M16 - Integrating Ethics Essays into an Undergraduate Research Poster Competition

Introduction: : The ability to recognize ethical responsibilities and make informed judgements is an important student outcome for undergraduate programs in biomedical engineering (BME). Co-curricular activities such as undergraduate research can be key opportunities to reinforce BME undergraduates’ ethical reasoning. The goal of this project was to encourage undergraduates to reflect on ethical dilemmas in BME by integrating an ethics essay writing competition into an established undergraduate research poster competition.

Materials and

Methods: : In conjunction with the call for abstracts for the undergraduate research poster competition, students were invited to participate in an ethics essay competition. Participants submitted short essays of 250-500 words that defined an ethical dilemma and explained its relevance to their area of undergraduate research; described possible resolutions of the ethical dilemma; assessed the possible resolutions from different points of view, value systems, professional codes, regulatory frameworks, etc.; and presented a concluding argument for one of the possible resolutions of the ethical dilemma. Participants were also required to submit a list of cited references and a statement of acknowledgements and attributions, including discussion of how any AI-based tools were used. For this collaborative project between the BME department and a student organization, Graduate Undergraduate Research Union, faculty created a rubric that the graduate student reviewers employed in assessing the undergraduates’ ethics essays.

Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: In the first implementations of the ethics essay program in 2024 and 2025, 12/38 = 32% of the students who participated chose to participate in both the research poster and ethics essay competitions, 5/38 = 13% chose to participate in the ethics essay competition only, and 21/38 = 55% chose to participate in the research poster competition only. Most students who participated in the ethics essay contest were in their third year of undergraduate studies. The ethical dilemmas selected by the students covered a wide range of topics, including data integrity, use of animals in research, and bias in machine learning models. Several students chose to write essays related to health inequities, such as on access to technology in low resource settings and the dearth of studies on sex differences. Our project demonstrates that integrating an ethics essay writing competition into an established undergraduate research poster competition is a practical method for reinforcing ethical considerations in the BME undergraduate experience.

Acknowledgements and/or References (Optional)::