Ethics Lab & Dept. of Computer Science receive Mozilla grant to expand their work nationally

With renewed support from Mozilla in the second stage of the Responsible Computer Science Challenge (RCSC) grant, Georgetown’s Department of Computer Science and Ethics Lab will partner with faculty from universities across the country to test and refine their ethics integrated computer science curriculum.

During the first stage of the grant, the team co-designed and delivered multiple integrative ethics exercises and assignments for three different undergraduate computer science courses, reaching over 200 students in the process. Topics included algorithmic bias, nuances of data privacy, the ethical dimensions of human-computer interactions, and tradeoffs involved in proposed contact tracing apps for COVID-19.

The new funding will enable the team to deepen their project’s impact and expand its reach nationwide—educating and empowering the next generation of computer scientists to drive an ethics-centered culture shift in the tech industry.

The project is part of the university’s Initiative on Tech & Society, which is training students to navigate complex interdisciplinary challenges at the intersection of technology, ethics, and governance and to shape technology’s promise for a better world.

Commenting on the milestone achieved by the team, Ethics Lab Director Dr. Maggie Little said,“We are so excited to be expanding our work bringing ethics into Computer Science classrooms. The work for Stage 2 will expand our reach to other universities, as well as expanding our work here at Georgetown, which will help build the new undergraduate program in Tech, Ethics, and Society just approved by the University.”