Isabel Brieler, Author at Viterbi Conversations in Ethics

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

Prioritizing Profit in a Pandemic

Isabel Brieler July 6, 2020 COVID-19 Pharmaceutical Remdesivir

7/6/2020 The race to develop a legitimate medication or vaccine for COVID-19 has dominated the pharmaceutical industry for the past several months as the virus…

Spring 2020 Weekly News Profile

Catching Up as the World Moves Online

Isabel Brieler April 7, 2020 Cybersecurity Data Privacy Privacy

4/7/2020 The current COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for many companies across the globe, but one app has seen its business explode: video conferencing platform…

Spring 2020 Weekly News Profile

How an App Developer Broke the 2020 Iowa Caucuses

Isabel Brieler February 17, 2020 Apps Caucuses Computer Science Elections

2/17/2020 On February 3rd, the first primary of the 2020 election cycle took place in Iowa, where the process has always been a little different.…

Podcast Spring 2025 Spring 2025 VCE Podcast

Virtue Ethics: Cultivating Moral Character in a Modern World

VCE March 8, 2025

Hosted by Aryan Shah with guest Branden leong This podcast explores the role of virtue ethics in engineering, emphasizing how virtues like compassion, integrity, and…

Podcast Spring 2025 Spring 2025 VCE Podcast

AR/VR and how they shape the future of technology

VCE March 8, 2025

Hosted by Aryan Shah, Deep Shah, with guests “Greta Hoffmeister, Kariena Panpaliya, Dasean Volk, Hang Nguyen, Grace Eamer In this episode, the guests delve into…

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

Redefining Societal Progress for Engineers

Natasha Singh March 29, 2023

Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges focuses heavily on the pitfalls of technological determinism. This paper supports Cech’s argument through a discussion of current examples of the consequences of technological determinism, such as the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, medication accessibility, and facial recognition technology. Though the consequences of a zealous engineering mentality are commonplace in our society, there are also current examples of tech companies neglecting to develop technology due to its possible negative consequences.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

How the Technical Sciences and the Social Sciences Should Go Hand-in-Hand

Charles Liu March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges presented by the National Academy of Engineers (NAE) fail to involve ethics as a part of the solution to these issues. Traditionally, engineers have kept their work separate from its societal implications. Engineers and their non-technical counterparts have an obligation to view all technical solutions under the moral lens of ethicists and futurists. Going forward, engineers must be aware of their limits and work with experts outside of their fields to develop solutions that will be cognizant of society as a whole.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Lies We Tell to Inspire: Responding to the Engineering Double Standard

Shub Gaur March 29, 2023

The National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges are critiqued by Dr. Erin Cech for what she describes as a double standard in engineering. Though Cech rightly discusses a lack of accountability and acknowledgement within the profession, her argument lacks nuance. The Grand Challenges were ultimately a promotional tool meant to inspire the next generation of engineers, yet Cech holds them to a standard of being professional rules and guidelines. This paper will discuss the distinctions that Cech’s argument lacks, including placing an unreasonable amount of responsibility on engineers and overstating their influence.

Spring 2023 Volume 6 Issue 3

The Grand Challenges: Authorial Particularism and a Lost Opportunity for an Equitable Society

Huzaifa Aslam March 29, 2023

The fourteen Grand Challenges were developed by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in an effort to expose future generations to the wide range of innovation and technology that they could one day take part in. As detailed by the Challenges’ creators, the list includes challenges that are most significant to our current world. Dr. Erin Cech’s critique of the Grand Challenges is that a lack of diversity in the panel of engineering experts led to a lack of oversight into issues that are actually pertinent to developing nations. Cech’s argument that the Grand Challenges are a missed opportunity for social justice holds validity, but her mischaracterization of the lack of diversity requires further consideration.

Featured Summer 2025 Weekly News Profile

Science Fiction Turned Reality–AI Defiance on the Rise

Mary Karapetyan June 10, 2025

The influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rippling through society, especially via the rising accessibility of large language models (LLMs). OpenAI’s latest o3 model sabotaged shutdown after being told to “allow yourself to be shut down.” LLMs are unpredictable, and even with the necessary constraints and guidelines, they still hold the power to behave the way they find the “most optimal.”

Featured Summer 2025 Weekly News Profile

Who’s Shaping Tomorrow’s AI Ethics? Universities Navigate Corporate AI Ethics Funding

Mo Jiang June 1, 2025

Tech giants like Netflix and Microsoft are making significant investments in AI ethics education and research at universities. These efforts raise concerns about potential corporate influence on academic independence. As colleges develop partnerships with the tech industry, they face the challenge of balancing valuable funding opportunities with the need to maintain academic integrity and ensure AI ethics research and education serve broader societal interests rather than corporate agendas.

Featured Summer 2025 Weekly News Profile

Sneaky Subliminals: Messaging the Subconscious Through Media

Kariena Panpaliya May 25, 2025

Subliminal messaging can be found in all forms of media. It has the power to influence the subconscious mind, which holds patterns that define an individual’s mentality, thus significantly determining a person’s behavior. Through subliminals, the media has the incredible power to influence a person’s mindset and actions. This power should be wielded explicitly and with caution to protect a person’s right to freedom of thought.

Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

It Starts With Welding: The Beginning of Lunar Industrialization

Mary Karapetyan May 2, 2025

Following decades of successful space missions, humanity’s focus is increasingly shifting from short-term exploration to establishing a permanent extraterrestrial base through lunar industrialization. Lunar industrialization is a highly advanced technological endeavor; enabling the technology needed to weld on the Moon marks the first step in actualizing its potential. The lunar environment presents unique conditions that make it more challenging to replicate processes that are easily implemented on Earth, such as welding. Although the Moon lacks an atmosphere or biosphere and won’t experience the same environmental effects as Earth from increased industrial activity, it doesn’t mean that lunar industrialization is environmentally harmless. This debate is complex, with both sides raising valid concerns, balancing the potential for scientific progress against the ethical need for preservation.

Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

NIH Funding Freeze Stalls Applications to Public Medical Research Funds

Rachel Pak April 17, 2025

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stopped considering grant applications in the wake of the Trump administration’s funding freeze. This has stalled around 16,000 grant applications competing for $1.5 billion in NIH funding to develop cutting-edge treatments. This freeze threatens lives across the country, as scientists lose jobs, local economies are damaged, and the health of patients fighting life-threatening diseases is put in jeopardy.