Now they’re bringing a discussion of hacking to the broader campus and local communities.
“Hackers’ Roundtable: A Conversation on Computing, Security and Culture” will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Sept. 28 (Thursday) in Room 129, DeBartolo Hall.
Free and open to the public, the event will feature:
Gabriella Coleman, a professor of anthropology at Harvard University whose scholarship focuses on the politics, cultures and ethics of hacking, will serve as moderator.
“This roundtable will bring together, for what we believe to be the first time, three prominent computer hackers from the golden age of the underground hacking scene of the 1990s and early 2000s in conversation with one of academia’s leading voices in the burgeoning field of hacker studies,” said Scheirer, the Dennis O. Doughty Collegiate Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame.
“Hackers have had an outsized influence on the technologies we use on a daily basis, but their story isn’t often told to the public,” added Murillo, an assistant professor of anthropology at Notre Dame. “This event will be a unique window into the culture that helped bring us the modern internet.”
Both Scheirer and Murillo are faculty affiliates of the (ND TEC).
In addition to ND TEC, the roundtable is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering; Department of Anthropology; John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values; Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship; Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society; Notre Dame International Security Center; Idzik Computing and Digital Technologies Minor; Sheedy Family Program in Economy, Enterprise and Society; and College of Arts and Letters Office of Digital Strategy.
Originally published by at on Sept. 11.
]]>A framework that recognizes the inadequacy of simply considering whether a new technology can be developed and instead places heightened emphasis on what types of technologies should be developed, how, and for what reasons
But what does that mean in the context of our daily lives? How can a tech ethics orientation help us better understand both the promises and the perils of the myriad websites, apps and other connected systems we interact with all the time?
The Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center (ND TEC) has launched a project meant to animate — quite literally — the real-world impact of these issues.
is a series of short animated videos unpacking central concepts and concerns in the field in a manner intended for a broad audience without an extensive background in technology ethics.
The first video in the series, which discusses privacy and the ways our expected norms around it are routinely violated by the prevalent approaches to how our data is collected and managed, was released Wednesday (March 1). New videos — on surveillance, AI and discrimination, the big data industry, fairness and justice in algorithms, and the ethics of care — will be posted each Wednesday for the next five weeks.
Based on leading research and journalism in tech ethics, the animations are presented with links to associated readings. Written transcripts are also provided.
All animation work was done by 2022 University of Notre Dame graduate Josiah Broughton and current senior Michael Simon, with junior Brooke Anquillare focusing on the scripts. They collaborated closely with , one of ND TEC’s postdoctoral fellows, who serves as the team’s faculty adviser.
“This project aims to make accessible concepts that firms sometimes purposely present as complex but are not,” Villegas-Galaviz said. “Currently, ethical issues regarding technology are part of our everyday life. These videos are a great way to start a conversation about technology ethics, specifically for those without a background in the field. These technologies impact us all, so we all deserve to understand what is happening in these industries.
“Also, these animations can be an incredible tool for tech ethics education. Videos can make the theory more appealing to students and might serve as a way to summarize the issues we study in technology classes.”
The video series is the second set of online learning tools ND TEC has debuted since the start of the spring semester, joining a that houses course descriptions, syllabuses and other information for seven undergraduate classes designated as fulfilling a requirement for the . Created to serve faculty from a variety of disciplines who may be looking for ideas on how to design their own tech ethics course or incorporate tech ethics readings into one they already teach, the library includes offerings at the 20000, 30000 and 40000 levels.
“The tech ethics animations and the teaching resource library really do complement each other well,” said , the center’s director as well as the William P. and Hazel B. White Center Professor of Technology Ethics and a professor of information technology, analytics and operations in Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. “Both are tailored to helping tech ethics ideas reach more people, whether through the formal structure of a course or casual exploration of the ND TEC website. We also hope that the videos themselves might become something faculty use in their teaching. I am grateful to Carolina, Josiah, Michael and Brooke for all the great work they have put into the animation project.”
All Tech Ethics Animated videos will be available at and through . The team plans to begin work on more videos beyond the initial six later this semester.
Originally published by at on March 1.
]]>Or take the many and ever-expanding ways our lives are lived online. Can we do anything to fight mis- and disinformation? How much privacy should we expect in exchange for the convenience of online transactions? What do institutions owe us when it comes to protecting our data?
Already topics of national and international conversation, technology ethics questions such as these have only grown more pressing over the course of the pandemic, which has heightened our real-world dependence on our virtual existence, both personally and professionally.
To give students a firm foundation in these issues, the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center (ND TEC) has created an , a course of study with applications in all manner of careers and that will be relevant to whatever ways students interact with and think about technology.
“Much of what we do at ND TEC proceeds from the basic idea that it’s not enough to ask whether a new technology can be developed,” said , ND TEC director, the William P. and Hazel B. White Center Professor of Technology Ethics, and a professor of IT, analytics and operations. “We also have to examine whether a given piece of technology — a social media algorithm that pushes specific types of content, the latest facial recognition software, etc. — should be developed, and if so, what the appropriate uses are. Students who pursue the undergraduate minor in tech ethics will be prepared to tackle emerging issues in a responsible and meaningful way.”
“Technological advances have enormous potential to improve individual lives, increase the general welfare, improve quality of life and reverse environmental degradation,” added , ND TEC’s associate director for academic affairs. “But achieving these goods isn’t a given. Rather, it requires that the development and application of new technologies be subject to ethical analysis and integration.
“As Pope Francis has noted, ‘The indisputable benefit that humanity will be able to draw from technological progress depends on the degree to which the new possibilities at our disposal are employed in an ethical manner.’ This is the work in which we hope to engage Notre Dame students so that they might become leaders in the ethical development of technology.”
The undergraduate minor in tech ethics, which was approved by the University’s Academic Council to formally launch in fall 2022, is open to students from all colleges and schools at Notre Dame and consists of five courses or 15 credits.
It begins with a required gateway class, Fundamentals of Technology Ethics and Society, and also features an advanced seminar on a current issue in tech ethics. Representative electives include courses like Algorithms, Data and Society; Application, Ethics and Governance of AI; Ethics of Data Analytics; Ethics of Emerging Weapon Technologies; Future of Labor; Race and Technologies of Surveillance; and Robot Ethics.
Classes are taught by faculty members from various disciplines, but especially those from the College of Arts and Letters, College of Engineering, Mendoza College of Business and Keough 91Ƶ of Global Affairs.
For more information about the undergraduate minor, visit .
ND TEC was established in 2019 to advance interdisciplinary research and education concerned with the impact of technology on humanity. The center connects some 30 faculty from more than a dozen academic units at Notre Dame who explore enduring and emerging ethical questions in a wide range of technological contexts and from a variety of different disciplinary backgrounds and perspectives. These faculty are united by the belief that technology should promote human flourishing and that ethical considerations must be integrated into every stage of the development of technology and social, political and cultural engagement with it.
Originally published by at on April 21.
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