Winter Break Hours

The Center will be open from 9-5, Monday-Friday until December 23. We will be closed from December 24-January 2, and will resume normal hours from January 3 until the end of the break.

Thanksgiving Hours

The Ethics Center will be closed Thursday, November 24th and Friday, November 25th for the Thanksgiving Holiday. We will resume normal hours on Monday, November 28th. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break and safe travels!

Congratulations to IIT's Ethics Bowl Team!

On Saturday, November 12, IIT’s Ethics Bowl Team competed in the Central States Regional Ethics Bowl at Marion University in Indianapolis. The team competed against 22 teams from 19 schools around the Midwest, answering questions from a panel of judges about a collection of cases the students have been discussing since the beginning of the semester. The IIT team members are: Raghuveer Cumar (senior, business), Kari Finseth (junior, architecture), Kim Nealy (senior, technical communications), Ben Silver (senior, computer science), and Tom Waller (junior, biomedical engineering). The coach is Krisanna Scheiter, Sawyier Predoctoral Fellow in Philosophy, and assistant coach Kelly Laas, Librarian of the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions.

The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl is an academic competition with rules and procedures designed to model the best approaches to reasoning about practical and professional ethics. Created and developed by IIT Philosophy Professor Robert Ladenson, the IEB has spread to include well over 120 teams from all over the Unites States and Canada. 

Congratulations to IIT’s Ethics Bowl Team for all of their dedication and teamwork this semester! The team has made tentative plans to informally meet a few times next semester to discuss the cases for the National Ethics Bowl when they come out in January of next year. If you are interested in attending any of these meetings, or potentially being part of the Ethics Bowl team next year, please send an email to laas@ iit.edu.

Ethics News: Dutch Psychologist Manipulated Data in Dozens of Papers

A recent Science News article reports on the findings of a committee at Tilburg University in the Netherlands that found psychologist Diedrik Stapel had forged data used in a large number of papers, including an article published this past April in Science Magazine. The accusation of scientific misconduct came from three junior researchers working at Tilburg University who suspected misconduct in his work.

Stapel's work encompassed a broad range of attention-catching topics, such has how a position of power influences moral thinking, and is likely to cause damage to to his co-authors and the field. The report from the committee recommends that the university look into pressing criminal charges based on the misuse of research funds and possible harm resulting from the fraud. 

What kinds of organizational pressures do you think lead to scientific misconduct?

What do you think that universities and professional associations can do to help reduce the instances of scientific misconduct, other than just focusing on detection and punishment?

Center Director Dr. Weil Wins Award from World Technology Network

The World Technology Network (WTN) announced last month that Vivian Weil has been named a finalist for a prestigious World Technology Award for Ethics, presented by the WTN in association with TIME, Fortune, CNN, Science/AAAS, and Technology Review. Weil joins a roster of organizations and individuals from over 60 countries around the world deemed to be doing the most innovative and significant work.

The World Technology Awards have been presented by the WTN since 2000 as a way to honor those in 20 different categories of science and technology and related fields doing "the innovative work of the greatest likely long-term significance." Nominees for the 2011 World Technology Awards were selected through an intense process by the WTN fellows (winners and finalists from previous annual award cycles in the individual Award categories) through an intensive, global process lasting many months. Winners will be selected from among the finalists with input from a select group of prominent advisors.

The Advisors for 2011 include Ray Kurzweil, inventor/futurist/author; Albert Teich, director of Science and Policy Programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science/AAAS (retired, 2011); Jason Pontin, editor/publisher of Technology Review; and Lev Grossman, senior writer and book critic for TIME and co-author TIME's "Techland" blog.

The winners of the World Technology Awards will be announced during a ceremony at the United Nations on the evening of October 26 at the close of the World Technology Summit, a two-day "thought leadership" conference held at the TIME & LIFE Building and presented by the World Technology Network.

About the World Technology Network (www.wtn.net) The WTN exists to "encourage serendipity" -- the happy accidents of colliding ideas and new relationships that cause the biggest breakthroughs for individuals and institutions. The WTN works to accomplish its mission through global and regional events for its members and extended audience, to help make connections among them, and to examine the likely implications and possible applications of emerging technologies.

The WTN is a curated membership community focused on exploring what is imminent, possible, and important in and around emerging technologies. The WTN exists to "encourage serendipity" -- the happy accidents of colliding ideas and new relationships that cause the biggest breakthroughs for individuals and institutions. The WTN works to accomplish its mission through global and regional events for its members and extended audience, to help make connections among them, and to examine the likely implications and possible applications of emerging technologies.


Text from IIT Today 10/13/2011

Sites We Like: EthicsCORE

As a contributor to the EthicsCORE site, I have to admit to a bit of bias, but I always find something new when I take time to browse the latest additions to the web site. Funded through an NSF grant, its mission is to "bring together information on best practices in research, ethics instruction and responding to ethical problems that arise in research and professional life."  The project is coming out of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's new National Center for Professional and Research Ethics, and is inviting other ethics centers and scholars in the field of professional ethics to contribute to the project. 


The site, which is still under development, includes the ability to do multiple kinds of literature searches in the field of professional ethics, browse through its collection of teaching materials, and allows you to get full-text access to just about any article you can find, including full access to the Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics.  There are numerous other features that are still in the works, including an online journal, so be sure to bookmark this site and check back regularly.

Sites We Like: Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

For the next few weeks I am going to use this blog to highlight some interesting ethics web sites that I visit on a regular basis. These are sites that I often turn to when looking to keep up with the latest news in the areas of environmental or business ethics, find out what other ethics centers are up to, or find a new case study to discuss in a class or workshop.

One the best web sites I have found when looking for new and well-written case studies is the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Their library of case studies covers all areas of academic ethics, business ethics, social ethics, technology ethics etc. and are always thought provoking. The Markkula Center also hosts a student discussion forum called The Big Q on Facebook where students can discuss ethical questions related to life on campus.

Be sure to check this blog in the next few weeks as we highlight more sites we like!