A team from Cal Poly Pomona finished in the top eight this past weekend at the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl Competition.

The event, which was held in Costa Mesa, is a team competition that combines the excitement and fun of a tournament with an innovative approach to education in practical and professional ethics for undergraduates. The competition was held during the annual meeting for the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.

Teams from more than 200 schools compete each year. Each team receives a set of cases that raise practical and professional ethical issues and prepares analyses of each case in advance of the competition. At the event, the students are questions about the ethical issues and are judged on how they answer.

During the preliminary rounds, the Cal Poly Pomona team presented analyses on cases involving the dispersal of artifacts from underwater shipwrecks, the Allied use of area bombing during World War Two and the potential development of artificial super intelligence.

The Cal Poly Pomona team went undefeated in the preliminary rounds, beating Westminster College, Ripon College and the University of Alabama-Birmingham. It was one of only four teams to go undefeated during the preliminaries.

In the quarterfinal match, the team had to make a presentation on the regulation of “prescriptive planting” technologies. However, the team was defeated by Whitworth University.

The 2015 Ethics Bowl team consisted of students Lea Aguilera, Briana Capshaw, Mathew McGuthry, Grace Nguyen, Shandyn Pierce and coach/Philosophy Professor Michael Cholbi.

The Cal Poly Pomona team had taken second place at the California Regional Ethics Bowl competition in Santa Barbara in December.