Department Chair and Professor of Philosophy Nancy Stanlick emphasizes that understanding AI requires more than technical knowledge; it demands a deep exploration of ethics.

鈥淎s science and technology begin to shape more aspects of our lives, fundamental philosophical questions lie at the center of the ethical issues we face, especially with the rise of AI,鈥� Stanlick says. 鈥淧erhaps the central [concern] is that it pulls us away from the essence of our humanity.鈥�

Steve Fiore, a philosophy professor whose work is in the cognitive sciences program, investigates how humans interact socially with technology. In 2023, he co-authored a International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction study, titled 鈥淪ix Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenges,鈥� that serves as a call to the scientific community to design AI systems that prioritize human values and ethical considerations. Fiore also collaborates with the U.S. Department of Defense to explore how emerging technologies may shape national security.

Professor Jonathan Beever played a key role in developing 麻豆原创鈥檚 artificial intelligence, big data and human impacts undergraduate certificate. The interdisciplinary program equips students with the tools to critically assess and advocate for the ethical development of data-driven technologies, particularly AI and big data.

Associate Lecturer Stacey DiLiberto brings a unique perspective through her work in digital humanities, a field that merges traditional humanities with digital tools. Her research and teaching encourage students to view AI as a tool, while critically examining its impact on identity and creativity. In her classes, she challenges students with questions like 鈥淲hat does it mean to be human when humans can mimic our creativity?鈥� DiLiberto argues that while AI can generate art, it lacks the lived experience and emotional depth that define human expression. Machines cannot replace lived experiences or memories, often lacking pathos when generating art.

While artificial intelligence has made remarkable progress, it does not replicate the depth of human connection or the ethical and moral reasoning inherent to human judgment. Department of Philosophy faculty like Stanlick, Fiore, Beever and DiLiberto provide frameworks for developing technology in ways that uphold ethical standards and preserve human values.

Visit the for more information about undergraduate and graduate programs, courses and opportunities to collaborate with the department鈥檚 faculty and students.

The event, which is sponsored by the Office of Research and , drew more than 40 guests, including Vice Provost for Faculty Excellence Jana Jasinski and Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation Winston Schoenfeld.

Schoenfeld spoke about the importance of creativity and scholarship in a thriving academic environment.

鈥淚n a time when we see significant emphasis placed on metrics such as research expenditures, it is important to recognize that societal impact is not always reflected in research dollars spent,鈥� Schoenfeld says. 鈥淎nd in particular, scholarship and creative works are core tenants of a high impact academic institution and represent significant value toward society that should be celebrated.”

Pegasus Professor of Luis Mart铆nez Fern谩ndez delivered the keynote address that shared insights into his recent book, When the World Turned Upside Down: Politics, Culture, and the Unimaginable Events of 2019- 2022, that comprises 66 essays drawn from syndicated columns he wrote during that period.

Motivated by significant global events, Mart铆nez-Fern谩ndez emphasized the interconnectedness of these events and the need for a more creative approach to historical writing.

The authors and their works honored were:

• Salvador Almagro-Moreno, College of Medicine, Vibrio spp. Infections.
• Mindi Anderson, College of Nursing, Holograms & High Technology: Could Technology Bridge the Gaps in Simulation Education?
• James Bacchus, College of Sciences, Trade Links: New Rules for a New World and Truth about Trade: Reflections on International Trade and Law
• Cori Baill, College of Medicine, Why is Mommy Crying? -Explaining Early Pregnancy Loss to Young Children
• Melody Bowdon, College of Arts and Humanities, Ethical Considerations of Virtual Reality in the College Classroom
• Wayne Bowen, College of Undergraduate Studies, Spain and the Protestant Reformation: the Spanish Inquisition and the War for Europe
• Sarah Bush, College of Community Innovation and Education, Success Stories from Catalyzing Change
• Li-Mei Chen, College of Medicine, Protastin in Human Health and Disease
• Jim Clark, College of Arts and Humanities, Lost Attractions of Florida
• Ilenia Col贸n Mendoza, College of Arts and Humanities, The Broken Body as Devotional Mediator in Seventeenth Century Spain
• Fayshonda Cooks, College of Nursing, Goal Lean Health and Weight Management Lifestyle Plan (a series)
• Sai Deng, 麻豆原创 Libraries, Translations of: Sketches of China: with Illustrations from Original Drawings
• Lauryn De George, College of Business, Instructors Manual and PowerPoint Slides for Principles of Management and Multiple Case Studies on Compensation, Customer Expectations, Inclusivity, Ethics, Performance Management, Quiet Quitting, Supply Chain Issues, Employment at Will and Other Pertinent Topics
• Desiree D铆az, College of Nursing, Chapter 8: Holograms and High Technology: Could Technology Bridge the Gaps and Incorporating Concepts of Diversity and Cultural Humility in Simulations
• Erin Doggette, Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today
• Sara Duff, 麻豆原创 Libraries, Zines in Libraries: Selecting, Purchasing, and Processing
• Chlo毛 Rae Edmonson, College of Arts and Humanities / School of Performing Arts, America Under the Influence: Drinking, Culture, and Immersive Performance
• Martha Garcia 鈥�97 鈥�00MA, College of Arts and Humanities, Sense and Art of the Textual Pilgrimage. Stories & Auto Sacramental in Bilingual Key.
• Enrique Guerra-Pujol, College of Business, Business Law and Strategy
• Steve Haberlin, College of Community Innovation and Education, Meditation in the College Classroom: A Pedagogical Tool to Help Students De-stress, Focus, and Connect.
• Keith Harrison, College of Business, Circle Inside of a Box: The Business of Hip Hop Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• David Head, College of Arts and Humanities, A Republic of Scoundrels: The Schemers, Intriguers, and Adventurers Who created a New American Nation
• Elizabeth Brendel Horn 鈥�10MFA, College of Arts and Humanities, Activated Script Analysis: An Integrative Approach to Play Analysis through Creative Expression and Devised Theatre
• Michael Jablonski, College of Arts and Humanities, Dance in Musical Theatre: A history of the Body in Movement Chapter 14
• Bruce Janz, College of Arts and Humanities, African Philosophy and Enactivist Cognition: The Space of Thought
• Christina Kwapich, College of Sciences, The Guests of Ants: How Myrmecophiles Interact with their Hosts and Die Gaste der Ameisen
• Peter Larson, College of Arts and Humanities, Rethinking the Great Transition: Community and Economic Growth in County Durham
• Julia Listengarten, College of Arts and Humanities, Visual and Performing Arts Collaborations in Higher Education: Transdisciplinary Practices
• Luis Martinez Fernandez, College of Arts and Humanities, When the World Turned Upside Down: Politics, Culture, and the Unimaginable Events of 2019-2022
• Ty Matejowsky, College of Sciences, Smothered and Covered: Waffle House and the Southern Imaginary
• Jonathan Matusitz, College of Sciences, From Child Terrorism to Peace Activism and Fundamentals of Public Communication Campaigns
• Barry Mauer, College of Arts and Humanities, Reimagining the Humanities and Strategies for Conducting Literary Research
• Lisa Nalbone, College of Arts and Humanities, Negotiating Discursive Spaces: Censorship and Woman’s Novels in Spain
• Fevzi Okumus, Rosen College of Hospitality Management, Contemporary Research Methods in Hospitality and Tourism and Advanced Research Methods in Hospitality and Tourism
• Hakan Ozoglu, College of Arts and Humanities, Cumhuriyet’in Kurulu艧 Sava艧lar谋 (Foundation Struggles in the Early Turkish Republic) and Decline of the Ottoman Empire and the Rise of the Turkish Republic
• Irene Pons 鈥�00, College of Community Innovation and Education, Why I Encourage my Students to Experience Reality
• Roberto Hugh Potter, College of Community Innovation and Education, Human Trafficking: A Systemwide Public Safety and Community Approach (second edition)
• Cecilia Rodr铆guez-Milan茅s, College of Arts and Humanities, Dancing Danny
• Lee Ross, College of Community Innovation and Education, Music Lyrics and Domestic Violence: The Soundtracks of Our Lives
• Deanna Sellnow, College of Sciences, Before Crisis: The Practice of Effective Risk Communication
• Timothy Sellnow, College of Sciences, Before Crisis: The Practice of Effective Risk Communication
• Audra Skukauskaite, College of Community Innovation and Education, Interactional Ethnography: Designing and Conducting Discourse-based Ethnographic Research and Engaging Students in Socially Constructed Qualitative Research Pedagogies
• Laurie Rachkus Uttich 鈥�09MFA, Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning / English department, ChatGPT Assignments to Use in Your Classroom Today and Somewhere a Woman Lowers the Hem of Her Skirt
• Marcy Verduin, College of Medicine, Kaplan & Sadock’s Concise Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry (fifth edition) and Mental Health for Spiritual People
• Kimberly Voss, College of Sciences, Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and the 60s and Vivian Castleberry: Challenging the Traditions of Women’s Roles, Newspaper Content and Community Politics
• Jennie Wagner, College of Nursing, Conception and Fetal Development
• Linda Walters, College of Sciences, Please Keep Plastics Out of My Lagoon!
• Keri Watson, College of Arts and Humanities, This is America: Re-viewing the Art of the United States and Routledge Companion to Art and Disability
• Shannon Whitten, College of Science, Psychology, Art, and Creativity
• Amanda Wilkerson 鈥�16EdD, College of Community Innovation and Education, Best Practices and Programmatic Approaches for Mentoring Educational Leaders
• Bruce Wilson, College of Sciences, El Agua como Derecho Humano: Reconocimientos y Disputas en Costa Rica
• Kevin Yee, Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, Ethical Considerations of Virtual Reality in the College Classroom: Cross-Disciplinary Case Studies of Immersive Technology Implementation and ChatGPT Assignments to Use in your Classroom Today
• Margaret Ann Zaho, College of Arts and Humanities, Art is an Endangered Species: A History of Western Art, Paleolithic-Romanesque (second edition) and Art is an Endangered Species II: A History of Western Art Renaissance-20th Century (second edition)

Library Acquisitions has acquired many of these books, and they can be found either physically on the 4th floor Reading Room of John C. Hitt Library or .

The study, 鈥�Six Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenges,鈥� was published in the International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction.

Ozlem Garibay 鈥�01MS 鈥�08PhD, an assistant professor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, was the lead researcher for the study. She says that the technology has become more prominent in many aspects of our lives, but it also has brought about many challenges that must be studied.

For instance, the coming widespread integration of artificial intelligence could significantly impact human life in ways that are not yet fully understood, says Garibay, who works on AI applications in material and drug design and discovery, and how AI impacts social systems.

The six challenges Garibay and the team of researchers identified are:

• Challenge 1, Human Well-Being: AI should be able to discover the implementation opportunities for it to benefit humans’ well-being. It should also be considerate to support the user鈥檚 well-being when interacting with AI.

• Challenge 2, Responsible: Responsible AI refers to the concept of prioritizing human and societal well-being across the AI lifecycle. This ensures that the potential benefits of AI are leveraged in a manner that aligns with human values and priorities, while also mitigating the risk of unintended consequences or ethical breaches.

• Challenge 3, Privacy: The collection, use and dissemination of data in AI systems should be carefully considered to ensure protection of individuals鈥� privacy and prevent the harmful use against individuals or groups.

• Challenge 4, Design: Human-centered design principles for AI systems should use a framework that can inform practitioners. This framework would distinguish between AI with extremely low risk, AI with no special measures needed, AI with extremely high risks, and AI that should not be allowed.

• Challenge 5, Governance and Oversight: A governance framework that considers the entire AI lifecycle from conception to development to deployment is needed.

• Challenge 6, Human-AI interaction: To foster an ethical and equitable relationship between humans and AI systems, it is imperative that interactions be predicated upon the fundamental principle of respecting the cognitive capacities of humans. Specifically, humans must maintain complete control over and responsibility for the behavior and outcomes of AI systems.

The study, which was conducted over 20 months, comprises the views of 26 international experts who have extensive backgrounds in AI technology.

鈥淭hese challenges call for the creation of human-centered artificial intelligence technologies that prioritize ethicality, fairness and the enhancement of human well-being,鈥� Garibay says. 鈥淭he challenges urge the adoption of a human-centered approach that includes responsible design, privacy protection, adherence to human-centered design principles, appropriate governance and oversight, and respectful interaction with human cognitive capacities.鈥�

Overall, these challenges are a call to action for the scientific community to develop and implement artificial intelligence technologies that prioritize and benefit humanity, she says.

The group of 26 experts include National Academy of Engineering members and researchers from North America, Europe and Asia who have broad experiences across academia, industry and government. The group also has extensive educational backgrounds in areas ranging from computer science and engineering to psychology and medicine.

Their work also will be featured in a chapter in the book, Human-Computer Interaction: Foundations, Methods, Technologies, and Applications.

Five 麻豆原创 faculty members co-authored the study:

• Gavriel Salvendy, a university distinguished professor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Engineering and Computer Science and the founding president of the Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida.

• Waldemar Karwowski, a professor and chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems and executive director of the Institute for Advanced Systems Engineering at the 麻豆原创.

• Steve Fiore, director of the Cognitive Sciences Laboratory and professor with 麻豆原创鈥檚 cognitive sciences program in the Department of Philosophy and Institute for Simulation & Training.

• Ivan Garibay, an associate professor in industrial engineering and management systems and director of the 麻豆原创 Artificial Intelligence and Big Data Initiative.

• Joe Kider, an associate professor at the IST, School of Modeling, Simulation and Training and a co-director of the SENSEable Design Laboratory.

Garibay received her doctorate in computer science from 麻豆原创 and joined 麻豆原创’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems, part of the College of Engineering and Computer Science, in 2020.

Luis Favela, an associate professor of and cognitive sciences at 麻豆原创, was selected for the three-year fellowship and joins the ranks of three other 麻豆原创 researchers who are Scialog fellows.

鈥淚 am one of a very, very few philosophers to ever be selected for it,鈥� Favela says.

Favela and 50 other researchers from across the nation will be working on the Scialog theme: Molecular Basis of Cognition.

Scialog stands for science and dialog and was created in 2010 by the oldest scientific institution in the U.S., the RCSA, which was established in 1912. It has supported more than 40 Nobel Prize winners.

鈥淭his honor is especially important for 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of Philosophy, as it further demonstrates that our faculty are researchers worth paying attention to and honored,鈥� Favela says.

For the Molecular Basis of Cognition theme, Favela and the other fellows will work to develop projects that provide further explanations of the functional architecture of the brain, including understanding how chemical signaling contributes to communication from neuron to neuron.

According to RCSA, these projects will contribute to a variety of brain-related issues, such as recovering from brain injuries and learning how to prevent neurodegenerative disease to advancing neuromorphic computing.

Favela and a neurobiologist from Boston University presented their project proposal 鈥擡valuating the Fractal Brain Hypothesis via Analyses of High Resolution Neuroanatomical, Neuromolecular, and Neurodynamic Distributional Structures 鈥� at a recent Scialog meeting held in October. If selected from a highly competitive set of proposals, their team will receive $110,000 to fund the research for one year. The selections of the team will be announced in December 2022.

鈥淭his fellowship is an exciting opportunity,鈥� Favela says. 鈥淚 believe this speaks to my interdisciplinary strengths as a philosopher across various scientific fields, such as cognitive sciences, neuroscience, and psychology.鈥�

Favela received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio and joined 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of Philosophy and Cognitive Sciences Program, part of 麻豆原创鈥檚 , in 2015.

That鈥檚 why researchers at the 麻豆原创 are spearheading a new, recently funded project to improve the cognition of team members for future space missions.

The project will examine how decreases in cognition 鈥� memory, reasoning and problem solving 鈥� at the individual level could cascade to the team level and impact team performance, particularly in complex environments relevant to space missions.

The researchers also will examine interventions to counteract potential decreases in team performance, including developing training and technologies such as artificial-intelligence-based assistants.

The three-year, $990,000 project will be led by 麻豆原创 Professor Stephen Fiore and is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The researchers will begin their work in August.

They will use cutting-edge approaches, such as their Smart Machine-Assisted Responsive Tangible Space, or SMART, room that is equipped with cameras and sensors, which will help the researchers understand how changes in body movement and physiology are related to collaboration. This SMART room capability is based upon research conducted by co-investigator, Joseph Kider, who uses sensor technology for smart buildings. Kider is an assistant professor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 .

By understanding how observable changes in the team influence problem solving, the researchers can identify what parts of the interactions signal problems. These social signals become targets for technology interventions that can improve collaborative cognition, Fiore says.

Part of the work will also include analyzing recorded, close-call spaceflight events from NASA archives to understand conditions that led to the problems and the collaboration challenges astronauts and mission control faced.

Co-investigators on the project Florian Jentsch and Shawn Burke have previously used historical records of teams to identify interactions targeted for training or technology interventions. Jentsch is department chair and a professor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 , and Burke is a research professor with 麻豆原创鈥檚 School of Modeling, Simulation, and Training.

鈥淭his research is going to be relevant to any team, not simply to teams in space,鈥� Fiore says. 鈥淚mportant to teams in space, though, is ways to overcome limitations in problem solving.鈥�

These limitations could include lack of access to more people for additional insight or to technology that could aid decision-making, Fiore says.

鈥淗ere on Earth, when we solve problems, we have access to many ways to support our cognition,鈥� Fiore says. 鈥淲hen it comes to space missions, though, they can鈥檛 take everything with them. We need to understand how to design the technologies needed when their cognitive and collaborative capabilities are limited.鈥�

The award is through the Department of Defense鈥檚 Minerva Research Initiative to support research in social and behavioral science. The initiative supports basic research that focuses on topics of particular relevance to U.S. national security. Seventeen university-based faculty teams from around the country received funding this year.

鈥淲e live in a dynamic world, and many of the challenges we face are social or have social elements to them,鈥� says Bindu Nair, director, Basic Research Office in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in a recent announcing the funding awards. 鈥淭he knowledge and methodologies generated from Minerva awardees have improved DoD鈥檚 ability to define sources of present and future conflict with an eye toward better understanding the political trajectories of key regions of the world.鈥�

Fiore is the director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 and is a professor with the 麻豆原创鈥檚 Cognitive Sciences Program in the 鈥攑art of the College of Arts and Humanities 鈥� and with the School of Modeling, Simulation, and Training. He received his doctorate in cognitive psychology from the University of Pittsburg and joined 麻豆原创 in 1998.

麻豆原创 and the University of North Florida are the only two institutions from the state of Florida that will compete at this year鈥檚 Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championship, which will be held on Zoom due to the pandemic on Feb. 27-28. The field of 36 teams also includes Harvard, Yale, Boston College, Stanford and Northwestern among colleges and universities from around the country.

The 麻豆原创 Ethics Bowl team has been competing at the regional level since 2004 and nationally since 2009, winning the national title in 2011. 麻豆原创 won the Southeast Regionals in November by besting the University of Florida, the University of South Florida and the Citadel before tying with the U.S. Naval Academy in the finals, allowing both squads to advance to the national competition.

麻豆原创 students presented detailed ethical reasoning in responses to questions that covered a myriad of today鈥檚 pressing issues: When, if ever, is it ethical to destroy property in response to racial injustice? Is it ethical to make mask policies that differentiate based on race? Is it ever fair for states to require that property owners allow people to avoid paying rent? Should Harry Potter fans stop their consumption of the series and associated artworks due to J.K. Rowling鈥檚 sex essentialism?

鈥淏ecause 2020 was just so hard with so many problems, this year鈥檚 cases were really tough,鈥� says Professor Michael Strawser, chair of 麻豆原创鈥檚 philosophy department and one of the team鈥檚 faculty coaches. 鈥淭hese are things that the whole world is struggling with, so it鈥檚 very rewarding to hear our students present compelling arguments on such difficult cases. I鈥檓 extremely proud of our team鈥檚 performance.鈥�

Ins and Outs of Arguing Ethics

Cases are created by the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics and the full slate is given to the participants ahead of the competition. However, the teams do not know which cases they will be asked to argue 鈥� without notes 鈥� at the competition. Once the moderator reads the question, teams have three minutes to confer with each other before presenting a sound, ethical argument for 10 minutes.

麻豆原创鈥檚 team was selected from students enrolled in Honors Case Studies in Ethics during the fall semester. The students prepared for the regional competition during class, in which they researched the cases and developed written and oral ethical arguments for their positions. The national cases were delivered over the holiday break and the students have been preparing during their own free time since the class ended last semester.

The team must agree upon and present a unified front for every argument. Madi Dogariu, assistant dean of the Burnett Honors College and the team鈥檚 other faculty coach, recalls a year when the president of the College Democrats and the president of the College Republicans were on the team.

鈥淭hey had to learn to agree and find compromise and to win the case,鈥� she says. 鈥淚n general we鈥檝e had members of teams over the years who are on the very ends of the political spectrum and they manage somehow to make it work in beautiful arguments.鈥�

Winners are decided by a panel of judges, who award points based on three criteria: clarity and intelligibility; thoroughness in discussing the ethical parameters of the case; and awareness of alternative perspectives and an appreciation for those perspectives. In other words, teams are awarded points for how they respectfully engage with the opposing team鈥檚 argument.

This year鈥檚 team says the toughest question of the regional round was whether mug shots should be accessible to the public.

鈥淲e could see both sides of the debate and even as a team it was hard for all of us to come down on one side of the argument just because we saw the pros and cons of both,鈥� says Parshva Sanghvi, a biomedical sciences student. 鈥淚 think for all the other cases, even though they may be of great importance to the current climate, we all had a definitive opinion on whether we agreed or disagreed with the dilemma at hand. But when it came to mug shots we were a lot more confused on which side we should take. Thankfully that wasn鈥檛 one of the questions we got at the competition.鈥�

National Championship and Beyond

For the last two months, the team has been pouring over a new slate of questions in the quest for another national championship title. Are social media companies responsible for content posted about QAnon conspiracy theories on their sites? Should individuals who identify as asexual be considered a member of the queer community? Should a city government recommend safe sex guidelines often labeled 鈥渒inky鈥� during a pandemic, as New York City did during COVID?

As the students work through these topics, they know they are simultaneously gaining a variety of life skills that include public speaking and how to build a case for a sound, rational argument. Computer science student Julia Warner says thinking of the strongest argument an opponent could make against her case was extremely beneficial.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just come up with a poor argument against your own and destroy that. You have to think of the strongest argument,鈥� Warner says. 鈥淭he mental exercises you have to do to conceptualize the cases I think can be applied to different things you do beyond the ethics bowl.鈥�

鈥淓thics is not simply compliance,鈥� says Jonathan Beever, the center鈥檚 founder and director. 鈥淓thics is a way of thinking that engages us with important questions about the values that connect and divide us. Our center aspires to create the kind of environment that will welcome that kind of scholarly approach to ethics and which will facilitate exploring emerging ethical questions across fields.鈥�

To help get the 麻豆原创 community in this frame of mind, the center hosted a fireside chat with Lisa Lee, a nationally recognized expert on bioethics and ethics education.

The free event on Wednesday, Sept. 25, drew more than 110 attendees.

Lee served as executive director of the Presidential Bioethics Commission during the Obama administration. After working with the White House, she returned to university life and is now the associate vice president of research and innovation, scholarly integrity and research compliance at Virginia Tech. She will talk about the state of ethics in the academic and research world and what the future may hold as technologies advance.

Lee shared thoughts on the state of ethics in academia and research and what kinds of questions institutions and individuals in scholarly pursuits should be asking. She and the founders of the center also answered questions from the audience.

鈥淏eing ethical is not about checking some training box, but about giving us time and tools to directly address these questions,鈥� Beever said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the vision we have here.鈥�

Beever, is an assistant professor of ethics and digital culture in philosophy and texts and technology. He joined 麻豆原创 in 2015 as a specialist in ethics and reorganized the rapidly growing theoretical and applied ethics graduate certificate program. Beever then began planning the Center for Ethics with co-founder Stephen Kuebler, professor of chemistry and optics, with an award from Faculty Excellence and with support from the Office of Research.

鈥淓thics, like other disciplines, should be studied and best practices shared to enhance our enterprise,鈥� said Elizabeth Klonoff, vice president for research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I鈥檓 pleased to house the center in our Office of Research and help share its mission with the entire campus.鈥�

The center is guided by an advisory board made up of faculty experts from the Department of Philosophy and faculty representatives from multiple disciplines. The center will host more speaker events, interdisciplinary workshops, research projects and volunteer opportunities aimed at helping the 麻豆原创 community gain a richer understanding of ethics and how it applies in the world.

鈥淔or more than a decade, faculty members in the Department of Philosophy have been laying the groundwork for an ethics center that could benefit the entire university and community,鈥� says Nancy Stanlick, professor of philosophy and associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities. 鈥淲e are all so pleased to have the support from the College of Arts and Humanities, the Office of Research, and Faculty Excellence and to see it come to fruition.鈥�

For more information about the Center for Ethics

The team finished second out of 18 teams at the University of North Georgia regionals, where the members argued positions on moral questions such as voting rights for felons, ethical obligations of rich countries to poor countries, expectations of privacy after posting DNA results online, and other issues.

鈥淚 am extremely proud of our team and was particularly impressed in how they continued to get better with each round,鈥� says Professor Michael Strawser, chair of the Department of Philosophy and one of the team coaches. 鈥淲hen responding to the judges鈥� Q&A they exhibited great confidence and knowledge.鈥�

A moderator at the competition poses questions to the teams, which are scored by judges based on the team鈥檚 intelligibility, ethically relevant considerations, and deliberative thoughtfulness.

鈥淭he ethics bowl cases and questions are extremely challenging, and ones that seasoned scholars, politicians and professionals struggle to answer,鈥� Strawser says. 鈥淎nd yet our students succeed in formulating well-developed answers to the questions in an intense competition lasting over 12 hours.鈥�

The Knights defeated the University of North Carolina in the semi-final round of the Mid-Atlantic Regional but lost to Samford University by 1 point in the championship round. Clemson University, which came in third, also will advance to the 23^rd national competition March 2-3 in Baltimore.

The team consists of Natalie Hintz, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering; Derwin Sanchez, a freshman majoring in philosophy and writing and rhetoric; Matthew Shalna, a junior majoring in philosophy and political science; and Madison Stemples, a junior majoring in philosophy. In addition to Strawser, the team is also coached by Madi Dogariu, director of student services in the Burnett Honors College.

鈥淲e have high-quality undergraduate students with excellent research and argumentation abilities.鈥�

The team鈥檚 success is based on 鈥減reparation and outstanding, highly motivated students who learn and grow in the process and work well together,鈥� Strawser says. 鈥淲e have high-quality undergraduate students with excellent research and argumentation abilities.鈥�

The 麻豆原创 Ethics Bowl team won the national competition in 2011 and the Mid-Atlantic Regional last year. The team has advanced to the national competition four times in the past nine years, finishing fifth out of 36 teams last year.

The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl began as a small intramural program at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1993. Since then, it has expanded into a national competition.

Beever, who began the work with the Purdue team before he came to 麻豆原创 last summer, developed a series of case-based online modules that help engineers develop ethical reasoning skills about contemporary professional and social issues. The project was just recognized this month by the academy鈥檚 Center for Engineering Ethics and Society as one of 25 exemplary models of ethics in engineering.

Beever, an assistant professor of ethics and digital culture with the 麻豆原创 Department of Philosophy and a member of the faculty of the texts and technology program, recently represented the development team on a panel at a national ethics conference.

The team is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and Purdue through the end of this year, and Beever has submitted two other proposals to build off this work, one with him as the primary investigator from 麻豆原创.

Beever said his involvement with the project will help boost 麻豆原创鈥檚 image as being engaged with engineering ethics at a national level.

Beever also held postdoctoral positions with Penn State’s Rock Ethics Institute and with Purdue University’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering before joining 麻豆原创. He has held fellowships with the Kaufmann Foundation, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and the Global Sustainable Soundscape Network. He works and publishes about environmental ethics and bioethics, focusing on questions of ethics, science, and representation.