Collaborative Research: Foundational Community-Based Research for Ethics in Mathematics

合作研究：基于社区的基础数学伦理研究

• 批准号: 2024279
• 负责人: Rochelle Tractenberg
• 金额: $ 5.81万
• 依托单位: Georgetown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-01 至 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2024279&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Foundational; Community; Based

Professional ethics standards for mathematicians is both a relatively novel issue and a critical one at this moment in time. The use of big data and algorithms in today's technological society has been shown to perpetuate inequalities. The design of algorithms and use of big data often involve the work of mathematicians. Professional codes of ethics for many mathematical professional societies tend to focus on academic issues and do not explicitly address these newer issues and contexts. Moreover, there is a sense within the field of mathematics that mathematics is abstract and as such free from ethical considerations. This one-year Ethical and Responsible Research incubation grant aims to gather information on what ethical guidelines mathematicians believe are relevant to mathematics and which elements of ethics are missing from current professional codes and guidelines.The project makes use of ethics codes from mathematics-adjacent fields and professional societies such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the American Statistical Association (ASA). These societies have recently updated their codes to better reflect contemporary issues of ethics in areas such as big data and algorithm design. Using survey and focus group methods, the project interrogates which elements from the current codes of the two major academic mathematics professional societies, the Mathematics Association of America (MAA) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS) mathematicians see as most relevant to their work. The survey and focus group work will also evaluate the extent to which mathematicians feel that the ethical guidelines from the mathematics-adjacent professional societies are relevant to their work and what additional guidelines might be necessary that are specific to the field of mathematics. The work of this study lays the groundwork for broader impacts as this foundational work will guide discussions within the field of mathematics, revisions to codes of ethics by mathematics professional organizations, and stronger ethical behavior on the part of mathematicians in university and industry contexts. This grant is intended to be followed by a three-year Ethical and Responsible Research proposal to extend the data collection and white paper work of the incubation project into the construction of informed ethical practice guidelines and educational materials for mathematicians and their professional societies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

数学家的职业道德标准既是一个相对新颖的问题，也是目前的一个关键问题。事实证明，当今技术社会中大数据和算法的使用会导致不平等现象长期存在。 算法的设计和大数据的使用通常涉及数学家的工作。 许多数学专业协会的职业道德准则往往侧重于学术问题，而没有明确解决这些新问题和背景。 此外，在数学领域内有一种感觉，即数学是抽象的，因此不受道德考虑。 这项为期一年的道德和负责任的研究孵化资助旨在收集有关数学家认为与数学相关的道德准则以及当前专业准则和准则中缺少哪些道德要素的信息。该项目利用了数学相关领域的道德准则以及计算机协会 (ACM) 和美国统计协会 (ASA) 等专业协会。 这些协会最近更新了其准则，以更好地反映大数据和算法设计等领域的当代道德问题。该项目采用调查和焦点小组方法，询问美国数学协会（MAA）和美国数学会（AMS）这两个主要学术数学专业协会当前规范中的哪些数学家认为与他们的工作最相关。调查和焦点小组工作还将评估数学家认为来自数学相关专业协会的道德准则与其工作相关的程度，以及可能需要哪些针对数学领域的额外准则。 这项研究的工作为更广泛的影响奠定了基础，因为这项基础工作将指导数学领域内的讨论、数学专业组织对道德准则的修订以及大学和工业界数学家的更严格的道德行为。这笔赠款旨在提出一项为期三年的道德和负责任的研究提案，将孵化项目的数据收集和白皮书工作扩展到为数学家及其专业协会构建知情的道德实践指南和教育材料。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。