Simulating Interdisciplinary Ethics in the Engineering Business through an AI Startup Game

While case studies are widely used to teach ethical reflection in engineering, this activity has two shortcomings that may hamper the transferrability of learning in engineering ethics to the professional context. The first difficulty is that the cases themselves are static, not changing in response to student choices, as well as being somewhat abstracted from their own experience. The second difficulty is that the learning cohort frequently lacks a range of different disciplinary perspectives, which are needed in resolving complex ethical issues in professional engineering. This paper introduces these two challenges, develops a pedagogical model inspired by philosophy of education and games, and presents a simulation game set at a fictional AI startup company based on this model.