BIOECONOMIC MODELLING OF ENDANGERED SPECIES CONSERVATION

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A Safety-Case Approach for Ethical Considerations for Autonomous Vehicles

Ethical considerations for autonomous vehicles (AVs) go beyond the “trolley problem” to include such aspects as risk / benefit trade-offs, informed consent, risk responsibility and risk mitigation within a system of systems. In this paper we present a methodology for arguing that the behaviour of a given AV meets desired ethical characteristics. We identify some of the ethical imperatives surrounding the introduction of AVs and consider how decisions made during development can impact the ethics of the AV’s behaviour

Ethics and the safety of autonomous systems

The ethical landscape surrounding the introduction of autonomous vehicles is complex, and there are real concerns over whether the operational safety of these systems can be adequately demonstrated. In this paper we focus on the ethical factors relevant to the design and safety justification of autonomous systems, considering issues such as risk transfer, ALARP considerations, capability vs risk trade-offs and emergent behaviours. We look beyond the "trolley problem” to consider how design decisions can reflect a wider ethical framework. We also look at the wider landscape around the emergence of autonomous systems, with a particular focus on the driving social factors which encourage early adoption of new technologies in this domain. We present some arguments for encouraging an explicit discussion of social and ethical factors within the safety framework for autonomous systems

On the Validation of a UAV Collision Avoidance System Developed by Model-Based Optimization: : Challenges and a Tentative Partial Solution

The development of the new generation of airborne collision avoidance system ACAS X adopts a model-based optimization approach, where the collision avoidance logic is automatically generated based on a probabilistic model and a set of preferences. It has the potential for safety benefits and shortening the development cycle, but it poses new challenges for safety assurance. In this paper, we introduce the new development process and explain its key ideas using a simple collision avoidance example. Based on this explanation, we analyze the challenges it poses to safety assurance, with a particular focus on system validation. We then propose a Genetic-Algorithm-based approach that can efficiently search for undesired situations to help the development and validation of the system. We introduce an open-source tool we have developed to support this approach and demonstrate it on searching for challenging situations for ACAS XU

Does AACSB Accreditation Impact Enrollment?

The study sought to determine if the newly received AACSB accreditation impacted enrollment of the Lewis College of Business, Marshall University. A questionnaire was used to survey all new or transfer students and a 27.5% response was received