Bioinspired Communication & Ethics

Graduate Course at Syracuse University

This graduate-level course trains students from diverse academic backgrounds in interdisciplinary research, with examples from biological and bioinspired systems.

📌 Course Information

Instructor: Teng Zhang
Office: Link Hall 214
Email: tzhang48@syr.edu
Credits: 3
Class Time: MoWe 12:45PM - 2:05PM
Location: Marshall Square Mall 205B

🌐 Course Platforms

• Primary Course Site: Blackboard (for announcements, assignments, and submissions)
• Open Repository: GitHub Course Materials
• Public Course Website: tengzhang48.github.io/Bioinspired-Communication-Ethics

🔷 Part of EMIRGE-Bio NRT Program

This course is part of the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) program,
Emergent Intelligence Research for Graduate Excellence in Biological and Bio-Inspired Systems (EMIRGE-Bio).

The EMIRGE-Bio program trains students to:

• Communicate their knowledge and value expertise in others on diverse teams
• Recognize and analyze emergent behavior in biological and bio-inspired systems
• Design and evaluate intelligent responses that allow such systems to sense, actuate, and learn

Learn more at:
https://bioinspired.syr.edu/emirge-bio/

🎯 Course Highlights

This course emphasizes teamwork, scientific communication, and ethical research practices through four integrated modules:

🧩 Module 1: Foundations

CATME feedback, interdisciplinary teamwork, documented cases, and a stress-tested Team Charter

💡 Module 2: Research Proposal Preparation

Current NSF/NIH criteria, evidence-consistent proposal development, responsible AI use, and mock panel review

📝 Module 3: Scientific Writing & Peer Review

Reader-based writing, argument revision, published referee records, response letters, and AI verification

⚖️ Module 4: Ethics (with Prof. Sarah Reckess, JD)

Ethical case studies, AI ethics, authorship and credit, and final team presentations

📚 Essential Resources

• Course Syllabus
• Course Schedule

🗺️ Repository Map

• 📄 _PACKAGE_MAP.md — Detailed scan of every file in this repository: directory tree, file descriptions, site navigation map, assignment timeline, grading breakdown, and file-relationship diagram.
• 🌐 sitemap.xml — Machine-readable XML sitemap listing every URL on this course website.

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