Technology Ethics Minor

Providing the needed analytical resources and skills for navigating related ethical quandaries and policies.
icons representing technology and ethics floating above an open palm

Artificial Intelligence (such as AI Chat bots like Chat GPT), self-driving cars, social media, and other current and emerging technological developments have raised the potential to significantly alter our quality and way of life. Such technologies often hold tremendous potential for addressing pressing social problems, yet involve risks, uncertainties, unforeseen consequences, or have negative impacts for some social groups. Disruptive technological development requires conscientious engineers, sophisticated business leaders, and policymakers, who are capable of critically analyzing and taking responsibility for the social and ecological impacts of these endeavors. 

The Tech Ethics minor introduces students to ethical concerns pertinent to recently emerged technologies, and of the ethical development and implementation of new technologies, and it will give students the needed analytical resources and skills for navigating related ethical quandaries and policies. 

The Minor helps students deepen their understanding of scientific and corporate practices, and regulatory policies, that can guide the ethical development, testing, and implementation of emerging technologies toward socially and environmentally responsible ends.

Curriculum

Students in the Tech Ethics minor will take 18 course credits, 6 credits of required courses and 12 credits are from electives. 
 

Minor double-counting restrictions
While the Tech Ethics Minor includes significant overlap with the STS Minor also offered by the Department of Engineering & Society, students may not double-count courses completed for one minor toward the completion of the other. Consequently, students may only complete the Tech Ethics Minor or the STS Minor, but not both.
 

CLAS students
Before declaring a minor in STS, CLAS students must meet with the Director of the Minor to plan course selections that will align with the requirements of the College. 

  • STS 2101 - Social Foundations Engineering Credits: 3
  • STS 2600 - Engineering Ethics Credits: 3
    Double counting: SEAS students are already required to take STS 2600. Per SEAS policy, they may double count this course, which means the Tech Ethics minor will essentially be a 15-credit program for them.

The Department of Engineering and Society offers a variety of STS 2500 (and higher) elective courses in fall, spring, J-term, and summer sessions, although the offerings vary from year to year. 

Six of the 12 elective credits may come from outside the E&S department.

STS Courses

  • STS 2500 - Science and Technology in Social and Global Context Credits: 3
    Approved Topic: Ethical Analytics: Using Data for Social Good
    Approved Topic: STS, Ethics, and the Engineering Grand Challenges
    Approved Topic: Societal Dimensions of Nanotechnology
    Approved Topic: Responsible Innovation
    Approved Topic: Ethics, Science Fiction, and the Future
    Approved Topic: Technology and the Frankenstein Myth
    Approved Topic: The LEGO Course: Engineering Design and Values
    Approved Topic: Ethics, Gender, and New Reproductive Technologies
  • STS 6592: How Engineering Impacts Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion - Credits: 3

Approved Non-STS Courses

  • PHIL 1330 - Virtual Worlds and Philosophy Credits: 3
  • SOC 2442 - Systems of Inequality Credits: 3

Questions? Want to learn more?

For more information about the Tech Ethic Minor, please contact minor advisors Prof. Bryn Seabrook web5g@virginia.edu or Prof. William Davis hcn5ue@virginia.edu

Bryn Elizabeth Seabrook

Assistant Professor

Bryn Seabrook's research interests include, bioethics, public participation in environmental policymaking, energy efficiency, climate change, negotiating the environmental - consumer nexus, and analyzing American consumer culture.

William Davis

Assistant Professor

As our technological creations increasingly permeate all that surrounds us, altering our behaviors and bodies in subtle and obvious ways, we ought to ask ourselves:

The information contained on this website is for informational purposes only.  The Undergraduate Record and Graduate Record represent the official repository for academic program requirements. These publications may be found here.