Embedded EthiCS:Integrating ethics broadly across computer science education

Computing technologies have become pervasive in daily life, sometimes bringing unintended but harmful consequences. Forstudents to learn to think not only about what technology they could create, but also about what technology they shouldcreate, computer science curricula must expand to include ethical reasoning about the societal value and impact of these technologies. This paper presents Embedded EthiCS, a novel approachto integrating ethics into computer science education that incorporates ethical reasoning throughout courses in the standard computer science curriculum. It thus changes existing courses rather than requiring wholly new courses. The paperdescribes a pilot Embedded EthiCS program that embeds philosophers teaching ethical reasoning directly into computer science courses. It discusses lessons learned and challenges to implementing such a program across different types of academic institutions