ethiCS, Episode 1: Natnael Kahesay

In this episode of ethiCS, we talk to Wesley Long about his work on a tool, AlleyCAT, a dashboard which works with the Allegheny College automated grading system (AGS) GatorGrader. We explore ethical issues which arise out of using student data for evaluation and the need for ethical systems to report accurate data in ways that are useful to users. In addition, we talk through some of the complicated technical integrations and opportunities which make it possible for instructors to manage, evaluate, and provide insightful feedback about student work both individually and at the scale of an entire class.

In this episode of ethiCS, we shift gears a bit and explore a project that contemplates systems of information and code – in specific the GitHub – in the context of Library Science. Our conversation revolves around software as a literacy and proposes a critical framework for reading GitHub as a text. We discuss the significance of teaching GitHub through this critical lens and the implications of fully appreciating the responsibility of contributing to software as a student or professional.

In this episode of ethiCS, we talk to graduate Nathan Loria bout their project -- Gator Compute Cloud (GCC) -- and the challenges and implications of creating applications that process and store data in the cloud. Nathan also discusses developers' responsibility to users to provide applications that are both safe and accessible while balancing how non-technical actors such as legislative, industry, and community organizations aid in solving ethical issues facing the interconnected use of information and the resources that enable potential misuse.

In this episode of ethiCS, we talk to graduate Caden Koscinski about their project, Navillation, a visual approach to clustering, grouping, and exploring relationships between concepts in large bodies of research writing. We discuss some of the issues inherent in reproducing research processes (analog or digital), and some of the unique challenges and benefits stemming from in statistically-based, computational methods of understanding connections between ideas.

In this episode of ethiCS, we talk to graduate Noor Buchi about software testing, and providing students tailored tools to assist with learning and practice of program debugging. In addition, the interview touches on the broader implications of tools which autosuggest or autocomplete code, and thinking about some of the dangers that dependence on software meant to help developers can cause ethical issues in the learning process.

In this episode of ethiCS, we talk to graduate Maddy Kapfhammer about her senior project, VIRALL, a "domain-specific" programming language developed to assist undergraduate students in making and testing disease models. Maddy discusses the challenges, intended use in the classroom, and some not-so-obvious ethical issues that her work creates.

In this episode of ethiCS, we talk to graduate Natnael Kahesay about his senior project, which explores various streams of user-supplied health-tangent data in order to use the platform as a predictive marker for health trends in developing countries. Natnael discusses various challenges, motivations, and solutions explored during the his research and software design process.