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Session Description

Free ticketed event
Each year, thousands of newly educated engineers join the workforce and face many novel issues being raised by radical technological advances in human enhancement and robotics, bio-nanotechnology, sustainable manufacturing, and warfare technology. In addition, rapid changes in technology and societal challenges introduce novel conflicts in research and development that have not yet been considered within the scope of established professional codes of ethics. This creates a critical demand for enhanced development of ethical reasoning at individual as well as societal levels about new issues and novel situations that require ethical decision-making.

In response to this need, our multidisciplinary team has developed and tested a pedagogical framework that involves a coherent approach that is scaffolded, integrated, and includes reflexive analysis (SIRA) of ethics cases to provide effective development of moral reasoning. This SIRA framework, grounded in the ethical principlism familiar in biomedical ethics, challenges students to use higher-level reasoning in their analysis of ethical issues through structured learning modules that invite and facilitate integrated dialogue, as well as reflexive and reflective analysis about professional codes of ethics and moral principles. Integrated within this framework are well-storied narratives, high levels of interactivity using moderated discussions and facilitated debates, and cases with complex content. We have drawn from historic and hypothetical cases from various disciplines to show applicability across a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines. Our goal is to be able to provide these educational modules in an online format to a broad audience in engineering.

Speakers

1. Jonathan Beever

   Pennsylvania State University

   Jonathan Beever is currently a Post-Doctoral Scholar at The Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State University. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Purdue University in 2012 and held an NSF-funded postdoctoral research appointment in biomedical engineering at Purdue. In his current position he continues ongoing work and is developing new research projects around issues in ethics, science, and the environment. Beever has published on a wide range of interrelated topics including ethics and biotechnologies, ethics pedagogy, biosemiotics, environmental ethics, and postmodern environmental politics. He has held fellowships with the Kaufmann Foundation in entrepreneurship, the Aldo Leopold Foundation in conservation ethics, and the Global Sustainable Soundscape Network in soundscape ethics, among others. Beever is a member of the team from Purdue awarded one of the NSF’s 2012 competitive multi-year grants within their Ethics Education for Science and Engineering program and continues work as a consultant on that project.

2. Dr. Andrew O. Brightman

   Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

   Andrew O. Brightman is the Assistant Head for Academic Affairs of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. In this role Andrew has overseen the development of both the undergraduate and the graduate curriculum and participated in the design and teaching of many of the courses including team-teaching multiple courses that use interactive learning structure. Andrew has taught for 6 years a graduate–level course in Biomedical Engineering Ethics which uses a similar case-study/discussion-based interactive learning approach that became the basis for the NSF EESE funded proposal on which this workshop is based. In addition, Andrew has developed a curriculum for a new Professional MS degree with a concentration in regulatory affairs for medical devices and has co-created a course in ethics of clinical and translational research to support the NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program (offered jointly with the Indiana University School of Medicine) for which he serves on the Steering Committee.

3. Dr. Justin L Hess

   Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

   Justin Hess is a Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University's School of Engineering Education, Masters student in the School of Civil Engineering and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. He received his Bachelor's of Science in Civil Engineering in 2011 with a minor in philosophy and anticipates receiving his MSCE in 2015, both from Purdue University. His research focuses on understanding engineers' core values, dispositions, and worldviews. His dissertation focuses on conceptualizations, the importance of, and methods to teach empathy to engineering students. He is currently the Education Director for Engineers for a Sustainable World and an assistant editor for Engineering Studies.

4. Dr. Lorraine G Kisselburgh

   Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

   Lorraine Kisselburgh (Ph.D., Purdue University) is Assistant Professor in the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. Her research interests include the dynamics and structures of collaboration, and privacy and gender in sociotechnical environments. Kisselburgh has a background in human performance and computer science, and brings over twenty years professional experience designing and supporting learning environments in academic settings, including 35 computing labs and 2 academic buildings. She is currently co-PI on two active NSF projects, including a Cyberlearning project to develop collaborative design environments for engineers, and an Ethics in Science and Engineering project to develop online course modules to develop moral reasoning abilities in engineers. Her research has also been funded by the Department of Homeland Security, by corporate foundations, and by the Purdue Research Foundation and College of Engineering. She is a member of the Purdue Advisory Council for instructional computing, Chair of the Liberal Arts Diversity Committee, and has been awarded a Service Learning award, a Diversity Fellow award, and the Violet Haas Award (for efforts on behalf of women), all at Purdue University.

5. Dr. Carla B. Zoltowski

   Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)

   Carla B. Zoltowski is Co-Director of the EPICS Program at Purdue University. She holds a B.S.E.E., M.S.E.E., and Ph.D. in Engineering Education, all from Purdue and is responsible for teaching design and developing curriculum and assessment tools for the EPICS program. Carla’s academic and research interests include Human-Centered Design, Ethical Reasoning, Leadership, Service-Learning, and Assistive Technology and she oversees the research efforts within EPICS. She is co-PI on a study (DUE-112374) which is developing an instrument to assess individual ethical reasoning within an engineering undergraduate project team context and of the multi-disciplinary research team (EEC- 1237868) offering this workshop. In addition, she is PI of a study investigating the communicative and social processes of engineering ethics in diverse design teams (EEC-1429114). She is a member of IEEE and ASEE, and Vice Chair of the Community Engagement Division (CED) division of ASEE.