One of the things that makes the Data Ethics and Artificial Intelligence program so unique is that it is one of multiple interdisciplinary pursuits within the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI). It didn’t really occur to me previously, but as EFI helped me to see, ethics is interdisciplinary, and every cohort within every program takes a dedicated class (together) on the topic. As the course handbook points out, students develop the critical and creative skills necessary to become an interdisciplinary thinker.
Over the five weeks, students consider perspectives on ways of knowing; present reflections on life-wide learning; consider research, creativity, and knowledge creation in different disciplinary contexts; be invited to take an intersectional approach to innovation through an introduction to design thinking; and share the outcomes of a multi-disciplinary team challenge with the wider group. The goals for the course are as follows:
- Interrogate different disciplinary approaches to research and creativity.
- Apply interdisciplinary perspective-taking.
- Demonstrate competence in core skills including independent research, planning and writing, and group collaboration.
- Apply knowledge, skills, and understanding through a reflective synthesis of the ideas discussed and experienced on the course.
There are a couple of different assignments in this course, but one of them is to, in teams, apply their new skills to a design challenge (for example, to design sustainable alternatives to products or systems).