Project 01: Reflection On The Code

The code of ethics that my group wrote focuses around four main disciplines that are critical to computer science students at Notre Dame: Honesty, Responsibility, Philanthropy, and Innovation. First, all computer science students must be honest, making sure to submit their work and their work alone. This is hugely important, as dishonesty may lead to a student not learning the material well enough, and thus hinder his or her performance in the long run. Second, all students in the computer science and engineering department have the responsibility to do their part in group projects and to take advantage of the learning opportunities presented to them. Again, this goes back to the theme of making sure that each student does the work that he or she must to learn all that he or she can. Third, computer science students at Notre Dame have been blessed with an amazing opportunity and an amazing set of skills, and thus they should use those skills to support and affect positive change in their communities. Fourth, it should be the goal of all computer scientists, not just those at Notre Dame, to innovate and create beneficial new products. After all, the point of studying this discipline is to be able to use what you’ve learned to make the world a better place, thus innovation is vital in uprooting outdated processes of life and replacing them with more efficient and convenient ones that are accessible to all.

I do believe there is a weakness in my group’s code of ethics, which is that this code does not address the issue of whistleblowing. You could make the case that the Honesty and Responsibility sections make it clear that a student must use their own work, not taking directly from other students and not giving directly to other students. But what happens if, for example, a Professor at Notre Dame is giving students answers and depriving them of the ability to find them themselves. This is obviously unethical, because students need the opportunity to solve the problems in order to learn. However, our code of ethics does not address the case in which a superior in the College of Computer Science and Engineering is misbehaving. In order to address this weakness, it would be wise to add another statement to the responsibility section, saying that a student has the responsibility to himself or herself to properly learn the material, even if a TA or a Professor is attempting to take that opportunity from them. By extension, the chair of the college should be notified of the situation, thus addressing the missing whistleblowing aspect.

I believe a code of ethics can be useful, but like any other written document, it only holds validity if people believe in what it says and adhere to its principles. Personally, the enumeration of my and my group’s beliefs in our code of ethics was a very beneficial exercise, as it helped me to realize what principles should be truly important to a computer science student at Notre Dame. Three years ago, I may have looked at this code of ethics and believed it was just propaganda created by the department to discourage cheating and push people to work for solid internships and jobs. But now, I look upon it and I can see what is really important, and I hope that incoming classes of computer science students can avoid my original mindset and find value in these principles as early as possible.