Join us for the next talk of the 2023-2024 Distinguished Lectures Series by Professor Cynthia Finelli of the University of Michigan
Date: Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. in SF1105
Title: Educating Ethical (and socially responsible!) Engineers
Abstract: In today’s society, the need to graduate engineers who are conscious of their ethical and professional responsibilities is more important than ever. This is especially difficult given the current media environment that publicizes reports of algorithmic bias, drone-based surveillance, and emissions falsification (among other issues) but provides few positive role models for students. While engineering programs have made significant strides to incorporate ethics instruction into the engineering curriculum, there is little evidence about which approaches best prepare students to address the ethical challenges they will face in the workforce. In this session, Dr. Finelli will present research about the state of undergraduate ethics instruction and its long term impact, propose a new approach to ethics instruction, and offer two course-based approaches to better educate ethical engineers.
Bio: Dr. Cynthia Finelli is David C. Munson, Jr. Collegiate Professor of Engineering; Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science; Professor of Education; and Director of Engineering Education Research at University of Michigan. She is a Fellow of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE). Dr. Finelli previously served as deputy editor for the Journal of Engineering Education, associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Education, co-chair of the ASEE Committee on Scholarly Publications, and member of the Steering Committee for the IEEE/ASEE Frontiers in Education Conference. She founded the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering at University of Michigan in 2003 and served as its Director for 12 years. Dr. Finelli earned the B.S.E., M.S.E., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from University of Michigan.