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Ethical Tech Case Competition

Sponsored by

The Ethical Tech Case Competition, graciously sponsored by the Kenan Institute of Ethics, will give Duke undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to tackle a practical case challenge centered around technology and ethics in a multidisciplinary way. Problems will involve the issues of ethics, legality, privacy, business, and technical feasibility to give competitors a wide view of decision making.

Competitors will be assigned to or register as teams of 3-4 members. It is recommended that teams consist of members with varying backgrounds in engineering, business, policy, law, philosophy, computer science, economics, psychology, design, etc. Teams will be given the problem statement and case file two weeks before the awards are announced, during which time they are free to consult any sources, including professors, alumni, and working professionals.

Awards: 

1st Place Team: $1,250
2nd Place Team: $750
3rd Place Team: $500

Winning teams will have an opportunity to virtually meet with the competition judges who are experts of their field. Winning submissions will be featured on the Ethical Tech website.

Details:

Teams of 3-4 Duke undergraduate or graduate students will submit a creative solution to the case study provided in the competition packet. This year, students will be asked to consider the ethical, business, and policy implications of gene therapy.

Timeline:

Registration Deadline: February 3, 2023 @ 12 PM EST
Teams Released: February 4, 2023
Prompt Released: February 5, 2023
Submission Deadline: February 11, 2023 @ 2:00 PM EST
Awards Announced: February 17, 2023 (time TBD)
Contact: tianjiu.zuo@duke.edu, riya.mohan@duke.edu

Submission Guidelines

 
***The Ethical Tech Exec Board will host office hours during the competition for participants to ask questions or address any concerns.
***Each submission will be judged on both the core deliverable and presentation.

Judges

Christina Silcox

Christina Silcox is the Research Director for Digital Health at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, working on policy solutions to advance innovation in health and health care and improve regulation, reimbursement, and long-term evaluation of medical products, with a focus on digital health.

Dr. Silcox’s portfolio includes multiple areas in digital health policy and real-world evidence, with an emphasis on medical devices. Currently, she is concentrating on challenges to regulating and adopting of artificial intelligence-enabled software as a medical device, using mHealth to collect real-world data, and characterizing real-world data quality and relevancy. Her projects have included the use of patient-generated health data in medical device evaluations, the exploration of value-based payments for medical devices, and the convening the National Evaluation System for health Technology (NEST) Planning Board.

Before she joined Duke-Margolis, Dr. Silcox was a senior fellow at the National Center for Health Research, focused on federal regulation of and policies for medical products. She earned a M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).

Susanne Haga

Susanne Haga

 
Susanne Haga is an Associate Professor in Medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine, and is a research professor in both the Sanford School of Public Policy and Duke’s Biological Sciences Department. Her research focuses on issues affecting the translation of genomics to clinical practice and has particular areas of expertise in bioethics and health behavior.

Professor Haga’s portfolio includes studies on best practices to implement pharmacogenetic testing in clinical settings, evaluation of primary care readiness to provide genetic and genomic services, and the processes surrounding the approval of precision medicines. 

Prior to Duke, Dr. Haga was a policy analyst at the National Institutes of Health and focused on human genetics at the J. Craig Venter Institute. She earned a Ph.D. in Human Genetics at the University of Maryland Baltimore.

Paul Ndebele

Paul Ndebele

Paul Ndebele is a bioethicist with 20 years experience in various positions and countries.  He holds a PhD in Research Ethics obtained from University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in South Africa.  He holds a primary position as a Senior Research Regulatory Specialist in the Office of Research Excellence in the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University.  He also serves as a Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Global Health where he teaches Ethics Courses including Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).  He joined George Washington University from Zimbabwe where he had completed five years of service as Director at the Medical Research Council Zimbabwe (MRCZ) and has prior appointments as Bioethicist Contractor at the Division of AIDS, US National Institutes of Health; Assistant Director of Research Ethics, Office of Research and Development, University of Botswana; Deputy Director for Centre of Bioethics at College of Medicine, University of Malawi; and Assistant Visiting Professor at Michigan State University.

Paul has served as visiting scholar in various Bioethics Programs including the Fogarty African Bioethics Training Programme (FABTP) at Johns Hopkins University; SARETI at UKZN; the Erasmus Mundus Bioethics Programme at Padova University (Italy); and Ethox Centre at Oxford University.  He holds various other positions including Adjunct Professor at Africa University;  Honorary Lecturer at College of Medicine, University of Malawi; and Adjunct instructor at Michigan State University.  He has written widely in the area of Bioethics and is mainly interested in issues of justice in international health research and improving informed consent for research conducted among low literacy populations.  Paul serves on advisory boards for four large projects including Johns Hopkins Fogarty African Bioethics Program (FABTP) and the Target Malaria Program at Imperial College, London.  He also serves on editorial boards for four peer-reviewed journals.