My teaching leverages philosophical concepts to empower students in engineering, computing, and other fields to reason ethically about their design choices and business decisions, preparing the next generation of responsible technologists, business leaders, and citizens.
The majority of my teaching is in service to the mission of the Bovay Program in the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering: "to be a catalyst for consideration of social and ethics issues in engineering" at Cornell and beyond.
More information about the engineering ethics program at Cornell can be found on its website.
ENGRG 3600 Ethical Issues in Engineering Practice
Every spring at Cornell, I teach an overview course on the ethics of engineering. The course fulfills a liberal studies requirement for engineering majors and is cross-listed in philosophy and in science & technology studies. Through brief lectures and group discussions, students learn about topics such as the following:
Professional ethical codes in engineering
Whistleblowing
Sociotechnical thinking
Value-sensitive design
Ethical theories and principles, from utilitarianism to feminist care ethics to the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace, and their application to engineering
We also discuss a wide range of cases in engineering ethics, such as:
Automotive engineering failures, such as the Ford Pinto and the travails of various Tesla models
Controversial civil engineering designs, such as Robert Moses's Long Island expressways and smart cities
Cases highlighting issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and reconciliation in engineering, such as Balanda Atis's work on cosmetics for dark-skinned people and community projects with indigenous communities
Consumer rights and their connection to engineering design, such as the right to repair
Genetic engineering to conserve culturally significant species or to "enhance" human beings
Accessibility design and ableist attitudes in engineering
ENGRG 3605 Ethics of Computing and Artificial Intelligence Technologies
Starting in Fall 2024, I will teach a new course at Cornell on the ethics of computing and AI. The course will count towards the new AI Minor offered by the Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. It is also expected to fulfill a liberal studies requirement for engineering majors, and to be cross-listed in philosophy, science & technology studies, and information science. Students will learn about topics such as the following:
Ethics considerations of creating and using generative AI
Ethics of computer hacking
Digital rights management and software licensing
Bias in machine learning models
Machine ethics and autonomous vehicles
Deceptive and persuasive design
Science fiction issues, such as brain uploading and existential risks of AI
Every fall at Cornell, I provide an introduction to engineering ethics in the first-year seminar. All incoming engineering students (around 900 total) take this course. In Fall 2023, I introduced the notion that all technical decisions also have an ethical upshot and facilitated a discussion around the ethical value of generative AI. Starting in Fall 2024, the ethics sessions will take a flipped classroom approach, with specific material to be determined.
Ethics Across the College
Every semester, I visit several engineering courses to lead one or more sessions on an ethical topic that is relevant to the course's technical content.
Academic Year 2023–24
CEE 1160 / ENGRI 1160 Modern Structures. Topic: Accessibility, Ableism, and Structural Design.
CEE 1130 / ENGRI 1130 Sustainable Engineering of Energy, Water, Soil, and Air Resources. Topic: Environmental and Ecological Justice.
ENGRC 3027 Cross-cultural Communications and Ethics in the Workplace. Topic: Value-Sensitive Design.
ENGRC 3500 Engineering Communications. Topic: Value-Sensitive Design and Communicating Ethical Concerns at Work.
MAE 4300 Engineers and Society. Topic: Value-Sensitive Stakeholder Analysis.
CHEME 4620 Chemical Engineering Design. Topic: Chemical Justice.
EAS 5060 Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Workshops on How to Succeed. Topic: Solar Geoengineering and Global Justice.
MAE 6130 Engineered Living Materials. Topic: Ethical Bioengineering and Humanitarian Engineering.
Before Cornell
Harvard University
PHI 166 Proseminar: Ethics of Computing Technologies
Free Software: Freedoms and Responsibilities. CS 153 Compilers. Repository entry.
Thesis supervisor for Melissa Kwan. Topic: The Epistemology of Social Media Content Algorithms.
Athabasca University Co-developer of the AI Ethics Micro-credential, a self-paced course series for professionals in government, education, or business. Courses include:
AI Ethics: An Overview
Data Ethics
Machine Learning Models and Ethical Design
Roboethics
Dalhousie University
CS 3101 / PHIL 2490 Social, Ethical, and Professional Issues in Computer Science
Directed Studies in Computer Science: Ethics of Privacy Policies and Terms of Service Agreements
University of Sheffield As instructor or co-instructor: