Projects

The Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions is pleased to support a number of ongoing programs and projects that fit the Center’s mission of promoting research and teaching on practical moral problems in the professions.

Codes of Ethics Online Collection
The Codes of Ethics Online Collection consists of over 2000 codes of ethics from professional organizations, businesses, government agencies, and religious and fraternal organizations. The collection includes a guide for using codes of ethics, resources for writing a code of ethics, and links to other collections of codes of ethics on the web.

Center faculty and fellows teach a number of courses throughout the academic and summer months on IIT's main campus. These include courses in architecture, business and engineering ethics, ethics in institutional organizations, and the new graduate course, Ethics in the Natural Course of Research.
 
From 1997-2003, IIT hosted colleagues from institutions internationally and across the country for the Ethics Across the Curriculum summer workshops. These pages include a summary of the workshop proceedings, post-workshop materials developed by past graduates, and an extended bibliography of books, journal articles, and online materials on integrating ethics in the classroom.

The Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl (IEB) combines the excitement and fun of a competitive tournament with a valuable educational experience for undergraduate students. Here you can find this year's regional and national case studies, locations for the regional ethics bowl competitions, and a full description of the rules and educational significance of the Ethics Bowl.

This joint project with the National Academy of Engineering's Center for Engineer, Ethics and Society is a collection of resources for scholars and university administrators interested in developing ethics training and instruction programs for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.

Ethics in IPROs
The Center the for the Study of Ethics in the Professions is working with the Interprofessional Projects Office of IIT to help develop ways of integrating ethics instruction into the IPRO program. Below is a collection of resources for students and faculty advisers interested in exploring the unique ethical questions raised by their projects.

Ethics in the Natural Course of Research
Developed through a National Science Foundation Grant, this graduate level course brings together students from engineering and science with students from the fields of philosophy, history and sociology of science to perform joint research across disciplinary boundaries. The course has been offered twice, and will be offered again during the 2012-2013 academic year.

In 2005, the Center began a project to develop a code of ethics for the Illinois Institute of Technology community, including, students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Please take some to to review the current and past version of the IIT Code, and leave your suggestions and comments.

The NanoEthicsBank is a database conceived as a resource for researchers, scholars, students, and the general public who are interested in the social and ethical implications of nanotechnology. Items in the database include normative documents, such as guidelines for safety in the workplace, and descriptive materials, such as analysis of the U.S. government’s capacity for oversight and studies of the media coverage of nanotechnology.

ProGReSS

In Februrary 2013, the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions has received an award of $108,669 to be the the participant for the United States in a project funded by the European Commission called “Promoting Global Responsible Research and Social and Scientific Innovation” or ProGReSS. The project, which also includes universities and ethics center from Europe, China, Japan, India, Australia, and South Africa seeks to explore what is meant when we talk about  Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) that is, research and innovation which is: a)ethically acceptable, b) is sustainable by avoiding significant adverse effects and b) drives towards the common good, i.e. societal desirability. Dr. Michael Davis and Kelly Laas of the Center will be the primary investigators on this project.

The project will link existing international networks of RRI from all continents with European partners and seek to achieve the following: 
1. Link existing international networks of RRI with relevant societal actors on a global scale to focus innovation on societal desirability. 
2. Complete a major fact-finding mission comparing science funding strategies and innovation policies in Europe, the US, China, Japan, India, Australia, and South Africa. 
3. Advocate a European normative model for RRI globally, using constitutional values as a driver to inform societal desirability. 
4. Develop a strategy for fostering the convergence of regional innovation systems at the global level. 

You can read more about the project on the European Commission’s CORDIS website.

 
In 1993, the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) and the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) formed a joint committee to write a code of ethics for software engineers. This archive includes meeting minutes, correspondence, and the different versions of the code developed throughout the project.. The Software Engineer’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice was adopted by IEEE-CS and ACM in 1998, and since then, the code has been adopted by software engineering and computer societies worldwide.


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