The Terry Winograd Prize and the Eric Roberts Prize for Best Paper on Ethics & Technology

The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society is excited to announce the winners of the 2023-24 annual prizes for the best undergraduate papers on ethics and tech. Alice Finkelstein is the recipient of the Terry Winograd Prize, and Hayden Thompson is the recipient of the Eric Roberts Prize. 

Alice Finkelstein:  "Breaking the Silence with Direct-Speech Brain Computer Interfaces: Centering Communicative Disability in Ethical Recommendations for Mitigating Algorithmic Bias."

Hayden Thompson: "Regulating FinTech: The Path to Actual Financial Inclusion in the United States" 

Stanford affiliates may request access to view award-winning papers for educational use only from the Center.

The McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society has two new annual prizes for the best undergraduate paper on ethics and technology. The prizes are named after two renowned, foundational figures in the tech ethics field at Stanford — Professors emeriti Terry Winograd and Eric Roberts. Selected students will receive $500 each.

We invite undergraduate student essays that best elaborate research-based ethics evaluations of technology. Papers should be written for a class, project, or an honors thesis and not yet published in a journal. A winning paper will display lucid argumentation, precise definition of terms, careful consideration of scholarly and public debates, as well as counterarguments and a conclusion that considers the larger impacts of technology. All journal styles welcome from IEEE, ACM, APA, MLA, Chicago.

We are also open to considering extracurricular projects on ethics and tech in essay form such as longform journalism or Medium or Substack posts. These extra-curricular essays should demonstrate rigor in argumentation and consideration of debates and should be submitted by a mentor.

All submissions will be evaluated by a committee of Stanford faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and staff from the Technical Communications Program. The contest is open to all undergraduates.

Past winners: 

2022-23: Sommer Alex, recipient of the Terry Winograd Prize, and Azure Zhou, recipient of the Eric Roberts Prize                      

2021-22: Manuka Stratta, recipient of the Terry Winograd Prize, and Ananya Karthik, recipient of the Eric Roberts Prize