University of Michigan - Flint

Faculty Name:  Judith Pinn Carlisle

Department:  CSEP

Campus Address:  214E Murchie Science Building

Email:  carlislj@umflint.edu

Phone:  8107623131

Project Description:  One of the questions facing information technology professionals is whether or not they are, indeed, a profession at all. A hallmark of the "great" professions --- medical, legal, and spiritual --- is commitment to a well-defined and binding code of ethics. IT does not have such a code of ethics. Several influential organizations, e.g., the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), have developed codes for ethics, but they are not binding, nor are they particularly influential. Apparently, they are based upon conjecture and projection, rather than being formulated after consideration of the needs and capabilities of the community and those who depend upon it.

An important field of ethical software issues is software safety, that is, software's reliability. Software failure is one of the more disturbing components of reliance upon software. This project's core motivation is the investigation of ethical beliefs and concerns of a particular subclass of software engineer, the safety critical software engineer. These IT practitioners' work is directly involved in the analysis of software performance and determination of whether specific software dependent systems are reliable.

We submit a hypothesis that the ability to develop safer software can be achieved if those involved in its manufacture and testing can be trained to appreciate ethical issues associated with their task. These issues must be ferreted out, not only by conjecture, but from analysis of the work and the ethical concerns of those involved in that work.

This project is still in its initial stages. The work will initially manifest as a survey directed to this community. The survey instrument itself is being designed. In order to ensure the uniqueness of the survey, we are currently conducting a literature search to identify as much of the related literature as possible. In addition, we are attempting to secure as many of the actual survey instruments as we can from past work in related areas. Once the survey has been developed, it will be administered to actual engineers. This is something that will make the survey unique. Receipt of a significant number of respondents will enable an unusual, necessary, analysis of the state of the community and so could make a strong contribution --- not only to "theliterature" but to the actual practice of the field of software engineering.

Semesters Desired:  Fall 2009; Winter 2010

GSRA Position Description:  The GSRA will perform work directly related to the literature search and procurement of previously developed survey instruments. That is, the GSRA will do library searches to identify relevant papers and collect electronic copies of the papers.

The GSRA will, under supervision, contact authors whose work developed and used surveys in order to procure copies of those surveys.

After this initial work has been completed, the GSRA's work will include the distribution and collection of survey instruments and the initial analysis of the survey results.

This work will allow GSRA to put into practice important skills learned in class, but also, and most importantly, allow the GSRA to be exposed to important work concerning the ethical considerations of information technology.

Specific Day/Time Requirements:  Work can be done on the GSRA's schedule.

Special Requirements:  None specified

Graduate Students in These Programs May Apply:  Position has candidate in mind