Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Issues Part II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katherine McComas, Cornell University; Nancy Healy, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

4,800 users annually fromacademia, industry, and federal laboratories. As the largest single group of nanotechnologyresearchers in the world, NNIN has both a unique opportunity as well as responsibility to assureits users have awareness of societal and ethical obligations. Further, because of this vast userbase, NNIN offers unique strengths and opportunities for research in SEI through the presence ofits large academic and industrial community, the breadth of scientific directions being pursued,and the connections of the research and development being undertaken to issues of societalimpact of technology and of human resources.Further, because of its NSF funding, NNIN remains independent to foster questioning andstimulate research on topics that

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Issues Part One

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Craig Titus, Purdue University; Carla B. Zoltowski, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Margaret Huyck, Illinois Institute of Technology; William C. Oakes, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Jill L. May, Illinois Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

areconsidered right and wrong—behaviors often articulated in codes of ethics. The studiesmentioned above, and others like them, use the DIT to measure groups of people organized bytheir professions (i.e. IT professionals15,16, medical laboratory professionals17, and universityhousing professionals18) or they use it to establish a baseline description of individual’s ethicalreasoning abilities in order to look for correlations with other behaviors or to help validate resultsfrom other instruments19. They do not use the DIT as a measure of moral reasoning in anengineering context.Our own preliminary research showed that generalized, non-engineering-specific ethicaldilemmas, such as those encountered in the DIT are not seen as the same types of issues

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tom A. Eppes, University of Hartford; Ivana Milanovic, University of Hartford; Frederick Sweitzer, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

program curricula to determine if and what kinds ofchanges are needed.1The current outcome assessment process for E and ET programs is primarily designed to meetthe requisite ABET Criteria 3 (a-k) requirements. Evaluation is concentrated on 3rd and 4th yearcourses and measures performance in specific embedded assignments within the core area, i.e.those most relevant to the major and taught within the College. Core courses may be classified asone of the following 5 types: • Theoretical – 3 or 4 semester credits, largely lecture-based, and devoted to an advanced topic within a specific discipline such as thermodynamics or wireless communications. • Experiential – Laboratory-oriented course equivalent to 1 to 3 semester credit

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics and Justice

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rodney W. Trice, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

. Desmarquest Ceramic Femoral Head 4. Bell Laboratories: Research Fraud by Jan Hendrik 5. Space Shuttle Challenger Page 22.1372.4 3The presentation of these cases included both the technical detail pertinent to the ethicaldecisions made by the participants, as well as an evaluation of those decisions in light of theethical theory developed in Section I.In Section III of the course, groups of 2-3 students gave presentations on several high-profileengineering failures with potential ethical components. These included: 1. Ford Pinto Recall 2. DC-10

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

K.L. Jordan, Michigan Technological University; Anahita Pakzad, Michigan Technological University; Renee Oats, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

something to consider whenconsidering internet based learning’s effectiveness.The general overview from the focus group studies and surveys about internet basedlearning in engineering education was that students were satisfied with the flexibility andgeneral cost of this instruction. Faculty felt it was less satisfying than in-class instruction.Nonetheless, both groups feel the accessibility is paramount. It is also agreeable amongthe groups that this type of learning is more suitable for introductory or lower levelcourses than those of more technical and laboratory background. Also, classes thatrequire more writing (e.g. English or History) and computer based (e.g. Programming orInformation Technology) seem suitable for internet based learning.The

Conference Session

Ethics in different disciplines

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Craig T. Evers P.E., Minnesota State University - Mankato

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

the incidents atIdaho National Laboratories with the SL-1 reactor, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Areas thatwere covered ranged from engineering design to operator training to media coverage andgovernmental responses. At SL-1, three operators were killed when they accidentally triggered asteam explosion in the reactor. There was total secrecy applied to this disaster. At Three MileIsland, there was a reactor meltdown triggered in large part by operator training and workplacedesign. The media covered the incident, in which there were no injuries, extensively and (somewould say) at times hysterically. At Chernobyl, lack of operator training and poor reactor designtriggered a massive explosion which scattered radioactive debris across half of

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kacey Beddoes, Virginia Tech; Maura J. Borrego, Virginia Tech; Brent K Jesiek, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

, 1907–39," Social Studies of Science, vol. 19, pp. 387-420, 1989.15. K. Henderson, "Flexible Sketches and Inflexible Data Bases: Visual Communication, Conscription Devices, and Boundary Objects in Design Engineering," Science, Technology, and Human Values, vol. 16, pp. 448-473, 1991.16. K. Henderson, On Line and On Paper: Visual Representations, Visual Culture, and Computer Graphics in Design Engineering. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.17. B. Latour and S. Woolgar, Laboratory Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986.18. E. Duncker, "Symbolic Communication in Multidisciplinary Cooperations," Science, Technology, and Human Values, vol. 26, pp. 349-386, 2001.19. J. Gainsburg, et al., "A “Knowledge