Professional Issues and Ethics in Information Technology COMP4920 25T3

Tomorrow's guest lecture on Ethical Procurement by Jasmin Lewis

Posted by Flora Salim Monday 27 October 2025, 05:15:45 PM.

Hi all,

Tomorrow we will start with a recap from me, and I'll cover AGI, SDGs, and AI for good from 2-2.50pm, followed by a short break.

Then from 3-4pm we'll have a guest lecture on Ethical Procurement by Jasmin Lewis.

Jasmin is an experienced sustainability professional with over six years of expertise in sustainability standards, certification, and research. As UNSW’s Sustainable Procurement Manager, she works closely with stakeholders across environmental, modern slavery, and social impact areas to align procurement practices with broader sustainability goals.

Before joining UNSW, Jasmin contributed to global sustainability efforts at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva, managing the development and publication of international standards for environmental, health, safety, and social responsibility. Jasmin is passionate about leveraging procurement as a force for positive change, driving meaningful outcomes for organisations and communities alike .

COMP9420 – Ethical Procurement

The lecture introduces the concept of Ethical and Sustainable procurement - what sustainable and ethical procurement practices look like, and how organisations like UNSW consider environmental, social, and ethical impacts when procuring IT hardware and software and services. Using real examples of ethical procurement and challenges in the corporate world and UNSW’s supply chains, the session highlights issues such as carbon emissions, e-waste , modern slavery and labour rights . These considerations will challenge us to think about where our technology comes from, who makes it, and how our choices as future IT professionals can help build a more responsible and sustainable digital future.

Structure:

1. Introduction and context ( 5 mins )

2. Global Ethics Frameworks and Sustainable Procurement ( 10 mins )

3. The Impacts of Technology ( 10 mins )

4. Sustainable Procurement in Action: UNSW ( 10 mins )

5. Ethics in the IT Profession ( 10 mins )

6. Questions and discussion ( 10 mins )

It will be an awesome lecture.

See you tomorrow 2-4 @ the Science theatre.

Best regards,

Flora

Group assessment - Presentation and project report

Posted by Flora Salim Monday 27 October 2025, 04:26:56 PM.

Please note that your group assignment slides were due today 9am. There was an announcement earlier by your course admin Edward Norman: "For completions sake, can you all submit your slides by 5pm today - outstanding non-submissions may run the risk of causing your whole group to receive CN - your tutor will be contacting you if this is the case."

The group project, with the two components of deliverables (presentation and report) are marked in conjunction as they belong to the same group of assessments. It should go without saying that assessment tasks, particularly group assessments, are not 'optional', and that actively choosing not to participate in group work is in direct violation of the UNSW code of conduct. Failure to submit either part of this assessment task without special consideration will result in CN for the task overall, with the possibility of escalation to academic misconduct - pending an interview with the course coordinators.

Therefore, if you deliver the presentation, but fail to submit your report (that is, actively choosing to not participate in the assessment you have been set - which comprises a major part of this course), you will receive CN in both, even if your group receives CO or CM in their presentation. It has come to the attention of the teaching staff that certain students plan on taking this course of action, which explicitly contradicts the purpose and learning outcomes of this course, which seek to convey the importance of professionalism and ethical conduct in our graduates.

With all that in mind, we hope that you're putting your best effort in this course, and respect the effort from the teaching team as well as your group members and class peers.

Thank you for your attention.
See you in lecture tomorrow.


Best wishes,
Flora & Seb & the teaching team

Presentation Slide Submission

Posted by Edward Norman Monday 27 October 2025, 09:23:57 AM, last modified Monday 27 October 2025, 09:24:29 AM.

Hello Students,
As you should all be aware - your group presentation slides were due for submission at 9am this morning. This was to ensure that all student groups had an equal amount of time to prepare their slides for the presentations that will be occurring this week (and next). As it stands, there are 220 students who have not submitted anything on moodle? This represents almost 20% of the cohort...

This is not a great outcome, I am sure we will receive a deluge of suggestions that you were under the impression that only one of your group members needed to submit, but this is not the case. Particularly if nobody in your group submitted your slides by 9am, then this would be likely grounds for CN for the group presentation - as you have missed the deadline. For completions sake, can you all submit your slides by 5pm today - outstanding non-submissions may run the risk of causing your whole group to receive CN - your tutor will be contacting you if this is the case.

This will be the same situation for your group report, you should all submit an item for assessment for all of your assessment tasks, even just so that we have a record of the fact that you have conducted and submitted the assessment task by the due date.

Regards,
Edward