Published: 
By  Jennifer McManamay

Before there was Google, there was the Online Ethics Center. Roughly 25 years ago, the late philosopher of science, technology and medicine Caroline Whitbeck founded the center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a searchable digital library for resource materials related to ethics in engineering. In 2007, the center became part of the National Academy of Engineering's Center for Engineering Ethics and Society, which continued the online repository as a go-to for educators, students, researchers and occasionally practitioners looking for help to teach, understand or just think through ethical issues in their work. Today, the University of Virginia andRosalyn W. Berne, an associate professor in UVA's Department of Engineering and Society, are the keepers of Whitbeck's vision. TheOnline Ethics Center for Engineering and Sciencemoved to UVA Engineering from the National Academy of Engineering last October, with Berne as its director. At that time, the academy decided to disestablish the Center for Engineering Ethics and Society,which Berne was then serving as directorwhile on leave from UVA. The decision meant the Online Ethics Center needed a home. Berne has stayed on as the online center's director and principal investigator of the project, which is funded by National Science Foundation grants.