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Today’s engineering students will have a huge role in shaping what our world looks like tomorrow. That’s all the more true when it comes to cutting-edge fields like artificial intelligence. So how do you prepare them for a future that we can only guess at – and that they’ll be building themselves?
Engineers’ training isn’t just about technical know-how. It’s also about ethics: navigating the social consequences and moral dilemmas that new technology might create. But ethics education often gets short shrift, write University of Michigan researchers Erin Cech and Elana Goldenkoff.
Many students are concerned about ethical questions, but that doesn’t mean they know how to handle them. And with so much material to cover in the classroom, some educators struggle to prioritize ethics training.
The good news, the duo’s research suggests, is that ethics training is effective when students and professionals do receive it. While engineers are certainly not the only people who need to think carefully about the ethics of new technologies, they are “the public’s first line of defense,” Cech and Goldenkoff point out.
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Finding ethics’ place in the engineering curriculum.
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Elana Goldenkoff, University of Michigan; Erin A. Cech, University of Michigan
Ethics is often neglected in engineering education, two researchers write, despite mounting questions about how to responsibly design artificial intelligence programs.
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Politics + Society
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Tim Bakken, United States Military Academy West Point; Karrin Vasby Anderson, Colorado State University
The number of prospective jurors saying they can’t be fair to Trump because of who he is does not bode well for the defendant, a legal expert observes.
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International
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Jong Eun Lee, North Greenville University
The South Korean leader seeks to strengthen ties with the US and Japan. But he might be hamstrung by domestic concerns.
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Health + Medicine
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Frank Scannapieco, University at Buffalo; Ira Lamster, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
There is ample evidence that poor oral health plays a role in many chronic diseases.
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Beth Ann Malow, Vanderbilt University; Susan Nehiley Brasher, Emory University; Terry Katz, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
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Ethics + Religion
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Rebecca J.W. Jefferson, University of Florida
A scholar highlights some of the most interesting versions of the Passover text and how they’ve met communities’ changing needs around the world.
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Environment + Energy
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Marcus Lashley, University of Florida; William Gulsby, Auburn University
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Economy + Business
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Elsa T. Chan, University of Sussex; David Hekman, University of Colorado Boulder
If you want to get to the top and stay there, humility trumps arrogance as a management style.
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