Webinar: Developing and Enacting Codes of Conduct in Professional Unions

More and more academic, research, and industrial institutions are enacting codes of conduct. These codes clarify an organization’s mission, values, and principles and can serve as both internal guidelines and external statements of values and commitments. Several international unions have recently developed such codes of conduct, and many more are interested in doing so. This webinar will discuss the motivations, challenges, and successes for codes of conduct within professional unions. Speakers representing four unions who have recently enacted such codes will present their organizations’ experiences followed by open discussion at the end of the session.

The event will be held online on June 28th, 2022 at 6-8 PM CEST.

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Participants in the webinar:

• Lenka Lhostska, International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM): “Ethics as Part of Engineering Education and Profession”
• Sven Lidin, International Union of Crystallography (IUCr): “The IUCr CoC – guide, support and message”
• Gillian Butcher, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP): “The IUPAP Code of Conduct“

Moderator: Carol Woodward, Vice-chair of the SCGES, International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM)

Speakers Info:

Speakers:

Lenka Lhostska, International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine (IUPESM)

“Ethics as Part of Engineering Education and Profession”

Abstract: Engineering ethics develops criteria, systematizes normative beliefs, and offers orientation of action in decision-making situations in which engineers and technicians’ everyday moral intuitions are insufficient. Thus, engineering ethics is primarily interested in justifying and vindicating moral beliefs, in the decision-making situations of everyday engineering practice in which our intuitive moral beliefs are uncertain or contradictory. Emphasis is placed on the practical development of competence in recognizing ethical conflict, the ability to analyze the problem down to its tacit assumptions, and the ability to communicate and present these findings to both the expert work team and the lay public. Ethics in engineering has a long tradition, dating back to the 19th century. Gradually, recommendations and then formal codes of ethics were developed. I will explain how it is applied in our institution, what are the issues connected with engineering, artificial intelligence and robotics and also why we introduced ethics into engineering curricula.

Bio: Lenka Lhotská, PhD, MIET, MIEEE, graduated as Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at the Czech Technical University in Prague (CVUT), Czech Republic and got PhD degree in Cybernetics from CVUT. Currently she is head of the Cognitive Systems and Neurosciences Department at the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics and associate professor at the Department of Natural Sciences of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, CVUT. Her research focus: Knowledge-based systems, application of artificial intelligence (AI) methods to medicine, digital signal processing, machine learning, semantic interoperability, mobile technologies in healthcare, electronic health record. She is scientific secretary of the Czech Society for Biomedical Engineering and Medical Informatics, National representative in IFMBE, member of Council of Societies of IFMBE, co-chair of the WiMBE WG of IFMBE, chair of the Women in Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering TG of IUPESM, chair of the Working Group Personal Portable Devices of European Federation for Medical Informatics (EFMI) and member of the EFMI Council, and National representative in International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth (IsfTeH). She was co-chair of the IUPESM World Congress 2018, member of the PC EMBEC 2005, regularly she is PC member of conferences on AI and ICT in health care.

Sven Lidin, International Union of Crystallography (IUCr)

“The IUCr CoC – guide, support and message.”

Abstract: The code of conduct adopted by the IUCr was conceived as a guide for decision making and as a means to send an important message about our values, but it has proven useful in many ways, some of them unexpected. To have the support of a well-formulated CoC when discussing can be a way of convincing those focused on ta particular issue that it is part of a greater picture where their actions may be seen in a different light.

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Gillian Butcher, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP)

“The IUPAP Code of Conduct “

Abstract: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, IUPAP, created the Working Group on Women in Physics, WG5, in 1999 to assess the situation for women in physics in IUPAP member countries and suggest how to improve the situation. Through its conferences and its global surveys, WG5 has been able to provide advice and recommendations to the IUPAP Executive Council. Consequently statements on Codes of Conduct and the appointment of Advisers to deal with cases of harassment are required for all IUPAP sponsored conferences. Recipients of IUPAP awards are also expected to meet commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity. The Waterloo Charter for Women in Physics contains guiding principles and policies for IUPAP’s member Societies. All these requirements are overseen by the Vice President with responsibility for Gender, who along with the Vice President with responsibility for Ethics aim to ensure that IUPAP adheres to its strategic aims which explicitly incorporate statements of inclusion and opposition to discrimination.

Bio: Dr Gillian Butcher is a researcher in space instrumentation at the University of Leicester, UK. She has been active in women in science initiatives and organisations at the local, national and international level. She was Chair of IUPAP’s Working Group on Women in Physics from 2017-2021 and is IUPAP Vice President with Responsibility for Gender from 2020 to 2024.