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March 2021

SEFI Ethics Special Interest Group Newsletter

Coming up in this month’s newsletter

Dear reader,

Case studies are often presented as promising, or even as indispensable parts of a good Engineering Ethics Education. Currently, however, a lively debate exists on this topic. Earlier in March we hosted our second SEFI seminar, which explored the various approaches and assumptions driving the development or use of case studies (watch the recording here). This new SEFI ethics SIG newsletter presents seven thought-provoking opinions on the use of cases in Engineering Ethics Education.

The first three contributions give three conceptual critiques:

Plea for more nuanced use of engineering ethics case studies

Rob Lawlor (University of Leeds, UK) expresses his concerns about an over-reliance on case studies in the teaching of engineering ethics.

What are your underlying assumptions in having students go through your cases?

Thomas Lennerfors (Uppsala University, Sweden) digs deeper by asking us readers what our underlying assumptions are in having students go through our cases.

Centring equity in engineering ethics case study instruction

Cindy Rottmann (University of Toronto, Canada) elaborates examples of this and makes a plea to couple ethics and equity when teaching engineering ethics through case studies

The next three contributions give attempts to solve issues with case study use.

Making cases more concrete and familiar:

A Japanese example of a case on endemic disease for students studying beside the location

Atsushi Fujiki (Kobe City College of Nursing, Japan) argues to contextualize cases by giving a Japanese example of a river disease policy for students living nearby that same river.

Using ethics experiences of engineering graduates to curate directly relevant cases for first year students

Andrew Valentine (The University of Queensland, Australia) and Sally Male (The University of Western Australia) answer the same problem of professional distance of cases by transforming the ethics experiences of engineering graduates to design direct relevant cases for first year students.

Students develop situated insights with online roleplays

A third way to make cases more alive is presented by Aditya Johri (George Mason University, USA). He describes how students develop situated insights with online roleplays.

When Software developers go to the dark side. The importance of teaching Dark Patterns in Software Engineering Ethics Education

Dympna O’Sullivan, Andrea Curley and Damian Gordon (TU Dublin, Ireland) offer several examples of dark pattern scenarios familiar to all who navigate the web, shop online or subscribe to online services, that can inspire educators teaching the ethics of software engineering

Alongside our Case-topic, you can find our usual input on upcoming events and recently published articles on Engineering Ethics Education, including a volume of ethics cases for chemistry education.

We wish you a good read, and hope you will react to the opinions expressed or share with us how you teach ethics on Twitter by using #SEFIethics

Gunter Bombaerts and Diana Martin

Invitation: SEFI SIG Ethics online seminar series

22 April 2021 - Film and fiction in engineering (ethics) education (workshop)

This seminar aims to create a discussion amongst the participants of the pros and cons of using film and fiction in engineering ethics education. It will also provide examples of film and fiction that can be used to teach engineering ethics – and participants are strongly encouraged to bring their own examples of using film and fiction to share.

Organisers and speakers: Thomas Lennerfors (Uppsala University, Sweden): Sarah Hitt (NMITE, The UK)

4 May 2021 - Emotions and intuitions in engineering ethics education

This online seminar explores the role of emotion and empathy in how engineers learn to make ethical decisions. It will explore the ways in which empathy can be integrated into engineering education, what engineering ethics teaching can learn from ethics teaching in other professional education settings, and map the growing research in the field of emotion in engineering ethics education.

Nicola W. Sochacka (University of Georgia, USA): Using empathy to build embodied ethical understandings of complex socio-technical challenges

Yesim Korkut (Laurelate International İstanbul Bilgi University, Turkey): Integrating emotion into ethics education : what can be learned from professional and clinical psychology

Johanna Lönngren (Umeå University, Sweden), Alberto Bellocchi (University of Queensland, Australia), Homero Murzi (Virginia Tech, USA) Madeline Polmear (University of Florida, USA) and Roland Tormey (EPFL, Switzerland): A systematic review on Ethics and Emotions in Engineering Education Research

Organiser: Roland Tormey (EPFL, Switzerland)

If you wish to propose a theme for a future ethics seminar, or are interested in organizing such a seminar yourself, please contact Diana ([email protected]).

SEFI SIG Ethics online seminar recording

4 March 2021 - Using case studies in engineering ethics education - presentations

The seminar aimed to respond to the need for guidance in the area of engineering ethics case instruction, bringing together four educators who have experience with developing and using case studies.

Open calls - Upcoming events

SEFI SiG Ethics workshop: Film and fiction in engineering (ethics) education

22 March 2021, 3-5pm CET (online) - Registration

SEFI SiG Ethics seminar: Emotions and intuitions in engineering ethics education

4 May 2021, 3-4.30pm CET (online) - Registration

The Society for Philosophy and Technology Biannual Conference: Technological Imaginaries

28-39 June 2021, UC Lille, France (online) - Call for abstracts (deadline 9 April)

IEEE ISTAS21 - 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS21): Technical Stewardship and Responsible Innovation: Ethics-2021 track

28-31 October 2021, University of Waterloo and University of Guelph, Canada (online) - Call for abstracts (deadlines 12 April / 28 April / 29 June)

4th International Conference of the Portuguese Society for Engineering Education 2021: Shaping Engineering Education for the 21st Century

21-23 June 2021, Instituto Superior Técnico Lisbon, Portugal - Call for abstracts (deadline 12 April)

Workshop: Building Inclusive Ethical Cultures in STEM

23-24 April 2021, Illinois Institute of Technology (online) - Registration

REES AAEE 2021, The Research in Engineering Education Symposium and Australasian Association for Engineering Education Annual Conference

5- 8 December 2021, The University of Western Australia (hybrid) - Call for abstracts (deadline 30 April)

WEEF/GEDC 2021: Diversity and Ethics in Education for an Inclusive and Sustainable World

15-18 November 2021, Madrid - Call for abstracts (deadline 30 April)

The 2021 International Conference on Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing (ISM): Ethics and Ethical Engineering in Industry 4.0 track

17-19 November 2021, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, Linz, Austria - Call for abstracts (deadline 30 April)

Special Issue: Emerging Learning Technologies for Future of Work and Education in Engineering

Journal: Advanced Engineering Informatics - Call for paper proposals (deadline 30 April)

Special Issue: Education for Sustainable Development in Higher Education

Journal: Sustainability - Call for paper proposals (deadline 30 June)

News and initiatives

An international team of experts narrate the historical cases and analyse their ethical dimensions in the new volume Ethics of Chemistry - From Poison Gas to Climate Engineering edited by Joachim Schummer and Tom Børsen (Aalborg University, Denmark). All cases are suitable for undergraduate teaching, either in classes of ethics, history of chemistry, or in chemistry classes proper. Although chemistry has been the target of numerous public moral debates for over a century, there is still no academic field of ethics of chemistry to develop an ethically balanced view of the discipline. And while ethics courses are increasingly demanded for science and engineering students in many countries, chemistry is still lagging behind because of a lack of appropriate teaching material. This volume fills both gaps by establishing the scope of ethics of chemistry and providing a cased-based approach to teaching, thereby also narrating a cultural history of chemistry. More information

Be part of an ongoing conversation on engineering ethics education using #SEFIethics on Twitter, and let us know about your recent publications, events and initiatives that we can share with our community in our monthly newsletters, or even to share your opinions and respond to the ideas expressed in the SEFI SIG Ethics editorials.

Recent articles and publications

Recent publications and articles dedicated to engineering ethics education are now available at our website.

The Ethics SIG Newsletter is issued 10 times per year and aims to share information on latest engineering ethics research and practices. If you would like to join the mailing list please use the form on the SEFI Ethics SIG website.

If you have something you want to share in the newsletter (great ideas, upcoming workshops, nice experiences …), let us know: Diana ([email protected]) and Gunter ([email protected]) Or connect with us on Twitter using #SefiEthics to signal publications, initiatives or events for inclusion in the newsletter

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