SSIT e-Newsletter
Volume 1. Issue 2.
Fall 2003
Ethics Helpline
The Online Ethics Center Help-Line is intended to provide advice for engineers, scientists, and trainees encountering ethical problems in their work. A principal goal of this Help-Line is to assist scientists and engineers in maintaining high ethical standards and in acting wisely when confronted with multiple and potentially conflicting responsibilities, even when this may lead to conflicts with organizational superiors. The Help-Line is not intended to deal with employee grievances unrelated to ethics. It will not give legal advice nor does it have the resources to do investigations. The wishes of the Help-Line with respect to confidentiality are respected. More information about the Help-Line can be found at http://onlineethics.org/helpline/index.html. To initiate a contact with the Help-Line send an email briefly indicating the nature of the problem to helpln@onlineethics.org.
New Board of
Governors Members
Ken Foster, L. Jean Camp and Dave Morton were elected to the SSIT board of governors for the 2004-2006 term.
Fall Board of
Governors Meeting
At the fall meeting of the SSIT board of governors Brian O’Connell was elected president and Karl Perusich was elected vice-president for 2004. SSIT was one society that was the topic of a web-based survey conducted by the IEEE. Key findings are available in the minutes. Sarah Pfatteicher was approved as Associate Editor of T&S Magazine. SSIT membership was up, primarily through a half year free membership offer recently posted with IEEE materials. The complete minutes of the fall meeting can be found at http://chortle.ccsu.edu/BOG/BOGindex.html.
Interested members are welcome to come to all SSIT Board of Governors meetings.
The next one is scheduled for 10:30 am, Saturday, 6 December 2003 in Room
113 at the E.J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers
University, 33 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick, NJ. Map at http://policy.rutgers.edu/map.html.
Boston SSIT Chapter
The Boston chapter of SSIT is being reconstituted. Anyone interested in joining should contact Alex Brown at a.brown@ieee.org.
SSIT Conferences
ISTAS 2004
The 2004 International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS 2004), entitled Globalizing Technological Education, will be held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, on June 17-19, 2004. Paper and panel proposals are due January 30, 2004. More information can be found at http://policy.rutgers.edu/andrews/projects/ssit/istas04.shtml.
Foundations for Ethical Education in a Post-Enron Age
On April 16, 2004, the Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise at the University of Texas at Austin will co-sponsor this conference entitled Foundations for Ethical Education in a Post-Enron Age. SSIT will co-sponsor invited talks on engineering ethics, and the SSIT Spring Board of Governors meeting will be held in conjunction with the conference on April 17. For more information on the conference, including a call for papers, see http://www.engr.utexas.edu/cofe/ethics2004.
SSIT and three other IEEE societies are jointly sponsoring a meeting on the
technology and policy issues surrounding movement toward the vaunted hydrogen
economy. Implications for the electric power sector will be a particular focus.
The meeting is scheduled for 19-20 April 2004 at the Metro Center J.W. Marriott
Hotel, Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC. Details will be posted on the SSIT
website at http://www.ieee.org/ssit .
Call for
Papers-Special Issues
Ethical Issues in Risk Assessment and Management
The International Journal of Risk Assessment and Management (IJRAM) is soliciting papers for special issues devoted to the topic of Ethical Issues in Risk Assessment and Management. Topics include: Ethical critiques of technology assessment methodologies and institutions, Cost benefit analysis-ethical issues, Ethical issues of managing technological hazards and risks, and other topics. Questions about the special issues should be directed to Dr. Mark Manionm at manionm@drexel.edu.
Awards and
Recognitions
Ronald R. Kline, long time officer in SSIT, has been awarded the Bovay Chair at Cornell University.