Student Competes in LM Ethics in Engineering Competition
Though her teammate fell ill and could not travel to the event, first-year student Daria Astaire strongly represented Florida Tech at Lockheed Martin’s annual Ethics in Engineering Case Competition held in late February at the company’s Bethesda, Maryland, headquarters.
More than 200 students and faculty from colleges and universities across the U.S. participated to present solutions to a business ethics case. This year’s hypothetical case highlighted the responsible use of artificial intelligence to assist NASA with accurately quantifying the risk of a collision between a detected asteroid and Earth. Competitors were challenged to work together to find a solution to help determine if an asteroid detected by an existing ground-based telescope is a concern.
Astaire, who is majoring in aerospace engineering, made it the fourth round, even down one half of her team. She had to analyze the business components of the industry and stakeholder information to create persuasive solutions to ethical dilemmas, with the added challenge of representing both companies throughout the competition.
“I leveraged engineering knowledge to enhance my arguments and collaborated with professors to gather technical insights in spacecraft dynamics, autonomous systems, and satellite design,” she said.
Moti Mizrahi, associate professor of philosophy who also attended the event, said it was a most impressive showing.
“She did brilliantly nonetheless, representing Florida Tech with honor and making a lasting, positive impression on everyone,” he said.
Astaire called the experience “the absolute highlight of my freshman year here at Florida Tech so far. It has been a pleasure working with Dr. Mizrahi the past two months, and I want to thank him for his trust and support. My knowledge in engineering, risk assessment, ethics and effective communication has grown, and I came out a stronger student after this process.”
During this year’s event, students also learned about Lockheed Martin’s mission, attended human resources-sponsored workshops, participated in a paper airplane competition, and went on off-site tours. They also had opportunities to experience simulators and try out virtual reality stations.
“Your students represented their schools well, exemplifying the integrity, intellect, and ethical behaviors we seek in our employees,” said Jim Byrne, vice president, corporate ethics and business conduct at Lockheed Martin. “Our judges were impressed by the caliber of the students’ questions and responses, the quality of competition, and ethical behaviors exhibited throughout the event.”
Mizrahi thanked the dean and associate dean of the College of Psychology and Liberal Arts — Robert Taylor and Heidi Hatfield Edwards, respectively — for funding the trip.
