Achievement

We have continued our bi-weekly IGERT research seminars in Year 2; this year we conducted a special series on ethical challenges related to engineering and cultural heritage research. Prof Tom Levy led a special discussion on 'Ethics and World Cultural Heritage'. We also conducted an “ethics bowl” where certain dilemmas in cultural heritage ethics were debated among the students. Dr. Ann Kakaliouras, Assoc. Prof. of Anthropology, Whittier College spoke on “The ‘Cultures’ of Native American Repatriation in the 21st Century.” As part of the SE190 course series, Michael Kalichman, director of the Research Ethics Program at UCSD and IGERT participating faculty gave a lecture on Oct. 4, 2011. In Introduction to Ethics for Engineers, Kalichman stressed that while not frequent, "some scientists and engineers knowingly violate the law, professional standards, or accepted norms of behavior. The consequences are at least a waste of scarce resources, and at most can mean the loss of life."