Teaching Archive

This page archives the Program’s teaching activities from 2023 onward. For earlier years, see the Kline & Doing Archives.

ENGRG 1050 Engineering Seminar

The engineering seminar is a first-year experience for all matriculating students in the College of Engineering. The seminar has a double function of introducing students to the college experience and the support systems available to them on campus, as well as giving them a primer on important non-technical skills expected of professional engineers. Amongst these offerings is a module on engineering ethics.

In Fall 2024, ethics component of ENGRG 1050 was delivered through a flipped classroom module. Before meeting in-person for the week, students were instructed to watch a series of short lecture videos and complete activities online. In-class, students discussed an ethical decision as part of a civil engineering project; this discussion was facilitated by the students’ Peer Advisors. After class, students completed a reflection assignment.

In Fall 2023, Dr. Goetze delivered a short lecture on how engineering failures can be attributed either to technical mistakes or to ethical mistakes, and that these two skillsets are each essential to doing engineering well. Students then discussed generative artificial intelligence—computer applications such as ChatGPT or DALL-E, which can produce text or images in response to prompts. Students each received a card with an ethically important value on it, such as generosity, justice, or nature, and were challenged to use their reflection on the values they received to decide whether generative AI is good or bad.

Ethics Modules

Every year, the Bovay Program designs and delivers several ethics lessons in various engineering courses.

2024–25

CHEME 4620 Chemical Engineering Design. Course head: Alex Woltornist.
CEE / ENGRI 1130 Sustainable Engineering of Energy, Water, Soil, and Air Resources. Course head: Andrea Giometto.
ENGRG 5351 Professional Development for Master of Engineering Students. Course head: Heidi Morton.
CEE 1160 / ENGRI 1160 Modern Structures. Course head: Chloé Arson.
ENGRC 3500 Engineering Communications. Course head: Hua Wang.
MAE 4300 Engineers and Society (two sections). Course head: JJ Yeo.
CEE 4640 / 6648 Sustainable Transportation Systems Design. Course head: Francis Vanek.
EAS 4940 / 6920 Machine Learning in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Course head: Riley Culberg.
MAE 6130 Foundations and Frontiers of Engineered Living Materials. Course head: Meredith Silberstein.

2023–24

ENGRI 1160 / CEE 1160 Modern Structures. Topic: Accessibility, Ableism, and Structural Design
ENGRI 1130 / CEE 1130 Sustainable Engineering of Energy, Water, Soil, and Air Resources. Topic: Environmental and Ecological Justice
ENGRC 3027 Cross-cultural Communication and Ethics in Engineering Workplaces. Topic: Value-Sensitive Design
ENGRC 3500 Engineering Communications. Topic: Value-Sensitive Design and Difficult Conversations
MAE 4300 Engineers and Society. Topic: Value-Sensitive Stakeholder Analysis
CHEME 4620 Chemical Engineering Design. Topic: Ethics in Chemical Engineering.
EAS 5060 Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Workshops on How to Succeed. Topic: Solar Geoengineering
MAE 6130 Engineered Living Materials. Topic: Engineered Living Materials, Disaster Relief, and Ethical Decision-Making

Courses

The Bovay Program has offered the following courses since Spring 2024.

ENGRG 3600 Ethical Issues in Engineering Practice

Cross-listed in Philosophy and in Science and Technology Studies, this course provides a broad overview of engineering ethics. The course surveys a range of ethical issues that arise in professional engineering, and provides discussion- and writing-based practice in analyzing and addressing them. Using normative frameworks from professional codes, philosophical ethics, value-sensitive design, feminist theory, and science & technology studies, the course engages with a series of historical, current, and fictional case studies. Specific topics to be discussed may include: privacy, consumer rights, smart cities, geoengineering, artificial intelligence, and cloning. Instruction is through a mix of lectures and discussions.

This course is taught every year, in spring semesters. It fulfills a liberal studies distribution requirement for engineering majors.

Links to class roster archives:

ENGRG 3605 Ethics of Computing and Artificial Intelligence Technologies

Cross-listed in Philosophy and in Science and Technology Studies, this course is an overview of ethical issues in computing from a philosophical perspective. Computing is ubiquitous in modern life, and essential to professional work in engineering and many other disciplines. However, computing technologies, especially artificial intelligence, raise distinctive normative issues. This course surveys a variety of social, ethical, and political issues that arise in connection with computing technologies, including artificial intelligence, from a philosophical perspective. Specific topics may include: hacking, privacy, intellectual property, forms of deception and manipulation enabled by computing technologies, social injustices that are reinforced by algorithmic systems, machine ethics, and science fiction issues such as robot rights or existential risks posed by superintelligent computer systems. Instruction is through a mix of lectures, readings, and in-class discussion.

This course is taught every year, in fall semesters. It fulfills a liberal studies distribution requirement for engineering majors, and can also fulfill an elective or the Foundations of AI: Ethics, Governance & Policy requirement for the Cornell Bowers CIS Artificial Intelligence Minor.