Promoting Ethics to Computer Science

Students: a “HOW TO” Guide

Zenia C. Bahorski Ph.D.MACUL Conference

Detroit, MI

March 17, 2011CC BY-NC-SA

Introduction• What would you do?• Why is discussing ethics important for

our students?• Do programmers have a Code of

Ethics?• Project

– Examples & Samples– Brainstorming Ideas

What would you do?• Ethics Scenarios…

– Scenario #1: You’ve been looking for a job for 6 months. You finally answer an add for a company that writes gaming programs. You are against violent games, especially violence against women in games. You find out that you are to to be put on a team that is writing a game that is very violent. Do you A. take the job? B. take the job until something else comes around?C. not take the job? Something else has to be out there.

– “Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.” Potter Stewart (brainyquote.com)

What would you do?• Scenario #2:• You are a programmer and get a job at a company that produces the

“Whac-A-Mole” arcade cabinet. You hear that you are about to lose your job. Do you…

A. Talk your supervisor into upgrading the chip in the machine and install a virus to make it fail after, say 511 games?

B. When the arcade cabinets start to fail, do you raise your rates (from $60 to $150 per chip)?

C. Knowing that the arcade cabinet will fail, do you start up your own repair company?

D. Do you make Bob's Space Racers lose over $100,000?E. Is your name Marvin Walter Wimberly Jr. of Orlando? 2/11

• “Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching.” [author unknown] (thinkexist.com)

bobsspaceracers.com

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are needed to see this picture.

Why is discussing ethics important for our students?

• Teachers/students should know existing laws• Teachers/students should advocate social

responsibilities and encourage other to do so• And…

– Because ISTE says so– Because The State of Michigan says so– Because the ACM says so

• And… Because it is the “right thing to do.”

Do programmers have a Code of Ethics?

• Association for Computing Machinery– http://www.acm.org/about/code-of-ethics– Contents & Guidelines

A. General Moral Imperatives.

B. More Specific Professional Responsibilities.

C. Organizational Leadership Imperatives.

D. Compliance with the Code.

E. Acknowledgments.

Do programmers have a Code of Ethics?

• Major Computer Malfunctions!– Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (Sept. 6, 1960) in

Thule, Greenland sent an alert of an impending missile attack to NORAD.

• The BMEWS radar was actually detecting (pinging) the moon. The amount of time set to detect a missile was too long (the returning echo traveling at the speed of light). They shortened the listening mode of the radar to two seconds eliminating the round-trip effect of the radar to the moon and back. (Logic error/Faulty algorithm)

– Patriot Missile (1991) rounding error kills 28; the computer program is unable to judge the time of impact of an incoming missile (Software rounding error).

Do programmers have a Code of Ethics?

• Major Computer Malfunctions! (cont…)– Ariane Rocket (1996) with 4 research satellites is purposefully

exploded after it runs an algorithm to convert a number from 64 bit to 16 bit format (Overflow error).

– Mars Climate Orbiter (1998) crashed into Mars when imperial measurements were passed to a module that expected metric units (Passing of wrong data “type” to modules written by other teams)

– Y2K (1999) bug was caused with entry of year stored as last 2 digits. 1990 was store as ‘90’; 1995 was stored as ‘95’; how would they have stored 1900 and 2000? (Cost-cutting)

– Multidata Systems International Corporation’s (2000) software for their radiation therapy device allowed erroneous entries which then miscalculate doses, killing 8. (Programs must be Robust!)

Project: Examples & Samples

• Exploring ACM’s Code of Ethics

• Investigating Intellectual Property

• Weighing the Risks

• The “Balancing Act” of Technology

Project:Examples & Samples

• Exploring ACM’s Code of Ethics– Have students write a report (APA format) on the

general moral imperatives and the more specific professional responsibilities of programmers and how this code would affect them as programmers.

• Have the students discuss their findings on the day the report is due.

– Pick one of the general moral imperatives or one of the more specific professional responsibilities and elaborate on the issue. Have the students find examples in real life where there was a clear breach of the issue.

Project:Examples & Samples

• Investigating Intellectual Property– Go over Intellectual Property (see slide handout

for a sample)– What is intellectual property?

• Have students bring in examples of a copyrighted work, a patented item, or a trademark

– What are the limitations of using others' intellectual property?

• Have the students define the Principles of Fair Use (using examples from online sources) - (see fair use computer activity)

Project:Examples & Samples

• Weighing the Risks:– Investigate technological disasters

• Therac 25

– Have the students determine the fault of• The company that wrote the software• The company that made the machine• The hospital• The technicians

– Have the students get into groups to determine how were each ‘at fault’.

Project:Examples & Samples

• The “Balancing Act” of Technology– Pick a technology and define its uses:

• Modern cell phones• Software used in trading of stocks• Social networking sites• Digital cameras• Radio frequency Identification (RFID)

– Have the students list:• The advantages of the technology• The disadvantages of the technology• The unintended uses of the technology

– Assessment: Have the students explain how/why the advantages outweigh the disadvantages or how/why the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

Project:Brainstorming

• Brainstorming Session

Contact Information• Zenia C. Bahorski Ph.D.

– Email: zbahorski@emich.edu– Web Address: people.emich.edu/zbahorski– U.S. Mail:

• Department of Computer Science• Eastern Michigan University• Ypsilanti, MI 48197

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