Ethical Considerations for Project R.O.M.P.
(Robot Orientation and Mapping Project)
Team Evolution
Michael Lazar
Joel Hackstadt
Sean Hogan
Peri Subrahmanya
Sean Williams
Table of Contents
• Introduction
• General Moral Imperatives
2.1 Contribute to society and human well-being.
2.2 Avoid harm to others.
2.3 Be honest and trustworthy.
2.4 Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
2.5 Honor property rights including copyrights and patent.
2.6 Give proper credit for intellectual property.
• More Specific Professional Responsibilities
3.1 Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of professional work.
3.2 Acquire and maintain professional competence.
3.3 Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work.
3.4 Accept and provide appropriate professional review.
3.5 Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities.
3.6 Access computing and communication resources only when authorized to do so.
• Bibliography
1. Introduction
Our mission in completing the CS 425 & CS 499 Senior Project courses is to successfully design and implement a software product. One factor that contributes to our success is to develop our project in a moral and ethical manner. Specifically, in our project we have a responsibility to protect the rights of our team members, our client, upper management, other students, faculty, and staff of the university. We have an obligation to provide the general public a product that is neither misinforming nor profane. We have a responsibility to protect the property of the university and the property of individuals who occupy the university. In order to set guidelines as to what is ethical, we will refer to the Code of Ethics as outlined by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The specific sections of the ACM Code of Ethics that we are applying to our project are detailed in sections 2 & 3 of this document. Each individual ethical consideration that we adopted from the ACM is listed in italics, followed by a brief description of how that particular consideration applies to our project. The complete ACM Code of Ethics can be viewed at the following website: http://www.acm.org/constitution/code.html
2. General Moral Imperatives
2.1 Contribute to society and human well-being.
This principle concerning the quality of life of all people affirms an obligation to protect fundamental human rights and to respect the diversity of all cultures. An essential aim of computing professionals is to minimize negative consequences of computing systems, including threats to health and safety. When designing or implementing systems, computing professionals must attempt to ensure that the products of their efforts will be used in socially responsible ways, will meet social needs, and will avoid harmful effects to health and welfare. (ACM section 1.1)
2.2 Avoid harm to others.
"Harm" means injury or negative consequences, such as undesirable loss of information, loss of property, property damage, or unwanted environmental impacts. This principle prohibits use of computing technology in ways that result in harm to any of the following: users, the general public, employees, and employers. Harmful actions include intentional destruction or modification of files and programs leading to serious loss of resources or unnecessary expenditure of human resources such as the time and effort required to purge systems of "computer viruses." (ACM section 1.2)
In our project, we have the responsibility to protect the individuals who come in contact with the robot in the engineering building. We have the responsibility to ensure that our product does not cause harm to people or their property. We also must ensure that we protect the individuals who log on to the robot via home computers. We must make our best effort to ensure that our system is secure and does not expose them to malicious threats.
2.3 Be honest and trustworthy.
Honesty is an essential component of trust. Without trust an organization cannot function effectively. The honest computing professional will not make deliberately false or deceptive claims about a system or system design, but will instead provide full disclosure of all pertinent system limitations and problems. A computer professional has a duty to be honest about his or her own qualifications, and about any circumstances that might lead to conflicts of interest. (ACM section 1.3)
2.4 Be fair and take action not to discriminate.
The values of equality, tolerance, respect for others, and the principles of equal justice govern this imperative. Discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, disability, national origin, or other such factors is an explicit violation of ACM policy and will not be tolerated. (ACM section 1.4)
Our team must not discriminate against any person within the group, upper management, our clients, or any other individual affected by our product.
2.5 Honor property rights including copyrights and patent.
Violation of copyrights, patents, trade secrets and the terms of license agreements is prohibited by law in most circumstances. Even when software is not so protected, such violations are contrary to professional behavior. Copies of software should be made only with proper authorization. Unauthorized duplication of materials must not be condoned. (ACM sec 1.5)
2.6 Give proper credit for intellectual property.
Computing professionals are obligated to protect the integrity of intellectual property. Specifically, one must not take credit for other's ideas or work, even in cases where the work has not been explicitly protected by copyright, patent, etc. (ACM section 1.6)
Our project is an extension of several previous senior projects. We have the obligation to give proper credit to those ideas that we are building upon. We must cite information that we present from previous projects as well as give credit for intellectual property that is not explicitly documented. This is extremely important because any form of plagiarism will result in disciplinary action from the university and possible legal action.
3. More Specific Professional Responsibilities
3.1 Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness and dignity in both the process and products of professional work.
Excellence is perhaps the most important obligation of a professional. The computing professional must strive to achieve quality and to be cognizant of the serious negative consequences that may result from poor quality in a system. (ACM section 2.1)
We have the obligations to our team, clients, upper management, and university to conduct our project in a manner that represents the highest quality and dignity, because this project will reflect upon the professionalism of these individuals.
3.2 Acquire and maintain professional competence.
Excellence depends on individuals who take responsibility for acquiring and maintaining professional competence. A professional must participate in setting standards for appropriate levels of competence, and strive to achieve those standards. Upgrading technical knowledge and competence can be achieved in several ways: doing independent study; attending seminars, conferences, or courses; and being involved in professional organizations. (ACM section 2.2)
We have set standards and procedures for coding, conflict resolution, and ethical behavior, and it is each member's responsibility to adhere to these standards in the best interest of the team.
3.3 Know and respect existing laws pertaining to professional work.
ACM members must obey existing local, state, province, national, and international laws unless there is a compelling ethical basis not to do so. Policies and procedures of the organizations in which one participates must also be obeyed. But compliance must be balanced with the recognition that sometimes existing laws and rules may be immoral or inappropriate and, therefore, must be challenged. Violation of a law or regulation may be ethical when that law or rule has inadequate moral basis or when it conflicts with another law judged to be more important. If one decides to violate a law or rule because it is viewed as unethical, or for any other reason, one must fully accept responsibility for one's actions and for the consequences. (ACM section 2.3)
Each member of the team must act within the law and ensure that all other team members are aware of any law in which they may be in violation.
3.4 Accept and provide appropriate professional review.
Quality professional work, especially in the computing profession, depends on professional reviewing and critiquing. Whenever appropriate, individual members should seek and utilize peer review as well as provide critical review of the work of others. (ACM section 2.4)
The format of the senior design course is such that each team member is critiqued by upper management, other project teams, and our own team members. We must make our best effort to evaluate all criticisms use them to enhance the quality of our product. We must also provide other teams with honest and constructive criticisms so they may improve the quality of their projects as well.
3.5 Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned responsibilities.
Honoring one's commitments is a matter of integrity and honesty. For the computer professional this includes ensuring that system elements perform as intended. Also, when one contracts for work with another party, one has an obligation to keep that party properly informed about progress toward completing that work.
A computing professional has a responsibility to request a change in any assignment that he or she feels cannot be completed as defined. Only after serious consideration and with full disclosure of risks and concerns to the employer or client, should one accept the assignment. The major underlying principle here is the obligation to accept personal accountability for professional work. On some occasions other ethical principles may take greater priority.
A judgment that a specific assignment should not be performed may not be accepted. Having clearly identified one's concerns and reasons for that judgment, but failing to procure a change in that assignment, one may yet be obligated, by contract or by law, to proceed as directed. The computing professional's ethical judgment should be the final guide in deciding whether or not to proceed. Regardless of the decision, one must accept the responsibility for the consequences.
However, performing assignments "against one's own judgment" does not relieve the professional of responsibility for any negative consequences. (ACM section 2.6)
Each senior design team is required to develop a contract between the team and the client. The contract must be thoroughly understood and signed by all parties. This contract must then be followed by all individuals mentioned in the contract. Any violation of the contract may result in disciplinary action by the university or legal action.
3.6 Access computing and communication resources only when authorized to do so.
Theft or destruction of tangible and electronic property is prohibited by imperative 2.2 - "Avoid harm to others." Trespassing and unauthorized use of a computer or communication system is addressed by this imperative. Trespassing includes accessing communication networks and computer systems, or accounts and/or files associated with those systems, without explicit authorization to do so. Individuals and organizations have the right to restrict access to their systems so long as they do not violate the discrimination principle (see 2.4). No one should enter or use another's computer system, software, or data files without permission. One must always have appropriate approval before using system resources, including communication ports, file space, other system peripherals, and computer time. (ACM section 2.8)
The development of our project will depend heavily on the use of university resources. We must obtain permission to access any workstation, server, physical property such as the robot, or any other resource that we will use in our development.
4. Bibliography
ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. 12 May 2003. Association for Computing Machinery Inc. 07 Dec 2004. <http://www.acm.org/constitution/code.html >.
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