Pedagogical Robots; A Virtue Ethics Analysis of Ring Doorbell Privacy Issues 70 views

My technical work and STS research are connected through the process by which a new product should be created. In my technical project, my team and I created a new product with a specific goal and a clearly defined user base. To gain insight into how to create such an electrical device ethically, my STS research examines a case where a company did not act ethically in how they made their product. I use this case to gain insight into the importance of practicing virtues of an ethical engineer when creating a product. While my technical project focused on a learning aid with the users being students in academia and my research focused on a commercial product, the themes to keep in mind to ethically design a new product are consistent throughout. In my technical project, my group designed a pedagogical robot to help engineering students learn to design embedded systems. An embedded system is a computer put in something other than a computer. Our device is a robot with a circular chassis, two wheels connected to motors, and an array of sensors around it. A microcontroller in the center of the robot connects to the motors and all the sensors. The students would learn about embedded systems by doing projects with this robot. We believe that this is a more interesting and captivating way for new electrical engineering students to learn embedded systems than how they are currently taught.. My STS research paper explores a scandal involving Ring doorbells where they allowed unrestricted access to company data and known security vulnerabilities. I sought to analyze the ethics of the Ring engineers’ actions using virtue ethics. Virtue ethics is an ethical framework that focuses on the nature of the acting person and the characteristics that the person should have to be moral. I found that the engineers at Ring did not practice many of these virtues. I was able to draw the line between them not practicing these virtues and the security and safety violations that followed. I aimed to show that when designing a product, practicing the virtues of an ethical engineer prevents a number of possible negative consequences down the line. Working on the technical project informed my insight in my research paper, and the insights I gained in my research paper will be useful to me as I apply them to future technical projects in my field. Through my technical project, I learned about aspects of the design process; this knowledge helped inform my understanding of Ring’s engineering practices. As I work on future technical projects, I will make sure to keep the virtues of an ethical engineer in mind because I know what can happen if they are ignored. Working on both the technical project and research paper has helped me better understand the process of designing a new product in electrical engineering and how to do so ethically.

BS (Bachelor of Science)

Pedagogical Robotics; Embedded systems education; STM32; MSPM0

School of Engineering and Applied Science Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering Technical Advisor: Adam Barnes STS Advisor: Benjamin Laugelli Technical Team Members: David Merino, Pratik Pandit, Colby Wise, Austen Yun

2026-05-04