[PEC] Professionalism in Computing

Professionalism in Computing

Content

  • The meaning of professionalism
    • To compare various definitions of professionalism
    • To identify common requirements of professionalism
  • Professional Codes in Computing
    • To identify different professional codes in computing
    • To explain various aspects, issues and purpose covered in professional codes
    • To build arguments in respect of a given ethical scenarios based on professional codes.

What is a profession?

Informally, profession is a vocation that requires a high-level of education and practical experience in the field.
What does it mean to act professionally? Professionals have an obligation to ensure their actions are for the good of those who depend on them. Their actions and decisions can have more serious consequences than choice of those holding less responsibility in the society.
Academically, a profession is a number of individuals in the same occupation voluntarily organised to earn a living by openly serving a certain moral ideal in a morally permissible way beyond what law, market and morality would otherwise require.
A professional puts the profession first.

Characteristics of a profession

Fully developed professions have a well-organized infrastructures to support existing members of the profession and to certify new ones.

  • At the heart over every mature profession is certification and licensing
  • Certification and licensing enable a profession to determine who will be allowed to practice the profession

Certification vs. Licensing

  • Professional certification is a voluntary process
    • A non-governmental professional organization grants recognition to an individual who has met certain qualification.
    • Certificate attests(证明) that the individual has demonstrated a certain level of mastery of a specific body of knowledge and skills within the relevant field of practice.
  • Licensure is a non-voluntary process
    • A government agency regulates a profession
    • License grants permission to an individual to engage in an occupation if the applicant has attained the degree of competency(资格) required to ensure the public health, safety and welfare will be reasonably protected.
    • Once a licensing law has been passed it becomes illegal for anyone without a license to engage in that occupation

A profession:

  • requires extensive training
  • involves significant intellectual effort
  • provides important service to society
    Common to most professions:
  • certification or licensing
  • organisation of members
  • autonomy in one’s work
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Accreditation(认证)

Professional programs at colleges and universities are accredited by bodies associated with a particular profession. For example, American Bar Association

Certificates

Different fields specify particular exams

  • Accountants take the CPA exams
  • Medical professionals take Medical Board Exams
  • Engineers take two exams FE and PE, etc.

Code of conduct

Associations of computing professionals

  • IEEE- 420,000 IEEE members in over 160 countries
  • ACM -100,000 members
  • In 1993 IEEE-CS and ACM set up a joint steering committee to explore the establishment of software engineering profession
    • Survey of practitioner(从业者) to understand the knowledge and skills required by software engineers
    • Developed accreditation criteria for undergraduate programs in software engineering
    • Develop a code of ethics for software engineers

What is included in the code of ethics?

  • Principles
  • Rules
  • Ideals
  • Requirements
  • Permissions
  • Prohibitions

Dealing with a moral problem

  1. Identify fundamental principles that are relevant to the moral problem.
  2. Identify clauses of the principles which speak most directly to the issue.
  3. Determine whether the contemplated action aligns with or contradicts the statements of the clauses
    a. If the action is in agreement with all the clauses -> moral
    b. If the action is in disagreement with all of the clauses ->immoral
    c. When some clauses support and others oppose -> use own judgement; determine which clauses are most important before reaching a conclusion.

Virtue Ethics

  • Happiness results from living a life of virtue - Aristotle
  • Intellectual virtue, acquired through education理智德性
  • Moral virtue, through repetition of appropriate acts -> strong moral character伦理德性
    • Deriving a pleasure from a virtuous(有道德的) act is a sign of having acquired the virtue

Strengths of Virtue Ethics

  • Motivation for good behavior and healthy social interactions
    • Utility and Categorical Imperative by Kant say nothing about motivation
  • Provides a solution to the problem of impartiality(公正性)
    • Utilitarianism, Kantianism and social contract require complete impartiality and treatment of all humans as equal -> more evaluations that are hard to accept.
  • Some virtues are partial towards certain people and others are impartial and treat everyone equal
  • Example: Generosity and loyalty: One can be partial to friends and family members.
  • Civility, honesty and courteousness: Applied equally to all human beings.

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