Building Ships and Building Software: Practicing Virtue in Software Design

September 16, 2004

Location: EE/CS 3-180, 6-8pm

Thursday,  
September 16, 2004
5:30-8:00  p.m. at  The University of Minnesota
5:30 start for networking,  6:15 start for  meeting.

Electrical  Engineering/Computer Science  Bldg.
Room EE/CS  3-180
Minneapolis, MN

Directions:   
A map is available at  http://onestop.umnedu/Maps/EECSci/index.html       
Check out the detailed map.


This  Month's Meeting:


Program  Manager: Dick Hedger

Topic:   Building Ships and Building Software: Practicing Virtue in Software Design

Speaker:   Chuck Huff
 
 
 
Abstract:     How can thoughtful computer professionals survive the competitive workplace with their ethical commitments intact?  Chuck Huff, a psychologist who studies the moral development of computer professionals, will review basic research on behavior in organizations to suggest how difficult it is to maintain one's principles in the face of organizational pressure.  Then he will share some of the early lessons from his interviews of "moral exemplars in computing" in the UK and Scandinavia and suggest ways that these individuals have managed their professional lives while maintaining their ethical commitments.  His conclusion is that practicing virtue in software design involves commitment to particular shared values, deployment of creative skills in recognizing and resolving difficulties, and the cultivation of social and organizational support for good computing.

Speaker  Biography:  

Chuck Huff is Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at St. Olaf College. He has published research in the areas of moral reasoning, computing and education, gender and computing, social aspects of electronic interaction, and ethics in computing.  He is associate editor of the journals Computers and Society and Social Science Computer Review.  He teaches the course Ethical Issues in Software Design in the Computer Science program at St. Olaf College.  He is currently doing empirical research on the moral development of computer professionals in collaboration with Simon Rogerson of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at Demontfort University in Leicester, UK.

The following files related to this presentation are available for download:

Building Ships and Building Software: Practicing Virtue in Software Design
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