Embedded EthiCS receives $150K grant

May 1, 2019
embedded ethics faculty

The Department of Philosophy was thrilled to hear that the Embedded EthiCS program at Harvard--led by Barbara J. Grosz, the Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the department's own Alison Simmons, the Samuel H. Wolcott Professor of Philosophy and interim chair of the department--was recently awarded a $150,000 grant through the Responsible Computer Science Challenge. Full coverage of this story is available at the Harvard Gazette.

According to the Gazette, the grant will help enrich the teaching lab "in which Embedded EthiCS modules are generated and workshopped" thorough the addition of new computer science postdocs. The goal of these postdocs will be to "enhance the collaboration between computer science and philosophy" and to generate new case studies and modules that can be distributed throughout the CS curriculum.

In the four years since it began, the Embedded EthiCS program has already become a model for other universities through its distinctive approach of embedding ethics across the CS curriculum rather than in a single, stand-alone class. And a measure of the program's success and appeal with students has been the rapid expansion of its course offerings, which have tripled in size since 2017.

The department offers its hearty congratulations to Alison and to all the members of the Embedded EthiCS team on the receipt of this major award.

See also: Department News