About Us
The Embedded Ethics Education Initiative (E3I) is a collaborative project at the University of Toronto between the Department of Computer Science and the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society that aims to incorporate concepts and skills from ethics across the computing curriculum. We are living in an unprecedented time of technological innovation and impact across all areas of society and culture. It has never been more clear that the work of computer scientists has far-reaching and often unintended consequences. As educators, we have seen both a need and demand from computer science students for educational opportunities that will help prepare them to enter the work force as computing professionals cognizant of how their work will impact society and empowered to raise ethical issues in the context of their work.
We launched E3I as a two-year pilot in 2020 to meet this demand. Our objective: To develop and evaluate methods for endowing and empowering the next generation of scientists, educators, and technology developers with the knowledge, skills, and incentive to incorporate ethical considerations in the study of computer science and as a design principle in the development of computer science technology—throughout their careers.
This program brings together a multi-disciplinary team from computer science, philosophy, and psychology to create educational modules that are embedded within computer science courses, creating authentic connections between technical computing concepts and ethical considerations for the potential applications of those concepts. Each of these modules is designed to combine modern pedagogical principles in delivery (e.g., active learning) and to use lightweight assessments that can be incorporated into existing computing classrooms. We believe strongly in open educational materials, and you can find our modules on our Modules page.
Contact us at: embedded-ethics@cs.toronto.edu
Meet the Team
Faculty Leads
Diane Horton
Professor, Teaching Stream
Department of Computer Science
University of Toronto
David Liu
Associate Professor, Teaching Stream
Department of Computer Science
University of Toronto
Sheila Mcllraith
Professor
Department of Computer Science &
Schwartz Reisman Institute for
Technology and Society
University of Toronto
Current Teaching Team
Steven Coyne
Assistant Professor (Limited Term)
Department of Philosophy
University of Toronto (Mississauga)
Former Teaching Team
Benjamin Wald
Former Postdoctoral Fellow
Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society
University of Toronto
Maryam Majedi
Former Postdoctoral Fellow, Teaching Stream
Department of Computer Science
University of Toronto
Study Design and Analysis Support
Web Development
Hamid Yuksel
Master of Information Student
Faculty of Information
University of Toronto
Acknowledgements
The Embedded Ethics Education Initiative has received generous funding from the Faculty of Arts and Science and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, and the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society.
We also thank Barbara Grosz and Jeff Behrends at Harvard University for sharing their inspiration and wisdom from the Embedded EthiCS @ Harvard program.