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Category: Spring 2021

Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

An Examination of Uber’s Responsibility to Their Drivers

Sabrina Sy March 22, 2021 UberWorkers' Rights

A recent ruling from a court in Britain has caused Uber to reclassify its drivers, allowing them increased benefits such as a minimum wage – is this something that can or should occur in other countries?

View More An Examination of Uber’s Responsibility to Their Drivers
Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

When Science Fails Minorities: Complications with the COVID-19 Vaccine

Tyler Amano-Smerling March 15, 2021 COVID-19LGBTQIA+Racial BiasVaccinations

Some minorities have understandable fears about the COVID-19 vaccine—how can those fears be assuaged, and whose responsibility is it to do so?

View More When Science Fails Minorities: Complications with the COVID-19 Vaccine
Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

Fuzzy Ownership of NFTs

Michael DeLucia March 8, 2021 BlockchainCryptocurrencyEthereumNFT

The rapid expansion of the market for NFTs, a popular new kind of cryptocurrency, raises questions about the intricacies of digital ownership.

View More Fuzzy Ownership of NFTs
Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

Implications of Interplanetary Translocation

Isabel Brieler March 1, 2021 MarsMicrobiologyNASAPerseveranceSpace

The recent successful landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars gives us cause to consider the extent to which we are ethically obligated to prevent the “contamination” of other planets with earthly life.

View More Implications of Interplanetary Translocation
Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

The Inequality of Virtual Reality

Tyler Amano-Smerling February 22, 2021 OculusTechVirtual Reality

Virtual reality seems like a great escape, especially after nearly a year of lockdown, but it’s rife with inequities; do technology companies have a responsibility to combat these inequities before VR becomes a larger part of our daily lives?

View More The Inequality of Virtual Reality
Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

Facebook’s Role in Mitigating Vaccine Misinformation

Sabrina Sy February 15, 2021 COVID-19MisinformationSocial MediaVaccinations

Facebook is cracking down on the spread of misinformation about vaccines – is this a violation of free speech or a valid effort to protect the public?

View More Facebook’s Role in Mitigating Vaccine Misinformation
"Airplane Engine" by Pixabay from Pexels
Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

Learning to Trust Black Box Artificial Intelligence

Michael DeLucia February 8, 2021 Artificial IntelligenceBlack BoxRolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce’s “AI 2.0” has a massive series of checks to ensure its integrity; should this be the standard for other “explainable” AIs?

View More Learning to Trust Black Box Artificial Intelligence
Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

How Apps are Influencing Reddit’s War with Wall Street

Isabel Brieler February 1, 2021 GameStopHedge FundsRobinhoodStock Market

2/1/2021 While 2020 was undoubtedly a strange year for the stock market, with industries swinging unprecedentedly up and down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, January…

View More How Apps are Influencing Reddit’s War with Wall Street

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Podcast

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…

Grand Challenges Special Issue

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

Technological Determinism in the Grand Challenges

Thomas Peters March 29, 2023

Technological determinism is denounced by Dr. Erin Cech in her critique of the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges report. This discussion focuses on the strengths of Cech’s argument surrounding the engineering double standard in social media, virtual reality, and reverse-engineering the brain. Though she makes many strong arguments, pieces of Cech’s argument fall short. Pointing fingers at the entirety of the engineering community and holding the Grand Challenges to a standard for which they were not intended weaken Cech’s overall discussion. However, her argument is ultimately a valid discussion of a profession that would benefit from wider perspectives in a world full of complex issues.

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.

Weekly News Profile

Featured Summer 2025 Weekly News Profile

A Glacier’s Cry For Help: Arctic Amplification Concerns Rise

Mary Karapetyan July 1, 2025

The current state of the Arctic calls for immediate attention. The Arctic is warming at a rate four times the global average, and its ice cover is diminishing. Glaciologist John Moore’s research group at the University of the Arctic has identified 61 potential interventions to help reverse Arctic amplification. While geoengineering buys additional time to prevent conditions from worsening, the side effects of these techniques remain unknown and require extensive research to be fully understood.

Featured Summer 2025 Weekly News Profile

 Turbulence Expected in Aviation Regulation

Kariena Panpaliya June 25, 2025

Many tragic plane accidents are credited to the negligence of airlines and plane manufacturers. In the year 2025, crashes still occur regularly, costing hundreds of lives. It is imperative that the aviation industry prioritize passenger and crew safety above their profits and reputation.

Featured Summer 2025 Weekly News Profile

High-Tech Dreams, Widening Gaps: The Downside of Costly Innovations

Mo Jiang June 15, 2025

Following Apple’s arguably overpriced headsets, other companies, such as Nintendo, also raised prices for their Switch 2 product. These incidents reveal a general trend of technology becoming increasingly expensive, yet growing evidence shows that unaffordable costs are worsening the digital divide, leaving low-income, minority, and disabled populations with less access to essential technology. More efforts are needed to make products affordable and accessible to everyone.

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.

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