Fellowship Spotlight: Alice Liu
The following was written by Alice Liu as a part of the 2021 TechShift Summer Fellowship program.
Concerns about ethics and social justice in computer science have continued to gain traction in recent years, even in public discourse. However, many computer science curriculums have yet to meaningfully incorporate these concerns into course material in a way that combines social and technical aspects. With the support of Techshift’s Summer Fellowship Program, I worked with Johanna Okerlund, a MIDAS fellow at the University of Michigan, and a group of Michigan undergraduate students to reimagine what an undergraduate computer science curriculum could look like.
This summer, we specifically chose to focus on our introductory computer science course, EECS 183. This course is many students’ first exposure to computer science, both for students who go on to major in it (like myself) or do not. Enrollment in recent semesters has also frequently exceeded 1,000 students, so it also has huge reach.
My team at our final project showcase, when we took EECS 183 in our first semester of college
The first half of the summer was spent on research and discussion. As a group, we read news articles, science and technology studies theory, education research papers, and more to understand the critical perspectives of computer science. We also reviewed the course materials for EECS 183, as well as introductory CS courses at other universities that include critical and ethical perspectives. During our weekly meetings, we debriefed about what we read and reflected on how we could incorporate what we learned into the way we approach curriculum design.
For the rest of the summer, I worked individually on developing a lab assignment to be used in the course. I reworked an exercise created by Professor Jason Li from Occidental College and modified by Professor Evan Peck of Bucknell University. This activity has students create a patient intake form for Michigan’s University Health Services. The lab consists of three parts: a programming portion, scenarios to test the program against, and group discussion with relevant readings. The activity challenges students to evaluate how their assumptions or biases may show up in code. By providing short vignettes about individuals who might use the program, students are encouraged to think about how their program would function in a real-life context. Decisions made in code can have social and ethical consequences, even in simple programs, and thus it is important to train computer scientists to view code in this way.
While redesigning introductory computer science courses to include ethical considerations is a step in the right direction, I acknowledge its impact has limitations. These themes need to be incorporated for students at all levels, from introductory to advanced courses, to show a sustained commitment to ethics. Logistics can also present a challenge for large courses which frequently depend on autograders for grading, which seek narrowly-defined solutions over the more open-ended questions of ethics. These proposed changes also require support from faculty and administration. The culture of computer science is also shaped outside of the classroom, from student organizations to industry. My hope is that these changes will encourage future students to become more thoughtful, socially-responsible technologists.
Despite the work that still needs to be done, I’ve felt most inspired by others who have been doing similar work from which I gained a lot of insight. In addition to aforementioned resources, I’d also like to highlight the work of Professor James Malazita at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Aesthetic Programming by Winnie Soon & Geoff Cox, University of Colorado Boulder’s Internet Rules Lab, and Brown University’s Socially Responsible Computing Program—which we were able to hear more about from the program's faculty coordinator Professor Julia Netter from Brown’s Philosophy Department and Head TA of the program, Suyash Kothari (and fellow summer fellow!) during one of four Techshift fellowship events over the summer.
I’d like to thank Johanna Okerlund for her guidance and mentorship this summer, as well as Sarah Kurata, Manasi Sridhar, Louis Wang, and Yunhao Wang who also contributed to this project. A huge thanks to the Techshift fellowship team for organizing such an exciting and thought-provoking program. Specifically, I appreciated the opportunity to explore my own future plans through organizing a forum, with CS and Sociology PhD candidates Matthew Sun and Angela Li, on the intersections of technology and public policy and pursuing social impact through academia. Special thanks to my fellow cohort members Bonnie Fan, Suyash Kothari, Moe Sunami, and Ceciel Zhong for their inspiring work and thoughtful discussions and events organized this summer. Our biweekly meetings always left me with new ideas and considerations, which were invaluable in framing my own project.