Our Mission
Viterbi Conversations in Ethics is an educational forum for reasoned, informed, and relevant discussion of engineering ethics. Written, edited, and published by USC Viterbi School of Engineering students, Viterbi Conversations in Ethics will publish exceptional student work and responses, counter-points, and new perspectives from both peers and professionals.
History
In 2013, Viterbi Conversations in Ethics was conceived at the USC School of Engineering as a way to showcase undergraduate student writing about ethics in the engineering professions and to highlight the important role of ethics in engineering. We in the Engineering Writing Program believe that our students must begin to see themselves as professionals within a larger community of thinkers and writers, and this is an opportunity for these students to enter into the larger professional conversation about ethics and to invite comment from other students and professionals.
Viterbi Conversations in Ethics is funded by the USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Office of the Dean. Seed money was also provided by the USC Fund for Innovative Undergraduate Teaching.
Core Team
Viterbi Conversation in Ethics’ core team is composed of student editors. Our staff also includes web developers and faculty advisors.
Current Editor-in-Chief
Janessi Diaz
Class of 2025Janessi Diaz is a third year Biology student with a minor in Screenwriting. In her free time she enjoys playing soccer and reading. She also loves to crochet beanies with Madhatter Knitts for babies in the NICU and is a proud sister of KDChi, one of USC’s Multicultural Greek Council organizations.
Current Editors
Jennah Saqib
Class of 2024Jennah is an undergraduate student studying Astronomical Engineering with a minor in Cinematic Arts. Outside of class, she is one of the dedicated leads of USC’s AeroDesign Team and a member of the USC Field Hockey Club. In her free time, she enjoys reading fantasy books, playing video games, and hiking.
Rachel Pak
Class of 2025Rachel is an undergraduate student studying Astronautical Engineering with a minor in East Asian Languages and Cultures. Outside of class, she is a peer tutor for USC’s Viterbi Learning Program. In her free time, she enjoys taking long walks while listening to music and reading books while drinking coffee.
Simon Lewis
Class of 2025Simon Lewis is an undergraduate student in Computer Science. In his prior career he worked as a chef in Michelin-starred restaurants in London, Paris, and the United States. He owned and operated two restaurants in Paris, France before returning to his hometown of Los Angeles in order to enroll at USC.
Mary Karapetyan
Class of 2026Mary is an undergraduate studying Computer Engineering and Computer Science. A Los Angeles native, she enjoys traveling, playing guitar, and soccer. She’s passionate about diving into the digital universe, where programming and innovative technology converge, contributing to the breakthroughs that shape the world of tomorrow.
Current Podcasting Team
Aryan Shah
Class of 2025Aryan is a graduate student pursuing Data Science at USC. Outside of the class, you would find him either trying some new piece of tech or exploring some new random dataset. Aryan also happens to be a author of a research paper studying implications of Covid19 on mental health of people and how that translates to social media.
Kayden-Harmony Greenstein
Class of 2027Kayden-Harmony is an undergraduate student studying English on the creative writing track and Cinema and Media Studies. Outside of VCE, Kayden is a showrunner for Trojan Vision’s “Campus Crush” dating game show. In her free time she enjoys conducting photoshoots, reading, writing poetry, and playing guitar. Kayden is part of the graduating class of 2027.
Deep Shah
Class of 2025Deep is a first-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Science in Computer Science, with an expected graduation date in May 2025. He is passionate about learning algorithms and enjoys delving into philosophy during his free time. In addition, Deep takes a keen interest in trading the securities markets.
Web Developers
Yifei Lu
Class of 2025Yifei is a third-year undergraduate computer science student. After graduation, she hopes to become a software engineer. In her free time, you will likely find her watching TV, going to the gym, and online shopping.
Founding Editors
Naajia Jami, Civil Engineering
Julia Levy, Astronautical Engineering
Former Editors-in-Chief
Sabrina Sy, Biomedical Engineering
Isabel Brieler, Astronautical Engineering
Rebecca Thoss, Chemical Engineering
Rachel Longjohn, Computational and Applied Mathematics
Brandon Chew, Chemical Engineering
Isabel Yarwood-Perez, Mechanical Engineering
Teagan Ampe, Computer Science
Jackie Finnemeyer, Computer Engineering and Computer Science
Former Editors
Michael Delucia, Computer Science
Meera Gorjala, Public Policy and Environmental Studies
Laura Cook, Chemical Engineering
Ayman Siraj, Chemical Engineering
Tsung-Han Stephen Sher, Computer Science
Sharada Rayan, Computer Science and Business Administration
Krishnan Raman, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Anush Kadoyan, Computer Science
Nicole Pay, Mechanical Engineering
Tiarnan McCaffrey, Mechanical Engineering
Huaning “Wendy” Wang, Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Babikian, Biomedical Engineering
Connor Buckley, Computer Science
Tyler Amano-Smerling, Computer Science: Games
Kaylee Tseng, Chemical Engineering
Former Web Developers
Nia Ignacio, Computer Science
Justin Wilfred, Computer Engineering
Tuling Zhao, Computer Science and Business Administration
Faculty Advisors
Martha J. Townsend teaches in the Engineering Writing Program at USC and serves as the founding and current Faculty Advisor to Viterbi Conversations in Ethics.