Conference Session

Sustainability and Humanitarian Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Seamus F. Freyne, Mississippi State University; James P Abulencia, Manhattan College; Powell Draper, Manhattan College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

ethical issue? The possible responses were “yes,” “probably,” “maybe,” “unlikely,” and “no.”• How relevant is this ethical issue to your career plans? The possible responses were “very much,” “considerably,” “somewhat,” “hardly,” and “not.”• How important is this ethical issue to society? The possible responses were “very much,” “considerably,” “somewhat,” “hardly,” and “not.”The ethical issues can be described as macroethics in the sense that these problems demand thecollective actions of engineers and society, as opposed to microethics that typically involves onlyindividuals. Undeniably, the study of macroethics is significantly different from topics thatmight emerge in a more conventional engineering ethics course and requires new content

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

Education at Virginia Tech. She is currently serving a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the National Science Foundation. Her research interests focus on interdisciplinary faculty members and graduate students in engineering and science, with engineering education as a specific case. Dr. Borrego holds U.S. NSF CAREER and Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) awards for her engineering education research. Dr. Borrego has developed and taught graduate level courses in engi- neering education research methods and assessment from 2005-2010. All of Dr. Borrego’s degrees are in Materials Science and Engineering. Her M.S. and Ph.D. are from Stanford University, and her B.S. is

Conference Session

Ethics in different disciplines

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Diana Bairaktarova, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Demetra Evangelou, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

Education at Purdue University. She has a PhD in Early Childhood Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and international expertise in early childhood policy and research methods. Her current research focuses on developmental engineering, early education antecedents of engineering thinking, developmental factors in engineering pedagogy, technological literacy and human-artifact inter- actions. She is a member of Sigma Xi Science Honor Society and in 2009 he was awarded the prestigious NSF CAREER Award. Page 22.492.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011

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

disasters and spectacular failures, many other less-dramatic studies were used in each class period. Many were taken from situations the author hasencountered in a 30-year career in industry. While most of these made no headlines, the ethicalissues and situations involved were more representative of what the students may encounter intheir own practice.TextbookThe book “Truth, Lies and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster”, by AllanMcDonald was selected for a long-term, in-depth analysis of one of the major disasters of ourtime, the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. Mr. McDonald was the only person whoraised his voice to ensure that the truth of the disaster was known by the PresidentialCommission investigating it. His

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

rural communities my career.” people’s lives in rural areas and in throughout the world, it is quiteThe benefit of this program is that it creates and enhances cross-cultural connections by offeringa joint course but more importantly allowing US graduate students to learn first hand the impactNSE can have on the developing world. With a strong SEI connection, the course places NSE inthe context of the developing world and encourages a global perspective to the graduateparticipants.SummaryNanoscale science and engineering is believed to be a technology that will have an impact on allareas of society from the development of new medicines and drug-delivery systems to changingthe workforce. As part of its mission, the

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Issues Part II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Martin S. High, Oklahoma State University; Steve Harrist, Oklahoma State University; Scott D. Gelfand, Oklahoma State University, Department of Philosophy

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

-Strategies Report – will be provide to the student, and they canbe used throughout the student’s career, especially when in a new professional situation.I. Introduction The number of incidents of ethical breaches and research misconduct is worrisome. Arecently released study reported that the frequency of research misconduct and under-reportingof research misconduct among those receiving funding from the U.S. Department of Health andHuman Services is three instances per year for every 100 researchers.1 In fact, the true annualrate of unethical behavior is greater than three incidents per 100 researchers (it may be fargreater), because this study did not take into account unethical behavior that does not constituteresearch misconduct, e.g

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Issues Part II

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rebecca A. Bates, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

example, therace to the moon coincided neatly with the original Star Trek television series. The interchangebetween creative work and technical development is especially fun to examine in the field ofartificial intelligence, where there are many examples ranging from Isaac Asimov stories toWall-E to intelligent artificial agents within many games.The course goals of AI & SciFi include 1) presenting students with a fun opportunity to improvetheir writing, 2) exploring the social impact of the field of AI, 3) preparing students to deal withethical questions that will arise in their professional careers, 4) connecting students to thebroader culture of the technical community, 5) exploring connections between creativity in artsand in computer

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics Issues Part One

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David H. Jonassen, University of Missouri

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

ethicalresponsibilities based on economic, environmental, ethical, social, and political constraints.Although ABET criteria provides an extrinsic rationale for addressing ethics issues inengineering education, the most compelling rationale is the omnipresent nature of ethicalissues in engineering practice for which students are preparing. The ethical problems thatengineers encounter throughout their careers influence the businesses they work for, thepublic at large, and the health and safety of society[1]. Engineering ethical problems arise inroutine engineering practice and are often integrated with technical, engineering issues.If ethics instruction is essential to the preparation of engineers, then the engineeringeducation community must determine the goals

Conference Session

Ethics in different disciplines

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marilyn A. Dyrud, Oregon Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

, “students are forced to reflect . . . on the environment of decision making.”4 Doing soallows students to exercise critical thinking and ethical decision-making abilities. Because smallcases are so limited, instructors can spend more time focusing on these skill sets, as well asethical problem identification and moral deliberation.Finally, a consideration of our students’ career paths indicates that small cases may be morerelevant. Engineers, of course, have been involved in high-profile cases, but chances are that our Page 22.710.2students will probably face ethical challenges of the more mundane, garden variety. Furthermore,engineering ethicist