bibliographies, among other materials, categorized by resource type, topic, and field. A revised OEC community directory connects authors’ profiles with their resources. Content Editorial Boards evaluate, identify, and develop materials in six areas, and, together with an Outreach Group, serve as liaisons to their communities.

The project is funded by the National Science Foundation and undertaken with the cooperation of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, in collaboration with the Ethics Education Library of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at the Illinois Institute of Technology. More information is available on the project page.

Please explore the site and let us know what you think. We hope you enjoy it and find it useful!

Sincerely,

Frazier Benya, Rachelle Hollander, and Simil Raghavan

Staff for the Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science

Center for Engineering Ethics and Society

National Academy of Engineering

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Center for Engineering Ethics and Society
National Academy of Engineering
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

New Journal Article by CSEP: "Twenty-Five Years of Ethics Across the Curriculum - An Assessment" in Teaching Ethics Journal

2016-04-01T07:29:00.005-07:00

"Twenty-Five Years of Ethics Across the Curriculum - An Assessment"

Michael Davis; Elisabeth Hildt; Kelly Laas

Twenty-Five Years of Ethics Across the Curriculum - An AssessmentAfter twenty-five years of integrating ethics across the curriculum at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions conducted a survey of full-time faculty to investigate: a) what ethical topics faculty thought students from their discipline should be aware of when they graduate, b) how widely ethics is currently being taught at the undergraduate and graduate level, c) what ethical topics are being covered in these courses, and d) what teaching methods are being used. The survey found that while progress spreading ethics across the curriculum has been substantial, it remains incomplete. The faculty think more should be done. From these findings we draw six lessons for ethics centers engaged in encouraging ethics across the curriculum

NSF breaks new ground in reprimanding authors of flawed Science paper By Jeffrey Mervis

2016-02-08T07:53:00.001-08:00

Retractions of scientific papers are common. But the circumstances surrounding this week’s retraction of a 12-year-old Science paper, involving research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), appear to be highly unusual.

The case highlights the sometimes fraught relationship between journals, researchers, and funding agencies. And it has drawn attention to some apparently rare steps that NSF took against researchers who the agency says engaged in unacceptable research practices—but not misconduct.

The 2004 paper, reporting on a novel method of synthesizing new materials through the use of RNA catalysts, has been investigated by two universities and NSF. In 2013 the NSF Office of Inspector General (OIG), an independent watchdog, found that the three authors, then a graduate student and two biochemistry professors at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, had falsified their results and were guilty of scientific misconduct.

NSF officials overruled that finding in a move that agency observers say is rare. However, in a May 2015 letter to the researchers, NSF said that their actions were “certainly a departure from accepted practices.” And NSF agreed with OIG that the researchers—Lina Gugliotti, Daniel Feldheim, and Bruce Eaton—needed to “clarify the scientific publication record” (by submitting a correction to Science) before they could be eligible to apply for NSF grants. That ruling triggered a chain of events that led to today’s retraction notice in Science.

The case breaks new ground for NSF, say those who follow research misconduct. One novel twist is that the agency meted out a major punishment—ineligibility for NSF funding—despite finding that the researchers weren’t guilty of misconduct. The punishment is instead based on NSF’s conclusion that the numerous flaws in the paper meant the researchers had violated an agency rule requiring grantees to publish “all significant findings.”

Another new wrinkle was NSF’s decision to tell the researchers that submitting a correction toScience would be the essential step in restoring their eligibility. In most cases where NSF finds misconduct, the perpetrators face debarment from federal funding for a fixed amount of time as long as 5 years. (OIG had recommended that the researchers be banned for 3 years from serving as reviewers or consultants to the agency.)

Correction or retraction?

After receiving NSF’s letter, the researchers did submit a correction to Science, says Marcia McNutt, the journal’s editor-in-chief. But the journal decided not to publish it. Instead, McNutt says she opted for a retraction that is carefully worded to conform to the NSF ruling. “The retraction says that [the researchers] submitted a correction to the journal,” she explains. “So according to the retraction, the authors have satisfied exactly what NSF asked them to do.”

According to McNutt, the 2004 Science paper contained far too many flaws to be dealt with in a correction. “Corrections are for honest errors. We don’t want to do corrections for truly sloppy science,” she told ScienceInsider.

McNutt’s characterization of the paper is drawn from the NSF investigation, which concluded that the researchers were guilty of “an avoidance of protocols, a failure to meet expected scientific standards, a lack of expertise or training in the field of inquiry, poor oversight of less experienced team members, and the misrepresentation of data on which a conclusion was based. In short… an absence of care, if not sloppiness, and most certainly a departure from accepted practices.”

Based on that analysis, McNutt says she decided that a retraction was the only way to remove the stain on the scientific literature. “Now that [NSF’s] report is publicly available,” she explains, “I didn’t want the community to read it and think, ‘So this is the type of paper thatScience publishes?’” The retraction, she says, still allows the scientists to use subsequent papers that they have published to illustrate that their results were sound. Those later papers, McNutt says, is “the basis on which the research should be judged.”

McNutt hopes the retraction will also help curb what she sees as a rush-to-publish mentality among scientists that puts staking a claim above scientific rigor. “I’m worried about what will happen if top journals continue to publish flashy results that don’t hold up and that are slapped together and are shaky,” McNutt says. “I would prefer to send the message, ‘Don’t send those papers to this journal.’”

Lack of clarity

Many details in the case remain murky, however, because of federal laws designed to protect the privacy of the researchers under scrutiny. NSF has not acknowledged that the trio is the subject of its investigation, and their names were redacted from NSF documents released to a North Carolina newspaper that has closely followed the case. But several media outlets have identified the researchers, and Feldheim, now a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Eaton, who recently retired from that university, have publicly blasted NSF over the years for what they feel has been an unwarranted attack on their research. In 2014 they created a short-lived website, StandUp2ScienceBullies.com, to rally community support for their position.

Feldheim and Eaton did not respond to repeated invitations by ScienceInsider to talk about their situation. NSF also declined to discuss the case, citing privacy concerns. But McNutt, who discussed the issue with NSF Director France Córdova before deciding to retract the paper, says that NSF knew its ruling was taking it into uncharted waters.

“It sounded to me, when talking to France, that this might be a change in NSF’s attitude,” McNutt says. “I think they want to work more closely with the community to find ways to raise standards.”

McNutt was quick to add that “NSF doesn’t set journal policy. But I think they are looking for greater involvement in the process of maintaining high standards for scientific integrity.”

The case also calls attention to the messy process by which journals try to address errors in the literature, and the difference between a correction and a retraction. Researchers at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, reported this week in Nature on their struggle to get journals to correct mistakes in papers they had published; the researchers had discovered many of mistakes simply by reading the articles. In many cases, they reported, it was difficult to get journals to even acknowledge the errors, much less take appropriate action.

“There’s a vacuum of clarity on when an error warrants an erratum versus a retraction, much less an investigation into possible wrongdoing,” says the lead author, biostatistician David Allison. “There are some broad guidelines, but they aren’t very helpful to an editor trying to decide on the proper response.”

Announcement: IIT CSEP Receives Grant from MacArthur Foundation

2016-01-20T09:13:00.002-08:00

Illinois Tech’s Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) Receives Grant from MacArthur Foundation

Chicago – January 20, 2016 – Illinois Institute of Technology’s Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) has received a $200,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to enhance its highly regarded Ethics Code Collection (ECC). The ECC is a unique resource, comprising a curated collection of over 4,000 ethics codes and guidelines across a range of disciplines for over 40 years. With this generous funding from the MacArthur Foundation, it will serve as a more dynamic global resource for informing ethical decision making in professional, entrepreneurial, scientific, and technological fields, and inform critical research into the advancement of ethical practices in a rapidly changing world.

"This is an exciting step forward for the Ethics Center," says Elisabeth Hildt, director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions and professor of philosophy in Illinois Tech's Lewis College of Human Sciences. "The MacArthur Foundation's support will allow us to extend one of the center's historical strengths—its collection of ethics codes—into the future. We are also particularly looking forward to investigating critically the manifold societal functions of ethics codes." This revitalized resource, and the research and greater public accessibility it will bring, present the opportunity to inform the development of ethical standards and practices within professional and entrepreneurial communities across the globe, including countries with newly emerging democratic civil societies.

ECC currently is used by professors and students, by entrepreneurs and practitioners looking for guidance in how to resolve professional ethical issues in their daily work, by professional societies writing their own codes of ethics, and by consumers interested in finding out more about the ethical guidelines of professionals.

Funding from the MacArthur Foundation will provide the resources to embark on an extensive design strategy to improve the digital ECC, and will include tools such as better keyword search, sorting capabilities, comparisons, and downloading in different formats. Funding will also enable new research on the current and future roles of ethics codes within society, business, and technological innovation.

The Illinois Tech Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions is a leading center of research in science and engineering ethics since 1976, operating within the university’s Lewis College of Human Sciences

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Jennifer Clement

Communications Manager

Jclemen3@iit.edu

312-567-5779 (office)

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) Conference, Basque Country, March 10-11, 2016

2016-01-04T07:44:00.002-08:00

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI):

The Problematic Quest for “Right” Impacts

Miguel Sanchez-Mazas Chair at University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes (CSPO) at Arizona State University are delighted to announce the Conference on RRI: The Problematic Quest for “Right” Impacts.

The conference will be in Donostia-San Sebastian (Basque Country), March 10-11, 2016.

Call for Papers

We invite the submission of contributed papers from researchers working in any topic related to the aims of the conference (see abstract below). Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be emailed to rri2016@gmail.com by January 10, 2016. Abstracts must be prepared for blind review. Author details are to be included on a separate cover sheet. The intended allocated time for presentations is 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes discussion time).

We encourage especially submissions from women researchers and junior scholars.

Deadline for submissions: January 10, 2016

Notification of acceptance: January 25, 2016

Registration deadline: February 28, 2016

Abstract

The European Commission claims that research and engineering activities under the next R & D Framework Programme, “Horizon 2020” (2014-2020), will be conducted according to a “Responsible Research and Innovation” (RRI) framework, meaning that “societal actors work together during the whole research and innovation process in order to better align both the process and its outcomes, with the values, needs and expectations of European society” (EC, 2012, p. ii). RRI can be understood thus as an effort to justify innovation not on grounds of uncritical or taken for granted macro-economic assumptions, but on the basis of societally-beneficial objectives, or challenges, as openly defined and debated by a plurality of societal actors. As such, RRI-based EU policy aims to introduce “broader foresight and impact assessments for new technologies, beyond their anticipated market-place benefits and risks” (von Schomberg 2013, p. 51).

Explicitly characterized as a “challenge-based approach”, Horizon 2020 claims therefore to be prepared and oriented to address “major concerns shared by citizens in Europe and elsewhere”, including human and environmental health, sustainability, energy efficiency, climate action, inclusiveness, security, and freedom. However, are these generic challenges self-evident? How are they constituted and by whom? Can those challenges be challenged? How are they operationalized? On what normative bases? These and other similar questions express a legitimate concern for the main dynamics, assumptions and priorities by which normative frameworks are constituted and institutionalized in RRI-based EU research policy. This conference aims to interrogate the heterogeneous and contingent socio-technical processes that guide, enable and also constrain RRI’s quest for the “right” impacts.

For more information, please see the attached flyer. There is no registration fee to participate in the conference, but registration is required. To register, please send your name/surname, contact details and affiliation by email to CRRI2016@gmail.com no later than February 28, 2016.

For further details or queries, please contact the conference organizers:

Andoni Eizagirre (aeizagirre@mondragon.edu) or

Hannot Rodriguez (hannot.rodriguez@ehu.eus)

Travel Awards - Gender Summit 8, Mexico

2015-12-18T10:02:00.002-08:00

2016 CNS-ASU Winter School

Call for Applications

The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU) will hold its

fourth annual Winter School on the Anticipatory Governance and Responsible Innovation

for Emerging Technologies from January 3-10, 2016.

The CNS-ASU Winter School is designed to give participants an introduction to and practical experience with methods and theories used by CNS-ASU faculty and associates. Curricular content and activities are designed around our four Real-Time Technology Assessments (RTTAs) and two Thematic Research Clusters (TRCs).

Presentations describing the various tools, concepts and methods that guide CNS-ASU research activity will be supplemented by practical activities and rigorous discussion. Ample work time and breaks are built into the Winter School schedule to encourage participants to guide their own learning experience throughout the week. Mentorship sessions with available faculty will also be offered.

Why apply

The Winter School is an immersive experience for scholars who want to share their unique research and learn from peers and experts who use diverse approaches to investigate the human and social dimensions of emerging technologies. Winter School faculty will offer theoretical framings, analytical tools and hands-on lessons in responsible innovation, anticipatory governance and RTTA. Winter School will enrich your network of peers, and mentors and all participants will present their research at the Research Symposium on January 9.

Who should apply

Applicants should be advanced graduate students or recent PhDs (post-doc or untenured faculty within 3 years of PhD at time of application) with an expressed interest in studying emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology, synthetic biology, geoengineering, etc. Applicants may come from any discipline, but priority will be given to those whose research focuses on societal questions, and all applicants must be demonstrably proficient in English.

Where

The program will be held at Saguaro Lake Ranch in Mesa, AZ, with access to Sonoran Desert hiking, kayaking on Saguaro Lake, horseback riding, and relaxing by the Salt River.

Program Cost

A program fee of $950 includes 7 nights at Saguaro Lake Ranch, all meals, and local transportation from Tempe, AZ. Participants will need to secure their travel to Phoenix, AZ, and arrive before 1:00 pm on January 3, 2016.

To Apply

Visit the CNS-ASU Winter School website at http://cns.asu.edu/Winter-School for more information or to download an application. Deadline forapplications is Monday, November 2, 2016.

PO Box 875603, Tempe, AZ 85287-5603

(480) 727-8190 Fax: (480) 727-8791

cns@asu.edu http://cns.asu.edu/