Conference Session

Engineering Ethics III

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

William Jordan, Baylor University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

source of clean energy (e.g., electricity rather than kerosene lanterns for lighting, forexample), and sanitation are seldom met.With a focus on service, technology can be an instrument of peace, community development,restoration of human dignity, and the alleviation of hunger and suffering. This happens as theseendeavors and their practitioners orient their craft toward an end that has meaning as well aseconomic profit.We will illustrate our approach by discussing engineering service projects that students in ouruniversity have completed. They have implemented projects in East Africa and CentralAmerica. We are currently working on other projects in the Pacific Rim. These case studies willbe analyzed to show how student engineering service

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jose Cruz, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; William Frey, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Halley Sanchez, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez; Aury Curbelo, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

AC 2008-2834: DEVELOPING ENGINEERING ETHICS ACROSS THECURRICULUM BEST PRACTICES: THE EAC TOOLKITJose Cruz, University of Puerto Rico-MayaguezWilliam Frey, University of Puerto Rico-MayaguezHalley Sanchez, University of Puerto Rico-MayaguezAury Curbelo, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez Page 13.396.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Developing Engineering Ethics Across the Curriculum Best Practices: The EAC ToolkitAbstract - This paper will discuss a new project in ethics across the curriculum teaching andpedagogy, the EAC Toolkit. The Toolkit project, currently under funding by the NationalScience Foundation, is constructing an

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics IV

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Catalano, State University of New York-Binghamton; Caroline Baillie, Queen's University; Donna Riley, Smith College; Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

that it can be compared across countries and be easily interpreted. The Ginicoefficient demonstrates how income has changed for poor and rich. If the Ginicoefficient is rising as well as GDP, poverty may not be improving for the majority of thepopulation.Module 2: Design of Energy Systems in Rural AreasThis module entails a three-week introductory engineering design project on rural energysystems for developing countries. It serves as an introduction to context-responsiveengineering design and is suitable for general engineering courses and introductorydesign courses. With appropriate modifications, it could be made appropriate toengineering analysis courses or to upper-level courses in a variety of engineeringdisciplines. The module

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Papadopoulos; Andrew Hable, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

demonstrated, these fractions of overall disciplinaryeffort can be construed to underestimate the actual numbers of engineers who work ondefense-related projects. With respect to research efforts, based on data from theNational Science Foundation, about 50% of federally supported research in engineering isdefense-related, far higher than for most other disciplines.A variety of ethical questions surround the engineer’s participation in military or defense-related work. But despite this, and despite the historically strong and persistingassociation between engineering and the military, surprisingly little attention is paid toquestions of military, defense, or weapons research and development in engineeringethics literature. We surveyed several

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics IV

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

B. Kyun Lee, LeTourneau University; Paul Leiffer; R. William Graff, LeTourneau University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

uncertainty or conflicting data from tests. The video game culture may be influential in this area too. In video games, as in most games, there is always a correct answer which, with persistence, you can get to in the end. That’s obviously not always possible in the workplace in the necessary timeframe with real world deadlines.”4 4. “It seems that they spend about the same amount of time in the office as their older peers, but more of that time is spent checking personal email and updating Facebook pages. But when they are dedicated to a project, it gets their intense full attention—albeit in short bursts. It seems to balance out.”5 5. “The work ethic is dead. Younger generations in the workforce have killed it off

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

M.P. Sharma, University of Wyoming; Robert W. Peters, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

Bruntland commission’s definition which defines it “as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.” The concept and practice of sustainability has become very important in engineering profession. We conducted a project to determine and unravel the current state of integration of sustainability in engineering education at the colleges and universities across the nation. We conducted a survey and collected data from universities in US on teaching of the subject of sustainability in their curricula. We asked questions on what topics of sustainability were integrated in those courses. We also researched on identifying several key activities and indicators in this study. This paper

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Theis, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott; patricia watkins, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Library; Mary Angela Beck, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

wecontinually improve our engineering curriculum.After reviewing the ABET standards, we determined that as a future-oriented university valuingthe worth of sustainability education, we must evaluate engineering courses to see howsustainability might be most effectively or most creatively introduced into the currentengineering curriculum, i.e., what the most effective pathways of learning might be. However,engaging in such a project requires a rigorous self-reflection process by all the stakeholders—faculty, staff, students, administrators—to successfully implement such curricular changes.Assessment of stakeholder attitudes is therefore critical to a study such as this.This paper will report on a research project that will: 1) extend the idea of

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics III

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Godfrey, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Todd Taylor, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Corinna Fleischmann, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Daniel Pickles, U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

instructors of each major’s seniordesign capstone project began holding multi-disciplinary “Engineering Ethics Lunches”.Students and faculty form small groups during scheduled lunches to discuss specificethical topics related to the engineering profession. The discussions are based uponassigned readings and suggested talking points developed jointly by the faculty.Afterwards, the students are required to submit essays reviewing their discussions andanswering an ethical question based upon the topic.Now in its fourth semester, the multi-disciplinary ethics lunches have receivedoverwhelmingly positive feedback from both the instructors and students. This paperwill discuss the format of the multi-disciplinary ethics discussions, the type of

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics III

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jason Borenstein, Georgia Tech; Matthew Drake, Duquesne University; Robert Kirkman, Georgia Institute of Technology; Julie Swann, Georgia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

schemata frame thesituations in which they find themselves. For example, one person may frame a gift-givingsituation as a potential conflict of interest while another frames it as a very nice perk of doingbusiness. Moral imagination takes on a more critical function when it leads people to reframethe situation, either by taking up another person’s point of view or by projecting narratives ofwhat might happen next. In this light, ethics education can be seen as increasing students’ stockof conceptual schemata and narrative possibilities, which would have the effect of making themmore sensitive to the ethical dimensions of everyday situations. Accordingly, one goal of ethics assessment could be to determine whether and whatforms of ethics

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics III

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jason Durfee, Eastern Washington University; William Loendorf, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

codes.During all of this classroom discussion, actual work experiences are solicited from the students.Many of the students have previous or current job experiences and most of the students have, bythis point in their academic program, completed an internship. Experiences that the students havehad in these working environments provide a wealth of material for discussion. Additionally, theinstructor provides a few examples of his own, and also includes some of the classic examplesused to discuss ethical failures within the technology and engineering professions. This entirelesson is also a subset of a lifelong learning project each student in the capstone course mustcomplete. In this project the students create a ten-year career plan that involves

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Catalano, State University of New York-Binghamton

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

seen in thefollowing case.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency has sole authority over the designand construction of metro New Orleans’ flood protection and water management asauthorized by Congress in the Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Protection Project in theFlood Control Act of 1965. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now admits that faultydesign specifications and substandard construction of certain levee segments, not ahurricane was the primary cause of the flooding damage in the New Orleans area.Responsibility for the levee design failures rests squarely on the U.S. Army Corps ofEngineers and on the federal government including both the executive and legislativebranches. This means that the Corps and the federal government

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics IV

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Niewoehner, U.S. Naval Academy

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

, professional Page 13.917.15ethics would no longer describe the avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of the noble,excellent and good. We should explore beauty as an ethical duty, and virtue as the pursuitof beauty in our products and the effect they have on people. Hence, we might then notonly proscribe the unsafe and environmentally reckless, but also disdain the tawdry, dirty,ugly, or maliciously destructive. If Christians going into our fields were imbued with thissense of an engineer’s calling, it might shape their career choices and projects to whichthey devote their lives. If Christian scholars sought to further develop this understandingof

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rose Marra, University of Missouri; Demei Shen, University of Missouri; David Jonassen, University of Missouri; Jenny Lo, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Vinod Lohani, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

AC 2008-150: FOSTERING ENGINEERING ETHICS PROBLEM SOLVINGTHROUGH COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY HYPERTEXT: AN APPLICATION OFMULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES, MAKING CONNECTIONS AND CRISSCROSSINGRose Marra, University of Missouri ROSE M. MARRA is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri. She is PI of the NSF-funded Assessing Women and Men in Engineering (AWE) and Assessing Women In Student Environments (AWISE) projects. Her research interests include gender equity issues, the epistemological development of college students, and promoting meaningful learning in web-based environments.Demei Shen, University of Missouri DEMEI SHEN is a doctoral

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics IV

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Cottrell, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

eqnngciwg"igvu"etgfkv."cv"ngcuv"kp"vjg"uwrgtxkuqtÓu"jgcf0" C. Fwtkpi"vjg"oggvkpi"ykvj"Ðvjg"dki"dquu.Ñ"kpadvertently let it slip that the colleague did not get the credit they deserved on a recent project. D. Inform the colleague as to what took place and let them take whatever action they desire.With a clear understanding of plagiarism and academic integrity, the studentsnevertheless did not feel compelled to call the supervisor to account. Rather, they fairlyconsistently thought the best course of action was to inform the injured party and allowthem to push for credit where credit was due. One comment suggested though thatfkujqpguv{"qh"vjku"pcvwtg"ycu"c"ÐecpegtÑ"vjcv"eqwnf"swkemn{"rgtogcvg"c"yqtmrnceg="vjg"colleague

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brock Barry, Purdue University; Vincent Drnevich, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

Do not place your name on this sheetAnswer the questions below on the basis of your current beliefs as to how a professionalengineer may ethically act.The SituationYou are a young engineer employed by the State Transportation Department. You have beenplaced in charge of inspecting a highway bridge project which is being built by a privatecontractor. Because of your education and extensive field engineering experience, you are ableto suggest techniques and procedures that save the contractor both time and money. The work,however, is done strictly according to the plans and specifications.Scenario No. 1It is quitting time on a hot summer Friday afternoon. The contractor comes to the site and offersa can of soda to each of his employees. He

Conference Session

Engineering Ethics II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Travis Rieder, University of South Carolina

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics

hopefullybetter inform the conversation, by making the speaker aware of its implications. It maybe that the student is okay with the realization that she is making a deontological claim –she may be prepared to defend against the utilitarian criticisms of her view. But the veryrealization of how one’s intuitions fit into a larger scheme, and the weaknesses of thescheme, seems to me to be a great advance over the situation in which we leave many ofour students.Notes:1 The existence of this project is due to a suggestion by Ann Johnson, for which I am grateful. I am alsograteful to Justin Weinberg for reading multiple drafts, and for detailed comments and criticisms. Finally,for helpful conversation on the penultimate version of this paper, I want to thank