Everyone:
Welcome to CSE 40175 Ethical and Professional Issues, which is a course where the goal is to get you to think about the ethical and moral issues surrounding computing and your responsibilities as a Computer Scientist and Computer Engineer. Unlike most of your CS classes, there will be no programming. Rather the course will revolve around reading and writing and discussion; it will be more similar to what you find in Arts and Letters than in Engineering or Science.
As you can see from the course schedule, we will be going through a variety of ethical and professional issues and topics related to computing including:
To enable robust class discussions, each week there is a reading assignment where you are expected to read articles, watch videos, or listen to podcasts, and then write a blog post to a question prompt (the first reading is below).
To encourage creative expression and different modes of communication, you will also be expected to work on 5 group projects. Each of these projects will require you to reflect on the issues and topics discussed in class and to produce an artifact such as:
Further explanation on these group projects will be provided in the future.
The readings for this week revolve around broadly exploring what ethics means in the context of computer science and engineering and examining the impact of technology on society.
Although you are encouraged to do most of the readings (they will be referenced in lecture), you are expected to at the very least read the articles that are related to the question prompt you wish to respond to below.
If you find a relevant article or video, please share them in the Slack channel for everyone to see.
These first set of readings deal with what it means to have ethics in engineering.
These readings explore the growing impact of software and computer technology and how the technology industry is coming to terms with this growing influence.
These readings explore what exactly is computer science and whether or not that definition has ethical ramifications.
These readings examine what it means to be responsible as a computer scientist or engineer.
These videos are also relevant:
First, create a blog using whatever platform or service of your choice. You will be using this blog to post your reading responses throughout the semester. Here are some possible services you can use:
Of course, you are free to write your own blog software or host it anywhere you wish.
Next, once you have completed the readings, please write responses to the both of the following questions:
In your first blog post, please write a short introduction to who you are, what your interests are, why you are studying Computer Science (or whatever your major is), and what you hope to get out of this class.
Additionally, in your opinion, what are the most pressing ethical and moral issues facing Computer Scientists? Which ones are you particularly interested in discussing this semester?
For your second blog post, please write a response to one of the following questions?
Why study Ethics in the context of Computer Science and Engineering?
Is Computer Science an art, engineering, or science discipline? Explain your thoughts and the implications of your assessment.
What is your interpretation of the Parable of the Talents? How does it apply to your life and your computing skills and talents?
Is programming a super-power? Why or why not? What are the implications if it is?
Note, you are only required to response to one question prompt. Each response should be between 500 - 1000 words. Each post will be graded in terms of:
Does the post adequately address the prompt?
Does the post utilize the readings and other sources to support the writing?
Does the post exhibit thoughtfulness and creative expression?
Does the post utilize proper grammar and style?
Of course, you may choose to response to multiple prompts if you are interested. You may also choose to respond to posts from other students (in a separate follow-up post).
To give you an idea of what the blog should look like and what each post should contain, here is a sample of blogs from the previous semester:
Once you have setup your blog, please fill out the following form to let us know where to find it:
To view and submit the form below, you need to be logged into your Notre Dame Google account. The easiest way to do this is to login to gmail.nd.edu and then visit this page in the same browser session.