USM Team Has Robust Performance at Engineering Ethics Competition
Mon, 03/11/2024 - 11:17am | By: Gabriela Shinskie
From left to right, Joshua Seymour, Charles Heatherly and Dr. Mahdi Razaz at the Lockheed Martin's Ethics in Engineering Case Competition.
Students from The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Ocean Science and Engineering (SOSE) competing in Lockheed Martin’s Ethics in Engineering Case Competition finished strong as semi-finalists at the event that featured 80 teams from more than 75 universities.
Joshua Seymour of D’Iberville, Miss. and Charles Heatherly of Biloxi, Miss., both juniors in ocean engineering, represented USM with their faculty advisors Drs. Mahdi Razaz and Kemal Cambazoglu. The students described the competition as intense but rewarding.
“The experience was awesome, educational, and exhilarating,” said Heatherly. “I would do it again. I got to meet a lot of new people.”
Seymour credits Dr. Razaz’s preparation and USM’s Engineering Ethics and Safety course as the foundation for her advancement to the semi-finalist round.
“Dr. Razaz was great in helping us with our debates, taking notes on how we could improve and move onto the next match,” Seymour said.
The team met twice weekly leading up to the competition, preparing for different ethical scenarios and practices and leaning on Dr. Razaz and Dr. Cambazoglu’s experience at the competition. They also worked with faculty in computer science in focusing on new ethical scenarios and engineering issues in artificial intelligence (AI). “This is a collaborative effort among students and faculty,” said Dr. Razaz.
As the team advanced in the knockout competition, the debates against other teams became more technical and complex. The experience helps students gain problem-solving, communication, and teamwork skills. After making it to second day of the multi-day competition, Charles and Josh won their matchups against University of Mississippi and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University making their way into the semi-finals.
“We wanted our students to be part of an experience in which they can apply the knowledge they gained and skills they acquired in their Ocean Engineering degree plan and particularly in our Engineering Ethics and Safety Culture course against students from other universities,” Dr. Cambazoglu said. “At the end of every Fall semester, we invite students to participate in this LM Ethics competition. Lockheed creates a fictional case with engineering, ethical and business dilemmas like those which may arise in real life. This is our fourth time participating in this competition and we collectively built on past experiences by Andrew Smith and Joseph Bell (2021), Marthonette Aguilar and Christian Bellew (2022), Corey Chamblee and Trevor Whalen (2023).”
“We are proud of Josh and Charles,” Dr. Cambazoglu further noted. “This is an extra-curricular activity along with taking many courses in ocean engineering. While they’re taking on a lot of academic work, they also spent significant time preparing for this competition, and we applaud their effort. They well deserved their semi-finalists award and raised the bar to a new level as we say Southern Miss To The Top!”
Learn more about the School of Ocean Science and Engineering and the results of the Lockheed Martin Ethics in Engineering Case Competition.