Category: Spring 2025

Featured Spring 2025 Volume 8 Issue 1

A Dreamer, A Destroyer of Worlds

Stefano Corno February 23, 2025

The recent room-temperature superconductor LK-99 controversy highlighted significant challenges within scientific communication and raised critical questions about the role of engineering in societal advancement. LK-99’s rapid rise and fall from scientific prominence reflects a need for essential virtues of engineering practice. This article analyzes the engineer’s societal role and establishes a framework to emphasize the importance of three virtues – joy, compassion, and rigor. These virtues are crucial for fostering responsible innovation and advancing human well-being through technology. 

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Featured Spring 2025 Volume 8 Issue 1

USC Viterbi School Prepares Virtuous Leaders in Engineering

Diandra Tjokrosaputro February 23, 2025

Engineering requires a certain dedication to protect the communities being served. This dedication is fostered by ethical engineers. The USC Viterbi School of Engineering aspires to cultivate such engineers. To ensure they live up to ethical obligations, Viterbi should look to establish its students with the values of integrity, altruism, and courage. Engineers with integrity exhibit perseverance in the face of failure and hold themselves accountable for the honest delivery of research findings. Through altruism, engineers are able to dedicate themselves to the people and environments their choices will impact. Lastly, courageous engineers push aside selfish desires, address uncomfortable truths, and have an unwavering commitment to represent those who cannot have a say in decisions. Together, these traits equip engineers with the characteristics needed to create a better future. 

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Featured Spring 2025 Volume 8 Issue 1

Open, Upright, and True, Despite Temptation

Diego Adrian Rodriguez February 23, 2025

In an ever-evolving technological landscape, defining the ideal engineer is complex. The role of an engineer is not merely to innovate, for their responsibilities go beyond their field of study. Certain attributes form the foundation of a proficient engineer. These virtues, integrity, authenticity, and open-mindedness, can guide an engineer in developing their moral compass, which is an essential asset in practice. As servants to society, engineers should resist the temptation to exploit new technologies and remain true to themselves, exemplifying respectful attributes in the workplace. The future of engineering remains obscure due to the rapid pace of technological development. In such moments, it is crucial to remember why the role of an engineer is invaluable in the first place: to make the world a better place.

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Featured Spring 2025 Volume 8 Issue 1

The Building Blocks of an Ethical Engineer: Curiosity, Discernment, and Collaborative Spirit

Amanda Akrawi February 23, 2025

Engineers must embody a unique blend of traits that empower them to address the complex challenges in their field. The cultivation of curiosity, discernment, and a collaborative spirit equips engineers with specific skills necessary to contribute innovative solutions to the world. Curiosity pushes them to lend their expertise and time to discovery. Discernment allows engineers to select design characteristics and objectively evaluate flaws to ensure that their creations align with their ethical responsibilities. A collaborative spirit helps engineers expand their perspectives, supplement gaps in their knowledge, optimize design results, and ensure the best possible outcome for a project. These traits, along with the necessary ethical background, must be integrated into engineering curriculums to shape a sustainable future for generations to come. 

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Featured Spring 2025 Volume 8 Issue 1

The Virtues of Engineering

Ayush Agarwal February 23, 2025

Engineers are tasked with improving everyday life with our technologies. This is a tremendous responsibility. Our work touches the lives of almost all individuals. To fulfill this responsibility, we must imbue certain virtues into our character to ensure our creations are virtuous. Thus, to be a virtuous engineer one must possess the traits of patience, humility, and curiosity.  

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Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

Preserving the Past: AI in Indigenous Language Preservation

Mo Jiang February 21, 2025

Recent breakthroughs in AI have expanded its use to translating endangered Indigenous languages. While it has promising preservation potential, these language technologies highlight the ethical scruples of using AI in cultural preservation. Careful attention is needed to implement AI preservation efforts that respect the sovereignty and cultural values of Indigenous communities.

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Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

Quantum 2.0— The Catalyst for a Cybersecurity Revolution

Mary Karapetyan February 14, 2025

Quantum computing is an emerging technology that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to increase computational speed. Transitioning from theoretical research to industry, it has the possibility to propel research. While its power is promising, it poses risks to cybersecurity.

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Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

CDC Censorship: Engineers to the Rescue of Public Health Data

Janessi Diaz February 7, 2025

A slurry of executive orders has led to a massive purging of public health information from the CDC and other federal websites. Thankfully, data-hoarding Redditors have come to the rescue by posting any information they had managed to salvage from these websites. As engineers, if we have the skill set we should follow suit and help with any effort to make this important data accessible to those who need it.

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Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

Fossil Fuels vs. Renewable Energy: How to Power the Tech Industry

Rachel Pak February 3, 2025

After taking office, President Donald Trump promised to increase coal combustion to generate power needed for AI data centers. However, new coal plants take time to fire up and are not suitable sources of backup power. Therefore, natural gas and geothermal energy offer the most likely solution to the rising electricity needs of the tech industry.

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Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

Gemini 2025: The Implications of Language Model Arm Race

Mo Jiang January 24, 2025

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai aims to reach 500 million users for Gemini by the end of 2025. However, both corporate transparency and the current regulatory frameworks struggle to keep up with AI’s rapid deployment. This has prompted a need for engineers to define a balance between responsible development and rapid deployment.

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