Ethics Bowl Team Secures Spot at National Competition

The Georgia Tech Ethics Bowl team earned top honors at the Southeast Regional Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl in November, securing a coveted spot at the national competition this spring. 

The winning lineup of students Justin Bowen, Arvyn De, Keerthi Konuganti, Caleb Sulak, and Aditi Venkatesh outperformed 13 other teams at the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) Southeast Regional, hosted by the Florida Blue Center for Ethics at the University of North Florida. 

They went to the competition as a non-qualifying team, so they also had to place at the APPE Mid-Atlantic Regional, hosted Nov. 8 by the TRUIST Center for Ethical Leadership at the University of North Georgia. That team — made up of students Justin Bowen, Elektra Larson, Emma Marx, Marily Minton, Prisha Shah, Christian Villarreal, and Nicholas Whaley — placed fourth. 

Ethics Bowl competitions bring together teams from across the country to provide analysis on ethical issues and provide productive commentary to others in a competitive format. Topics this year included animal welfare, neuroscientific evidence in the justice system, posthumous composting, and organ donation. 

“The goal of the Ethics Bowl is not to disprove the opposing team in a round, but rather to explore all relevant moral dimensions in the case and respectfully consider opposing viewpoints to come to nuanced understandings of ethical action,” said Bowen, treasurer for Ethics Bowl at Georgia Tech.  

In addition to the National Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl competition in the spring, the team plans to attend the National Bioethics Bowl and the Lockheed Martin Ethics in Engineering Case Competition. They will also be organizing a first-ever National High School Ethics Bowl regional on the Georgia Tech campus, open to all Georgia high school students. 

“A lot is in store for the team, and we are proud to uphold Georgia Tech's commitment to Progress and Service through ethics education,” Bowen said.