SOCORRO, N.M. – New Mexico Tech hosted the second annual Ethics Debate Competition on Saturday on campus, with a team of UNM students taking the first place prize of $1,500.

The team of Delanie Heileman and Trevor Amestoy won the top prize of $1,500.

(Pictured at right are Heileman, Armestoy, judge Melissa Jaramillo-Fleming and event organizer Dr. Ashok Ghosh.)

 

The NMT team of Haley Hanson and Jason Pollock took second place and a $1,000 prize. (Pictured at right are Pollock, Jaramillo-Fleming, Hanson, and Ghosh). The NMT team of James Nolan and Taylor Neal won third place and $800.

Sponsored by the state chapter of the Society of Professional Engineers, this year’s event asked teams to explain how they would spend $100 billion to improve society, given the options of spending the funds on energy, the environment, health, society, urban infrastructure, or transportation.

In the final round, Heileman and Amestoy argued for spending the $100 billion on the environment. Hanson and Pollock argued for spending the money on health care. After the competition, Amestoy said he appreciated the competition because he learned so much about the issues being debated and the nature of an ethics debate.

(Pictured at right are the third place team of James Nolan and Taylor Neal, along with Jaramillo-Fleming and Ghosh.)

Six teams took part in the competition – five from NMT and one from UNM. Event organizer Dr. Ashok Ghosh said the event was a rousing success, with high quality presentations across the board. All of the participants are undergraduate students in an engineering discipline. Most of the participants had previously competed in a debate.

Judges Dr. Kevin Wedeward and Dr. Julie Ford, both NMT professors, said they were impressed with the skills of the students who participated. Judge Melissa Jaramillo-Fleming, V.P. of Student and University Relations at NMT, encouraged participants to take part again next year and recruit new debaters. Event judge Joe Higham, SPE chapter president and NMT graduate, applauded the competitors for their lively and thoughtful debate and encouraged students to pursue professional licensure and joining SPE.

– NMT –