Building Inclusive Ethical Cultures in STEM: Call for Proposals

 

Workshop Date: April 23-24, 2021

Proposals Due: November 20, 2020

A Virtual Workshop hosted by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas San-Antonio. 

This workshop seeks to share best practices to effectively engage students and faculty working in research labs and lab-based classrooms in building inclusive ethical cultures. This training moves beyond traditional research ethics training into frameworks and approaches to strengthen the ethical culture in research labs. 

The two-day workshop will feature a series of short presentations and panel discussions that showcase best practices and approaches to embedding educational interventions in research labs and lab-based courses. These short presentations and panel discussions will be followed by a workshop where effective frameworks for implementing recommendations made by the panelists are discussed, best practices and potential hurdles are shared, and participants are guided through the development of personalized plans for implementing some of these educational interventions in their labs, courses or departments. 

The short presentations, panel discussions, and workshops are aimed at 

• Young principal investigators/junior faculty who are in the process of building their own research groups; 

• Instructors from both four-year and two-year colleges who teach lab-based STEM courses;

• Departmental chairs interested in programmatic approaches to improving mentoring, research ethics education, and the research culture of their department.

Topics for contributions may include but are not limited to:

• How can meaningful discussions about ethics be effectively integrated into research labs?

• What are approaches and tools to effectively integrate research ethics education among research group members?

• How do we build more inclusive research environments?

• How can junior faculty/young principal investigators begin to form strategies for building inclusive, ethical lab environments?

• How can we better support and empower graduate students to effectively handle ethical questions that arise in research - especially international students and underrepresented students?

We invite presentations from instructors, principal investigators, faculty, and administrators working at two and four-year educational institutions in the STEM fields. Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words. Abstracts for 10-15 minute presentations are due by November 20, 2020. Please send your abstracts and questions about the event to csep@iit.edu. 

This workshop will be held virtually and there will be no charge for participation.

The workshop is part of the NSF funded project “A Bottom-up Approach to Building a Culture of Responsible Research and Practice in STEM”. The workshop is being organized by Elisabeth Hildt (Illinois Institute of Technology), Kelly Laas (Illinois Institute of Technology), Eric M. Brey (University of Texas at San Antonio), and Christine Miller (Savannah College of Art and Design).

                         

                                          

Call for Proposals: Association for Practical and Professional Ethics 2021 Virtual Conference

30th Annual APPE International Conference FEBRUARY 25 - 28, 2021 VIRTUAL EVENT! Call for Proposals The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) seeks proposals for its 30th anniversary virtual annual international conference to be held 25-28 February 2021.   APPE is a multidisciplinary, international organization advancing scholarship, education, and practice in practical and professional ethics. We facilitate and support scholarly and professional collaborations among teachers, scientists, business practitioners, engineers, government officials, researchers, the media, and all professionals concerned with the practical application of ethics and values. We invite individuals from every discipline and profession interested in advancing scholarship, teaching and a general understanding of applied ethics to submit proposals based on their work. Our meeting will have sessions in many discipline areas including business, engineering, government, law, media, and science, and on a wide variety of subject areas such as agricultural ethics, bioethics, business ethics, compliance, education, environmental ethics, media ethics, and technology. Proposals can be on ethical issues within or cutting across disciplines and professions.   SUBMIT YOUR PROPOSAL HERE Submission Categories We invite proposals in the following categories: 1) Individual presentations; 2) Case studies; 3) Pedagogical demonstrations; 4) Creative arts; 5) Posters; 6) Panel discussions; 7) Author meets critics; 8) Breakfast with an author; 9) Pecha Kucha/Rapid fire session; 10) Graduate student Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition; 11) Paper competitions and awards (see below for more information).  Submissions associated with current events and emerging topics are encouraged.  Submission Deadline: September 18, 2020 Generally, no more than one individual presentation per person will be accepted.  There is no limit to participation in co-authored presentations and panels.      Submission Guidelines and Instructions Special Interest Sections In addition to papers and sessions on topics of general interest in applied and professional ethics, APPE has Special Interest Sections and program tracks in the following areas: Bioethics, Health & Medical Ethics Business Ethics Early Career Scholar Education Ethics Engineering, Science and Technology Ethics (STEM) Law, Government & Military Ethics Media & Journalism Ethics Moral Theory Research Integrity Social & Societal Ethics If you wish your submission to be considered for a particular program track, you may indicate this in your submission form.  Paper Competitions and Awards Best Formal Paper by an Early Career Scholar:   $500 prize Best Formal Paper by a Graduate Student:  $500 prize Clifford G. Christians Ethics Research Award:  $250 prize Best Formal Paper by an Undergraduate Student:   $250 prize In addition, there is a $250 prize given to the winner of the Graduate Student Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition which takes place and is awarded at the conference. See Submission Guidelines and Instructions for paper competition guidelines and submission instruction. For more information about the 30th Annual APPE International Conference, please see the APPE website at: https://appe-ethics.org.

When Is It Not Unethical For AI to Lie to Humans? Trust-based Theory and Empirical Evidence

 Please join the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions for a guest lecture by Tae Wan Kim, Associate Professor of Business Ethics at Carnegie Mellon titled "When Is It Not Unethical For AI to Lie to Humans? Trust-based Theory and Empirical Evidence."

Date: Monday, March 2, 2020

Time: 3:30 to 5 p.m.

Light refreshments will be provided from 3 p.m. onwards.

Location: Hermann Hall Alumni Lounge

As businesses increasingly utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to make important decisions for humans, there is growing concern about the compatibility of AI and human values. Researchers today are examining how to make AI learn ethical principles in addition to calculative and strategic intelligence. We’ll explore:

• Conversational AI agents' behavior and ethical values 
• Conditions under which it is unethical and conditions under which it is not unethical for AI to lie to human users
• How the ethical status of conversational AI in part depends upon cultural norms 
• Implications for AI companies’ ethical duties on how to program AI

This guest lecture is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions and the Coleman Foundation. 

 

New Publication on Ethical Issues in Brain-to-Brain Interfaces

Dr. Elisabeth Hildt, director of the Ethics Center, has a new publication out exploring ethical issues raised by brain-to-brain interfaces. Check it out!

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.01177/full

Multi-Person Brain-To-Brain Interfaces: Ethical Issues

Elisabeth Hildt^*

• Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, United States

While the idea of a network of brains directly communicating via brain-to-brain interfaces (BBIs) may sound like science fiction to some, it actually is not. BBIs allow for technology mediated direct communication between two brains without involving the peripheral nervous system. They consist of two components: a brain-computer interface (BCI) that detects neural signals from one brain and translates them to computer commands, and a computer-brain interface (CBI) that delivers computer commands to another brain....

Invitation to Participate in a Study on Emotional Attachment to Virtual Assistants

The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions would like to invite Illinois Tech students who are interested in participating in an interview study regarding the investigation of the perceptions and emotional attachments to commercially available virtual assistants. The interview will take approximately 30 minutes and participants will receive a $10 gift card for taking part in this study. 

If interested, please email us at csep@iit.edu for more information. 

Call for Applications: Training STEM Faculty New to Teaching Ethics

The National Academy of Engineering Online Ethics Center (OEC) of the Center for Engineering Ethics and Society will hold a 1½-day workshop on Training STEM Faculty New to Teaching Ethics. Applications are invited from STEM faculty who wish to identify opportunities to integrate ethics and responsible conduct of research (RCR) guidance in their courses and research environments. Workshop presenters and participants will explore a variety of hands-on tools and approaches, both formal and ad hoc, including the use of the OEC as both a teaching tool and resource for materials. Participants will consider their own classes and research projects as well as the approaches and materials presented to create or enhance a learning activity, such as a class plan, course syllabus, or laboratory practice. This workshop is designed to help faculty and others seeking to fulfill (a) NSF and NIH requirements for providing RCR instruction and (b) ABET ethics education expectations.

The OEC is looking for faculty, researchers, and/or administrators who are eager to develop strategies and plans for incorporating ethics in their courses or research environments. Some spots will be reserved for individual attendees. Applicants are sought who will broadly represent a range of STEM disciplines, including the social sciences; graduate and undergraduate instructors; and a variety of academic institutions (e.g., liberal arts colleges, large public universities, institutions serving underrepresented populations, private research institutions).

The workshop will be held October 22–23, 2019, at the National Academies’ Keck Building in Washington, DC. There is no fee for workshop registration. Participants are expected to cover their travel costs. Limited funds are available for travel assistance in cases of financial need. 

Please share this announcement with those you think would be interested.

The application deadline is Monday, July 15, 2019. 

 

To apply and for more information: 
https://www.onlineethics.org/Workshop-Application.aspx