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 or engineer. Unlike most of your CS classes, there will be no programming (or even math). 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 a group artifact such as:
Further explanation on these group projects will be provided in the future.
The readings for the first week of class revolve around broadly exploring what ethics means in the context of engineering and what it means to be a Notre Dame computer scientist and engineer:
These videos are also relevant:
Tech’s Ethical ‘Dark Side’: Harvard, Stanford and Others Want to Address It
Silicon Valley Writes a Playbook to Help Avert Ethical Disasters
Ask HN: What is the most unethical thing you've done as a programmer?
Q: Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving Security Is Possible?
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.
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.
To make it easier on the graders, please prefix each blog post title with the corresponding assignment. For instance, for this reading assignment, your blog post can be entitled "Reading 00" or something creative like "Reading 00: Wait, You Can't Do That?" or "Reading 00: Computer Science is magical, but it's not magic".
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 and engineers? 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?
How do you normally determine if an action is right or wrong? What sort of ethical or moral framework do you depend on or utilize? What sort of things do you consider?
Is programming a super-power? Why or why not? What are the implications if it is (and what is your power)?
What is your interpretation of the Parable of the Talents? How does it apply to your life and your computing skills and talents?
Normally, the reading responses are due at noon on Monday. This gives the instructor time to read all the post before the Tuesday class.
For this first assignment, however, please submit both posts by noon on Wednesday, August 22.
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:
Requirements: Does the post meet the specified word count? (2 Points)
Mechanics: Does the post utilize reasonable grammar and style? (2 Points)
Content: Does the post adequately address the prompt? Does the post exhibit original and personal thoughts? (3 Points)
Organization: Does the post utilize the readings and other sources to support the writing? Are the views and arguments in the post reasonably to easy read and understand? (3 Points)
Of course, you may choose to response to multiple prompts if you are interested.
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.