Project 01: Ethics

Submission: Project 1

My Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering Code of Ethics is divided into five sections: the preamble, general student imperatives, more specific engineering responsibilities, career leadership imperatives, and compliance with the code. As stated in the preamble, the format for the document was heavily inspired by the Association for Computing Machinery’s (AMC) Code of Ethics, so the naming conventions for the sections also follow suit (with some slight variation). The ethical codes start from the general perspective of a student at the university followed by the more specific responsibilities of students majoring in Computing Science or are in the College of Engineering. The codes themselves are generally straightforward (although some have some ambiguity that cannot be completely erased because of their underlying principle), and are generally arranged in order of decreasing importance. In particular, performing academically to the best of one’s abilities, improving one’s understanding of computing, its ethics, and its consequences, and representing Notre Dame with integrity should be irreplaceable principles in a Notre Dame student’s personal code of ethics.

There are, however, some weaknesses in the document. The description for code 2.3, in which students must “correctly cite intellectual sources for code when necessary” is left intentionally vague because of the nature of the problem. It is nearly impossible for software developers to write 100% completely original code. This is because many patterns of code are recycled, borrowed, or even willingly shared by their programmers for other programmers to use at their own convenience. This does not eliminate the need to prevent plagiarism, but it is not practical for students to list every single instance in which code or concepts are borrowed from an external (probably online) source. In reality, each case must be considered separately and it is up to the judgement of both the student and instructor to determine what degrees of ‘borrowing’ and ‘inspiration’ are or are not acceptable.

Another aspect to note is the entirety of section 3: career leadership imperatives. While it is understandable that the university take some interest in student’s professional futures, is it really proper for them to establish an entire code to oversee a student’s “future career ethics”? In short, is it really their business? Code 3.4 clearly states that students will not participate in black hat hacking. What would happen if a student displayed such incredible hacking skills that they became sought out by the United States government to fill a position as a black hat hacker? What should they do? The answer is unclear. When asked, people will generally answer that black hat hacking is evil, but very few will argue against the necessity of it. After all, how else would we be able to stop other black hat hackers from hacking us?

Writing out a code of ethics was a useful and enlightening experience. Usually when the topic of conversation is ethics it is tempting to focus only on one specific issue instead of the principles behind decisions and actions. Being able to look at a document where several of my beliefs can be found in one place makes me a bit nervous, but at the same time very satisfied. I was able to affirm several of my existing beliefs but also raise questions for others. I like to think of myself as an ethical person, and I believe we should all strive to merge ideal ethics with real world practicality. Most people label the middle ground as being indecisive, but I believe in ethics that’s where the most rewarding answers can be found.

Career Mobility & Working Relationships

Plans after college as a student are hard. Should we go grad school? Or should we go straight into the workforce? I’ve always wondered how I should plan the next ten years of my life. Financially, going straight into grad school seems a bit expensive right now and I would like to have some grounded experience in the working world first. That way, I’ll be able to form my own opinions of how the business world runs and make use of them when I continue further into my studies. I’ll also get the added benefit of being able to choose my specific area of study afterwards in case my interests change.

As far as future plans I consider myself very lucky. I have three older brothers with whom I am close to. They also all share the same interests as me. Naturally, I expect our professional lives to cross at some point and we’ll end up being able to collaborate on super cool projects. We’ve even talked about the possibility of eventually starting our own company. To get to that point though, we’ll have to meet on common ground after going our separate ways in the Computer Science industry. I expect to stick to my first company, moving from job to job after I find and create more opportunities. Whether that means going up the corporate ladder in the same company or jumping ship to another, only time will tell.

Is there such a thing as company loyalty? As with many ethical questions, the answer is situational. In my own opinion, company loyalty is a very real thing. However – it is an expectation, not an obligation. Both an employee and his/her company have expectations of each other during their working relationship. Ideally, the benefits should be mutual. The company expects loyalty from their employee along with tangible results. In return, the employee expects financial stability, a rewarding career, and good will from the company should they choose to leave.

These are all reasonable expectations. How else can a company prosper if loyalty and results are not delivered by most of their employees? On the other hand, non-compete clauses and trade secrets are reasonable obligations a company can impose on its employees. The “consideration doctrine” included in such agreements look out for the well-being of the company with respect to its competitors. I cannot fault company owners for wanting to express their concern about this potential problem (so I cannot argue with those ideas conceptually). In the real world, however, I realize that each case is different and the law is not perfect; but as far company-employee relationships, if a potential employee has a problem with company policy then they can simply look elsewhere before agreeing to anything.

On the other hand, an employee’s expectation of their company can change depending on the person. Some people make it their goal to make it to the top of a specific company. Perhaps it was their childhood dream to work at that specific place? Or maybe it’s just family tradition? Some people hold jobs temporarily with the intention of hopping around to find another. As is the reverse case with non-compete clauses and trade secrets, there is nothing a company can do about an employee who intends to leave (assuming the employee is compelled by any law-binding fineprint). Therefore, it is the company’s responsibility to incentivize both new and existing employees to continue working for them and make the company’s best interests their best interests.

In the end, company-employee relations are just like personal relationships. To keep the gears healthy, you’ve got to make sure both sides are well greased.

Hello World

Hey there! My name is Dylan Zaragoza. I’m a younger twin and the youngest of four brothers. We’re all majored in (surprise, surprise) Computer Science. A couple decades ago I guess that would have been out of the ordinary, but nowadays I guess it’s not that special. Technology has pervaded so far into personal and professional living that computers have sort of worn out most of their mysticism. In fact, today you’d be hard pressed to find a job that didn’t have anything to do with computers.

As far as engineering interests go, I like to put myself on the creative side of things. 2-D design. 3-D modeling. Animation. Thinking, writing, drawing, and creating. That sort of thing. I suppose ethics might not have much to do with computing in that sense (outside of choosing what messages to convey), but it doesn’t mean it’s not important.

We live in an interesting age. It’s almost a fifth of the way into the twenty first century and the only big tech revolution we’ve seen enter the household is smartphones. I’m expecting the next one to happen in the years to come thanks to the budding fields of VR, AR, and AI.  Computer science will lead the frontier to these emerging technologies, but ethics will help us decide how to use them.