CAP F07/Ethics Team 2/Proposal

Team Members: Will Voorhees, John Giannini, Tony Waldschmidt Last Edited On: 10/22/07

At St. Olaf College, senior Computer Science majors take a senior capstone class. The purpose of this course is to draw together many of the different aspects of research in the discipline that they have used over the course of their academic career in a semester long project. This project consists of several phases, once of which entails an ethical analysis. As a class we generated a list of general topics and divided into two groups to address some of these issues. Our group chose to address the ethical issues of the cluster outside of it's actual operation, these issues involve scientific conduct, student/researcher relations and management usage issues related to the cluster. This document is our proposal for that ethical investigation.

Questions and Methods:   What role does the concept of scientific conduct play in the cluster?   Literature Search on Scientific Conduct Interviews with faculty currently involved with cluster use (tentatively: Professors Cole, Freedberg, Schade, & Schweinfus) Case studies 



How do undergraduate students acting as research assistants change the STS, and how does that impact faculty and student prioritisation of goals (e.g. educational vs. research goals)?   Literature SearchFaculty/Student research interactions</li>Search school policy</li></ul></li> Interviews (with the intention of determining goals and potential conflicts of interest) Faculty Researchers</li> Student Researchers</li> Day in the life scenarios</li></ul></li> </ul>



In what situations is use of the cluster justified? In what situations is it not? Who makes these decisions? </li>  Literature Search comparing analogous cluster policies of other institutions</li> Typical cluster usage scenarios</li> Cluster MngmtGather info on current cluster usage</li>Gather info on planned projects</li></ul></li> Investigation of authority structures and priorities for cluster use</li> </ul> </ol>

STS:

Interview Material

Interviews will primarily concern questions one and two (see above). More specifically:


 * We would like to find out what role ideals of ethical scientific conduct (as outlined by NIH guidelines) might play in research use of the Cluster. Are there any special concerns germane to cluster based research? How do such projects relate to more traditional research endeavors? Etc.


 * We're interested in potential conflicts of interest and confusion of roles resulting from students acting as research assistants for cluster projects as class work. Is there any potential for research related concerns to eclipse learning related ones for faculty or students? What structures and conventions are in place which define the roles and aims of teachers, students, and researchers?