Engineering Character: Teaching Ethics in the Age of Automation
By Mahi Patel
10/28/25Pratt School of Engineering
Aligned with Duke Engineering’s Character Forward initiative, Professor Siobhan Oca’s Ethics in Robotics and Automation course (ME 490) challenges students to see beyond technical skills and practice the virtues that shape responsible engineers.
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Engineering Character: Teaching Ethics in the Age of Automation
In a field defined by precision and performance, Siobhan Oca, assistant professor of the practice in the Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, is teaching engineering students to look beyond technical excellence and toward character. As Duke Engineering advances its Character Forward initiative, Oca’s work stands out as a model for how ethics and virtue can be integrated into even the most technical courses.
Character Forward is a partnership between Duke Engineering and The Purpose Project at Duke, a collaboration between the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke Divinity School, and the Office of the Provost. With the goal of developing great engineers and good people, the initiative is powered by faculty like Oca, who make interdisciplinary, human-centered design central to their engineering courses.
“When I was getting hired, they asked what we should offer in robotics,” Oca recalls. “Duke is a unique place for multidisciplinary work, and the implications of what we do are so critical.” That mindset inspired her to build a new course, Ethics in Robotics and Automation, that helps future engineers navigate the ethical gray areas that accompany innovation.
Professor Siobhan Oca at the head of her classroom during a typical lecture.
From “Don’t Make Mistakes” To Navigating the Gray
Oca’s own path to Duke shaped how she thinks about responsibility in design. “My undergrad was in mechanical engineering, but I was always interested in biomedical applications,” she says. “I did a master’s in translational medicine, understanding how to get things from research to practice, then a PhD with an ER physician in a robotics lab, doing human–robot interaction for medical robotics.”
When she joined Duke, an internal ethics grant provided the spark to turn her ideas into a course. “I had said in my job talk that we should teach an ethics course in robotics and automation, and I had this grant, so I went and made the course.” The class is now required in both the undergraduate robotics certificate and the new Master’s in Robotics and Automation.
A lot of people come in thinking, I’m an engineer; ethics means I’m not going to make a mistake. Recognizing the gray areas—how much you value collaboration versus privacy, or security versus openness—is crucial.
Siobhan OcaAssistant Professor of the Practice in the Thomas Lord Department of MEMS
Oca’s course begins with a self-assessment: Students rate themselves on virtues related to trust and trustworthiness, safety and regulation, privacy and security, and bias and fairness, then revisit their answers at the end of the semester. “A lot of people come in thinking, I’m an engineer; ethics means I’m not going to make a mistake,” she says. The world is not binary and neither are the problems tomorrow’s engineers will be tasked with solving. “Recognizing the gray areas—how much you value collaboration versus privacy, or security versus openness—is crucial.”
Learning Through Real-World Cases
To make ethics tangible, Oca designs exercises around real engineering decisions. One case study follows the Boeing 737 MAX crisis, asking students to take on roles from engineers to executives. “At the end it’s easy to point at Boeing and say, ‘They should have pulled the planes,’” Oca says. “But when would you have done it? Most teams end up close to reality, which makes responsibility concrete.”
Another project, developed with PhD candidate Annika Haughey, uses a synthetic dataset to explore how bias can appear in hiring algorithms. Modeled on Amazon’s attempts to automate recruitment, the dataset shows how machine learning can unintentionally favor some applicants over others. Students then adjust the dataset and model to test different fairness strategies. “They feel the trade-offs,” Oca explains, “and that makes the ethical dimension tangible.”
Dr. Oca takes advantage of Duke’s hospital, taking students to see the contexts they’d be designing for to understand the scope, nuances, and challenge their assumptions about the problem space. Students see where robots are most common. “The surprise is that it’s not the operating room,” Oca says. “It’s pathology. Seeing those systems helps students think, ‘I could be designing that; what are the implications of my choices?’”
Character in Conversation
The course draws enthusiastic participation. “I’m surprised how many take it as a fun elective,” Oca says. “Others come through the certificates, and I expected less engagement, but they have been very engaged.”
International students, in particular, expand the dialogue. “Some come from countries where they assume anything online is viewable by the government,” she explains. “We do not debate politics, but we do talk about privacy and security from a grounded, data-informed approach. It lets engineers talk with facts while acknowledging the gray.”
We do not debate politics, but we do talk about privacy and security from a grounded, data-informed approach. It lets engineers talk with facts while acknowledging the gray.
Siobhan OcaAssistant Professor of the Practice in the Thomas Lord Department of MEMS
This kind of open, empathetic discussion is exactly what Character Forward aims to cultivate across Duke Engineering, giving students space to practice intellectual humility, curiosity, and moral judgment in the context of technical problem-solving.
Practicing Who You Want To Be
For Oca, ethics is not about memorizing principles but about forming habits of mind. “I want students to be aware of the trade-offs they are making, often without realizing it, and to know themselves and what they value so they can act accordingly,” she says.
One student’s experience illustrates this connection. After taking her class, he joined a public-safety device company exploring the use of drones for emergency response. “Students bring experiences you cannot anticipate,” Oca says. “It adds real depth to the discussions about design choices and responsibility.”
Her message to students is simple: “Have clarity about the kind of engineer and person you want to be, and practice that habit. There are multiple right answers, and virtuous people can still create problems. Character is what helps you navigate the trade-offs.”
Leading By Example
Through Character Forward, Duke Engineering is working to make stories like Oca’s the norm. Her course exemplifies how ethical reflection and technical rigor can coexist and how faculty can guide students to connect their professional skills to their personal values.
“Engineers want to work with facts and clear ideas,” Oca says. “But the world is not binary. Teaching students to reason in the gray, together and across different backgrounds, may be the most technical thing we do.”
Join Dean Jerry Lynch in a conversation with Professor Cameron Kim about the importance of integrating character and ethical considerations into every aspect of the curriculum.
