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Viterbi Conversations in Ethics

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Viterbi Conversations in Ethics
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  • Volume 8 Issue 1
    • Letter From The Editor
    • The Virtues of Engineering
    • The Building Blocks of an Ethical Engineer: Curiosity, Discernment, and Collaborative Spirit
    • Open, Upright, and True, Despite Temptation
    • USC Viterbi School Prepares Virtuous Leaders in Engineering
    • A Dreamer, A Destroyer of Worlds
  • Weekly News Profile
    • This Week: It Starts With Welding: The Beginning of Lunar Industrialization
    • Last Week: FDA Approval of Bioengineered Blood Vessels Raises Concerns about Expedited Medical Reviews
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Category: Weekly News Profile

Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

Fines for Fire-Induced Blackouts?

Teagan Ampe November 2, 2020 BlackoutsCaliforniaFiresLiability

11/2/2020 The California wildfires of October 2019 affected vast swaths of residents, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes and many to lose their…

View More Fines for Fire-Induced Blackouts?
Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

Tech Companies Accruing Monopolies that Harken Back to the Days of “Oil Barons and Railroad Tycoons”

Isabel Brieler October 26, 2020 AntitrustDOJGoogleMonopoly

10/26/2020 A sixteen-month investigation into tech giants including Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google has finally been completed with the filing of a lawsuit against Google by the…

View More Tech Companies Accruing Monopolies that Harken Back to the Days of “Oil Barons and Railroad Tycoons”
Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

Who Should Get a New COVID-19 Vaccine First?

Isabel Yarwood Perez October 19, 2020 COVID-19DistributionVaccinations

10/19/2020 As flu season nears with an expected spike in cases, many companies are rushing to develop a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine as soon…

View More Who Should Get a New COVID-19 Vaccine First?
Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

Balancing Integrity with Privacy in Virtual Learning

Michael DeLucia October 5, 2020 COVID-19EducationPrivacy

10/5/2020 With the coronavirus pandemic continuing much longer than anticipated, schools adjusting to fully virtual classes or a hybrid model are scrambling to find ways…

View More Balancing Integrity with Privacy in Virtual Learning
Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

The Unnerving Implications of Brain-Computer Interfaces

Teagan Ampe September 28, 2020 AutonomyBrain-Computer InterfacesComputer SciencePrivacy

9/28/2020 Elon Musk has always been one for lofty technological goals, but he’s not always concerned with their societal or ethical implications. During a recent…

View More The Unnerving Implications of Brain-Computer Interfaces
Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

How California Fires are Highlighting the Ethicality of Prison Labor

Isabel Yarwood Perez September 14, 2020

9/14/2020 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge of virus outbreaks in prisons around the nation, California Governor Gavin Newsom initiated an early release…

View More How California Fires are Highlighting the Ethicality of Prison Labor
Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

The Blurred Line Between Corporate and Governmental Interests

Isabel Brieler September 8, 2020 Home SecurityPoliceRing CamerasSurveillance

9/8/2020 Amazon’s Ring home security company is no stranger to controversy. In 2018, it was revealed that footage, both from outside and inside customer’s homes,…

View More The Blurred Line Between Corporate and Governmental Interests
Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

When COVID-19 Forces Ugly Decisions

Tyler Amano-Smerling August 10, 2020 COVID-19Ethics PanelHospitals

8/10/2020 As morgues in Arizona and Texas begin to overflow into refrigeration trucks and the number of Americans hospitalized nears a record high, COVID-19’s toll on Americans–– and American…

View More When COVID-19 Forces Ugly Decisions
Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

The Time and Place for Conspiracy

Isabel Brieler August 3, 2020 COVID-19HydroxychloroquineMisinformationSocial Media

8/3/2020 In VCE’s weekly news profile from February 10, 2020, one of my fellow editors explored the world of misinformation in the health industry – an…

View More The Time and Place for Conspiracy
Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

Explaining Artificially Intelligent Decisions

Teagan Ampe July 27, 2020 Artificial IntelligenceBiasMachine LearningRight to an Explanation

7/27/2020 AI decision-making is everywhere these days. Getting a loan, getting an apartment, getting bail: in all three of these cases, there could be analgorithm taking…

View More Explaining Artificially Intelligent Decisions

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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 Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

It Starts With Welding: The Beginning of Lunar Industrialization

Mary Karapetyan May 2, 2025

5/1/25 ABSTRACT 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.…

Doctor holding immunization
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.

Image of blood cells
Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

FDA Approval of Bioengineered Blood Vessels Raises Concerns about Expedited Medical Reviews

Mo Jiang March 31, 2025

The FDA’s Accelerated Approval (AA) program enables early approval of drugs that treat serious conditions by bypassing unmet regulatory conditions. Despite risks, the recent approval of Humacyte’s bioengineered blood vessels has sparked concerns over how medical devices are approved during this process.

Guy at corporate office
Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

The End of Break Room Banter: AI Teammates Reshape Workplace Culture

Mary Karapetyan March 16, 2025

AI teammates are a new variation of artificial intelligence designed to supplement employees in the workplace, boosting productivity while reducing burnout. Their integration into society underscores the urgent need for clear frameworks and regulations to ensure their ethical and responsible use.

Image of a Triceratops skeleton
Featured Spring 2025 Weekly News Profile

De-extinction: Does the End Justify the Means?

Janessi Diaz March 8, 2025

Colossal is a company committed to de-extinction. Its main mission is to bring back the woolly mammoth. This mission may help conserve critically endangered Asian elephants and mitigate the impacts of global warming. However, it also raises ethical concerns regarding the livelihood of wildlife that currently reside in the mammoth’s habitat.

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