Communications of the ACM
Computer Science, Philosophy Join Forces on Ethics and Technology
Harvard's Philosophy Department, housed in Emerson Hall, has partnered with the Computer Science Department to offer six courses with bases in both fields.
Credit: ParkingSpace23
When Harvard University Computer Science professor Barbara J. Grosz opened enrollment for Computer Science 108: "Intelligent Systems: Design and Ethical Challenge" for its second year in fall 2016, she received 140 applications for 30 spots. This fall, she again received over 130 applications for her course, which is co-taught with Philosophy professor Jeff Behrends.
According to Grosz, CS 108 is one of six computer science courses this fall that are co-taught by either professors or teaching fellows from the Philosophy department. She said this initiative, which has been growing over the past few years, seeks to to embed ethics into regularly offered Computer Science courses.
Harvard is among the first universities to integrate Philosophy across different Computer Science courses, Grosz said. Instead of offering specialized computer ethics electives, the collaboration with the Philosophy department allowed the project to scale up in size quickly.
From The Harvard Crimson
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