Integrating ethics in design through the value-sensitive design approach

Abstract

The Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) has declared that to achieve accredited status, 'engineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility.' Many engineering professors struggle to integrate this required ethics instruction in technical classes and projects because of the lack of a formalized ethics-in-design approach. However, one methodology developed in human-computer interaction research, the Value-Sensitive Design approach, can serve as an engineering education tool which bridges the gap between design and ethics for many engineering disciplines. The three major components of Value-Sensitive Design, conceptual, technical, and empirical, exemplified through a case study which focuses on the development of a command and control supervisory interface for a military cruise missile.