Blogs (3) >>

This program is tentative and subject to change.

Thu 27 Feb 2025 10:45 - 11:03 at Meeting Rooms 310-311 - Ethics

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria for accreditation of undergraduate computer science (CS) degrees require universities to cover within their curricula topics including “Local and global impacts of computing solutions on individuals, organizations, and society,” and to prepare their students to “make informed judgments in computing practice, taking into account legal, ethical, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility principles,” A growing body of research similarly identifies the need for CS programs to integrate ethics into their degree requirements, both through standalone ethics-related courses and embedded discussions of ethical impacts in ‘technical’ courses. The calls for increased attention to CS ethics education have become more pressing with the emergence of sophisticated consumer-ready AI technologies, which pose new ethical challenges in the forms of bias, hallucination, and autonomous decision-making. Yet it remains unclear whether current university curricula are adequately preparing future graduates to confront these challenges. This paper presents a systematic review of the degree requirements of 250 computer science bachelor’s degree programs worldwide. We categorize each program according to whether a CS-related ethics course is offered and/or required by the department, finding that almost half of all universities we review do not offer any ethics course, and only 33% of universities require students to take an ethics course to obtain their degree. We analyze differences among public US, private US, and non-US universities and discuss implications for curricular changes and the state of undergraduate computing ethics education.

This program is tentative and subject to change.

Thu 27 Feb

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

10:45 - 12:00
10:45
18m
Talk
'Do I Have to Take This Class?': A Review of Ethics Requirements in Computer Science Curricula
Papers
James Weichert Virginia Tech, Dayoung Kim Virginia Tech, Qin Zhu Virginia Tech, Hoda Eldardiry Virginia Tech
11:03
18m
Talk
Enhancing University Curricula with Integrated AI Ethics Education: A Comprehensive ApproachMSI
Papers
Debzani Deb Winston-Salem State University, Greg Taylor Winston-Salem State University, Scott Betz Winston-Salem State University, Bao Anh T Maddux Winston-Salem State University, Charles Edward Ebert Winston-Salem State University, Flourice W. Richardson Winston-Salem State University, Jeanine Lino S Couto Winston-Salem State University, Michael S. Jarrett Winston-Salem State University, Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi Winston-Salem State University
11:22
18m
Talk
Experience Report: Using Narratives to Teach Responsible Computing in the U.S. and NigeriaGlobal
Papers
Stacy Doore Colby College, Omowumi Ogunyemi Pan-Atlantic University, Alexandra Gillespie Colby College, Michael Yankoski Colby College
11:41
18m
Talk
Towards a More Inclusive Curriculum: Opportunities for Broadening and Diversifying Computing Ethics Education
Papers
Grace Barkhuff Georgia Institute of Technology, Jason Borenstein Georgia Institute of Technology, Daniel Schiff Purdue University, Judith Uchidiuno Georgia Institute of Technology, Ellen Zegura Georgia Institute of Technology