Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Teaching Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity: Call for Proposals

Dear Colleges,

The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics is holding its annual conference in March of 2018, and are inviting Chicago-area educators to take part in a workshop that brings together peers working on integrating ethics into STEM education for a  day-long event that is meant to help participants further develop course modules, case studies, and other ethics-related curricula. Preference is given for subject matter in the life and social sciences, but anyone working in a STEM field is welcome to submit. Please see the information below, and I hope you will think about joining us!

Kelly Laas

Please join us at Teaching Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity: an APPE 2018 pre-conference workshop.  Priority consideration date to submit a resource to be considered for funding is Friday, November 10.  Full details, including how to register and submit a resources, are posted at: 

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Ethics Center Featured in Fall 2017 Edition of IIT Magazine



The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions just got a rather good write-up in the Fall 2017 edition of IIT Magazine. You can check it out at https://magazine.iit.edu/fall-2017/moral-compass.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this article!
 Moral Compass

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Thanks to everyone who participated in our discussion on integrating ethical codes and concerns in multiple disciplinary teams!

A big thanks to everyone who participated in our round table discussion on integrating ethical codes and concerns into multiple disciplinary teams. Designers Samantha Dempsey and Ciara Taylor, creators of Ethics Quest and the Designer's Oath, shared some of their experiences working with diverse stakeholders in thinking through complex ethical issues and the role games can plan in helping to facilitate these sometimes hard conversations. Participants shared their experiences from a diverse number of backgrounds including education, gerontology, health care, and even how to start conversations about end of life care with family members. Take-aways included the need to navigate power differences that exist in these discussions, the need to create a safe space where individuals feel comfortable sharing their ideas and views, and ways to motivate a wider discussion of these issues in the Illinois Tech community and beyond.


Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Presentation on "A Bottom-Up Approach to Building a Culture of Responsible Research and Practice in STEM” at Downtown Illinois Tech Campus, 10/20

We hope you will join us at our upcoming research presentation as part of Stuart School of Business's Friday Research Presentations series on October 20, 2017 at 10 am. We will be presenting on the status of our National Science Foundation-funded project, "A Bottom-Up Approach to Building a Culture of Responsible Research and Practice in STEM," and we hope you will join us!

We will be meeting in Illnois Tech's downtown campus location at 565 W. Adams Street, Room 470.


Integrating Ethical Codes and Concerns in Multiple Disciplinary Teams: A Roundtable Discussion

Integrating Ethical Codes and Concerns in Multiple Disciplinary Teams: A Roundtable Discussion

Guest speakers:
Samantha Dempsey (Upstream Health Innovations at Hennepin County Medical Center) and Ciara Taylor (UpLift Data Partners)

Sponsored by
The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) and  the Stuart Business School through the Faculty Innovation Award Bottom-Up Ethics: Real World Training for Professional Practice

Although most students have some exposure to ethics education through their university programs, the opportunities to apply ethics training in real world circumstances are rare, especially for those who will eventually work in multiple disciplinary teams where members may have different levels of training in, and interpretations of, what constitutes ethical practice. As the pace of innovation increases and new areas of scientific, design, and commercial practices emerge, conventional ethics education may be insufficient for situations that students will encounter in their professional careers.

The goal of this roundtable is to begin a conversation about ethics in situations where multiple perspectives – those of clients, diverse set of team members, and stakeholders - create a need for thinking about the complexities of ethical issues. Please join us for an open discussion with Samantha Dempsey and Ciara Taylor, creators of Ethics Quest and The Designer’s Oath on Monday, Oct. 23rd from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm in the MTCC, Faculty Club, in Room 106.

Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by October 19th by email to laas@iit.edu

Friday, October 13, 2017

CSEP partner in Fall 2017 Faculty Award, "Bottom-UP Ethics: Real World Training for Professional Practice"


CSEP is partnering with Armour College's Biomedical Engineering Program and the Stuart School of Business to experiment with a new way of engaging students to ethics in research practice. 
Most students have some exposure to ethics during their education; however, the concept of ethics is abstract and professional codes are intentionally general, which makes them impersonal. Research suggests that traditional ethics education involving lectures and/or case studies fails to engage students in meaningful ways. For students, opportunities to apply ethics training in real world circumstances are rare, especially for those who will eventually work in multiple disciplinary teams where members may have different levels of training in, and interpretations of, what constitutes ethical practice. As the pace of innovation increases and new areas of scientific practice emerge, conventional ethics education may be insufficient for situations that students will encounter in their professional careers.
This proposal team includes Christine Miller (Stuart School), and Elisabeth Hildt, Kelly Laas and Stephanie Taylor from the Center for the study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP).  Based on lessons learned from a pilot event conducted in the summer 2017 REU program led by Professor Eric Brey, in which this team applied an alternative approach that introduces ethics in situ and at the level of teams and lab groups, this proposes a similar approach. An extracurricular supplement will be designed for the current Introduction to the Profession (ITP) in the BME program that includes two components: a hands-on workshop event followed by a panel of industry professionals who will discuss situations they have experienced relative to a range of ethical issues.  Participants will include Chicago members of the Ethics and Compliance Officers Association, with whom CSEP has a long-standing collaboration. The proposed approach will first invite students enrolled in BME 100 to participate with the support of the instructor of that course, Dr. Dhar, but the module can be adapted to any ITP course.
The team will work with designers Ciara Taylor and Samantha Dempsey who collaborated with Professor Brey and the Ethics Center on the REU workshop. Taylor and Dempsey are developers of a participatory approach to introducing ethics in the context of team-based projects. Along with collaborating on the development of the workshop event, they will help recruit individuals through their professional networks and prepare lectures for Illinois Tech students and faculty as part of their participation. Taylor and Dempsey’s initial project in developing ethics training was inspired by their experiences in professional practice. Their goal was to raise awareness among multiple disciplinary teams engaged in healthcare-related product and process design. They have facilitated workshops at multiple conferences and have since created another initiative which incorporates aspects of gamification, “the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts.”