Ethics and
Professional Development for Biomedical Engineers and Scientists
Spring 2011
Instructor
E. Morris
Course type – Graduate seminar
Class period – once per week for 1hr 50 min
Course location – TAC N207 (except as listed)
First Class Jan 21, 2011
Location of First Class TBA
Course goals
Ethics
To learn to recognize and to evaluate methodically moral dilemmas that may occur in the practice of science or engineering.
To learn to recognize the potential for conflicts between individual parties in a scientific or engineering project.
To learn some of the historical background and reasons for the current protections of healthy subjects and patients who are subjects in scientific experiments or experimental medical treatments.
To broaden students’ appreciation for the societal consequences and implications of their work as scientists and engineers.
Science/Engineering
Practice
To understand obligations of the trainee and the mentor in academic science.
To become familiar with the practice of science on a local (data handling, interactions with a mentor) as well as on a larger (publishing papers, submitting proposals, presenting results) scale.
To learn to manage shared ownership of ideas, and credit, among multiple collaborating parties.
To improve writing and communication skills.
Course description
Prerequisites: none.
Course is open to all graduate students and upper level undergraduates. Material will focus on science and engineering with particular attention to special issues that arise in biomedical science and engineering because human subjects are used in the development of new technologies or in the development of new treatments for disease.
Grading
Grades will be based equally on (a) class participation, (b) short writing assignments, (c) short in-class exercises.
Course topics to include