Overview

The main topics for the beginning of this course has been ethics, superpowers, and hackers. From our discussions in class, it is clear that our beliefs and principles and how we view ourselves affect our decisions and our approach to ethical and moral issues. For this first project, you are to work in groups of 2-4 on one of the following options:

  1. Develop a Code of Ethics

  2. Compose a Manifesto and a formulate a Portrait of the Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering student.

  3. Describe your computing superpower and illustrate your origin story.

After each construction a group artifact, you are to write an individual reflection regarding the option you chose. These individual reflections should follow the same guidelines as normal reading blog posts and should be around 300 - 600 words.

Option 1: Code of Ethics

The first option is to write a Code of Ethics for Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering students. You may model it off of the ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct or the IEEE Code of Ethics but your Code should contain original language and thoughts geared toward our student population.

Some things to consider:

Your new Code of Ethics can either be a nicely formatted blog post or a PDF file.

Examples

Here are some projects from last year: 1, 2, 3

Individual Reflection

Once you have the Code of Ethics, each group member write a blog post that reflects on the project:

Option 2: Manifesto and Portrait

The second option is to write both a Manifesto in the spirit of The Conscience of a Hacker and a Portrait similar to A Portrait of J. Random Hacker. In this case, however, you are to describe what it means to be Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering student. What is the ethos, the culture, the common attributes, and general spirit of your class?

Some things to consider:

Your Manifesto and Portrait can either be a nicely formatted blog post or a PDF file.

Examples

Here are some examples from last semester: 1, 2, 3

Individual Reflection

Once you have the Manifesto and Portrait, each group member write a blog post that reflects on the project:

Option 3: Superpowers and Origins

The final option is to write your comic book biography: a description of your computing superpower, an illustrated (ie. contains multimedia such as audio, images, or videos) explanation of your how you came to acquire these powers, and a reflection on how you plan on using these powers.

Some things to consider:

Examples

Here are some examples from last semester: 1, 2, 3

Individual Reflection

Because the biographies consist mainly of individual elements and reflection, no further work is required.

Submission

Your project is due at noon, Saturday, February 3. Individual reflections should be posted to each student's blog, while the group artifact should be put on a student's blog or a storage site such as Google Drive.

To submit your project, one group member should fill out the following form

Grading

Your group artifact will be graded on how well your group addresses the chosen prompt and the quality of the presentation, while your individual reflection will be graded based on the same criteria used for reading assignments.