Ethical and Professional Issues
CSE 40175 is the one of the core classes in the Computer Science and Engineering program at the University of Notre Dame. The purpose of the course is to develop a solid foundation for reasoning about ethical, professional, and social issues that arise in the context of computer science and engineering. Emphasis is placed on identifying appropriate legal, professional and moral contexts and on applying sound critical thinking skills to a problem. Topics covered include professional codes of ethics, safety-critical systems, whistle blowing, privacy and surveillance, freedom of speech, intellectual property, and cross-cultural issues. This course relies heavily on case studies of real-world incidents.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
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Communicate effectively about a wide range of ethical, professional, and social issues regarding computer science and engineering in a variety of mediums and platforms.
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Analyze complex moral and technical issues by identifying stakeholders, exploring opposing positions, and considering short and long-term consequences.
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Discuss the impact of computing and technology in the past, the issues and obstacles facing society in the present, and the opportunities for the future.
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Evaluate different ethical, professional, and social issues in the context of computer science and engineering and in terms of Catholic social teaching.
Logistics
Class Information
- Lecture
- T/TH 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
- Location
- 126 DeBartolo Hall
- Mailing List (Class)
- cse-40175-sp16-class-group@nd.edu
- Mailing List (Staff)
- cse-40175-sp16-staff-group@nd.edu
- Slack
- #cse-40175-sp16
- Bitbucket
- cse-40175-SP16
- Blogs
- Planet RSS, Blog List
Instructor
- Instructor
- Peter Bui (pbui@nd.edu)
- Office Hours
- M/W/F 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM, and by appointment
- Office Location
- 350 Fitzpatrick Hall
Help Protocol
- Think
- IRC
- Think
- Think
- Office
Teaching Assistants
- Graduate Teaching Assistant
- Jason Liu (aliu1@nd.edu)
- Office Hours
- Monday 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Wednesday 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
- Office Location
- 212 Cushing
- Graduate Teaching Assistant
- Jermaine Marshall (jmarsha5@nd.edu)
- Office Hours
- Wednesday 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
- Office Location
- 212 Cushing
- Undergraduate Teaching Assistant
- Nicholas Acampora (nacampor@nd.edu)
- Office Hours
- Thursday 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
- Office Location
- Engineering Library
- Undergraduate Teaching Assistant
- Camilla Tassi (ctassi@nd.edu)
- Office Hours
- Wednesday 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Thursday 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
- Office Location
- LaFortune Basement
Schedule
| Unit | Date | Topics | Assignment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction, Ethics | 01/12 | Syllabus, Ethics and Computer Science, Code of Ethics Slides Slides | Reading 00 |
| 01/14 | Talents, Responsibility Slides | ||
| Hackers | 01/19 | Computer Science, Hackers Slides | Reading 01 |
| 01/21 | Meritocracy, Philanthropy, Income Inequality Slides | ||
| Employment | 01/26 | Hiring Process, Job Interviews Slides | Reading 02 |
| 01/28 | Salaries, Compensation, Promotion Slides | Project 01 | |
| 02/02 | Startups Slides | Reading 03 | |
| Workplace | 02/04 | Work-Life Balance Slides | |
| 02/09 | Diversity in Technology Slides | Reading 04 | |
| 02/11 | Codes of Conduct Slides | ||
| Engineering Disasters | 02/16 | Safety-Critical Systems Slides | Reading 05 |
| 02/18 | Whistleblowing Slides | Project 02 | |
| Privacy vs Security | 02/23 | Edward Snowden Slides | Reading 06 |
| 02/25 | Government Backdoors Slides | ||
| Pervasive Computng | 03/01 | Cloud Computing Slides | Reading 07 |
| 03/03 | Online Advertising Slides | ||
| Spring Break | |||
| Intellectual Property | 03/15 | Patents, Patent Trolls Slides | Reading 08 |
| 03/17 | Copyright, Open Source Slides | ||
| 03/22 | Reverse Engineering, Full Disclosure Slides | Reading 09 | |
| 03/24 | Piracy, DMCA | Project 03 | |
| Connectivity | 03/29 | Network Neutrality Slides | Reading 10 |
| 03/31 | Immigration, Out-sourcing Slides | ||
| Artificial Intelligence | 04/05 | Intelligence Slides | Reading 11 |
| 04/07 | Automation Slides | ||
| Freedom of Speech | 04/12 | Censorship Slides | Reading 12 |
| 04/14 | Trolls, Anonymity Slides | Project 04 | |
| Education | 04/19 | Computer Science Education Slides | Reading 13 |
| 04/21 | Computer Science 4 All Slides | ||
| 04/26 | Higher Education | ||
| 05/06 | Project 05 | Project 05 | |
Requirements
Coursework
| Component | Points |
|---|---|
| Readings Weekly reading assignments and corresponding writing prompts. | 12 × 10 |
| Projects Periodic group projects. | 5 × 30 |
| Participation Regular class attendation and contribution to course community. | 30 |
| Total | 300 |
Grading
| Grade | Points | Grade | Points | Grade | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 280-300 | A- | 270-279 | ||
| B+ | 260-269 | B | 250-259 | B- | 240-249 |
| C+ | 230-239 | C | 220-229 | C- | 210-219 |
| D | 180-209 | F | 0-179 |
Blog
All your Readings and Projects are to be submitted to your own blog before the class period on the day assigned in the schedule above.
Policies
Participation
Students are expected to attend and contribute regularly in class. This means answering questions in class, participating in discussions, and helping other students.
Foreseeable absences should be discussed with the instructor ahead of time.
Blog
All responses to the Readings should be posted to each student's individual blog. Choice of blog platform is up to each student, but the student must provide a valid RSS or ATOM feed to their blog at the beginning of the semester for easy syndication and monitoring.
Late Work
In the case of a serious illness or other excused absence, as defined by university policies, coursework submissions will be accepted late by the same number of days as the excused absence.
Otherwise, there is a penalty of 25% per day late (except where noted). You may submit some parts of an assignment on time and some parts late. Each submission must clearly state which parts it contains; no part can be submitted more than once.
Honor Code
All work that you submit must be your own. Collaboration is encouraged but must be disclosed by all parties. Print or online resources are allowed, but must be disclosed. However, you may not look at solutions from other current or past students, or any other source.
Students with Disabilities
Any student who has a documented disability and is registered with Disability Services should speak with the professor as soon as possible regarding accommodations. Students who are not registered should contact the Office of Disabilities.
Resources
Blogging Services
If you want something turn-key, you can consider one of the following hosted blogging services:
Static Website Generators
If you are a little more adventurous, you can consider statically generating your blog and hosting the files on a web server (such as Github Pages or Netfile).
Cloud Providers
If you are really adventurous, you can consider managing and hosting your blog on a cloud platform: