4 Module IV: Ethics
Ethics: Responsibilities, Safety, Global Impacts, and Standards
Elissa Ledoux; Matthew Sheppard; and Mohammad Uddin
ABET Student Outcome
ENGR Student Outcome 4: an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.
All engineers have a responsibility to ensure their work and conduct meets a standard of ethics. While behaving ethically seems like common sense, it is not necessarily common sense or high priority to everyone, and so many professional engineering societies and associations have developed ethics guidelines to ensure that everyone shares and is aware of the same minimum standard. This module focuses on the awareness and practice of engineering ethics.
IV.1) Ethical Considerations
Information
Ethics is at the intersection of legality and morality and incorporates common sense as well as considerations related to responsibility. Engineering ethics are principles and guidelines engineers follow to ensure their decision-making is aligned with their obligations to the public, their clients, and the industry. According to the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), “Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:
- “Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public.
- “Perform services only in areas of their competence.
- “Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner.
- “Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees.
- “Avoid deceptive acts.
- “Conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession.”
A printable handout of the code of ethics from NSPE is available here.
The following slide deck explains engineering ethics, key factors in decision making, and ethical guidelines in professional practice and technical writing.
Engineering ethics guidelines exist for topics such as:
- Public health, safety, and welfare
- Environment and sustainability
- Disclosure of concerns to clients
- Disclosure of concerns to authorities
- Employee competency
- Objectivity and honesty
- Duties to employers and clients
- Conflicts of interest and disclosures
- Confidentiality
- Personal merits and qualifications
- Credit to others
- Criticism of and interference with others
- Integrity of individuals and the profession
- Fraud, bribery, and legal violations
- Gratuities and compensation
- Personal professional development
- Professional development of colleagues
- Extending public knowledge of STEM
- Discrimination, harassment, and respect
- Partisan standards
- Serving as an expert witness
- Accuracy of advertising or descriptions of work
- Accepting criticism
- Reporting a member’s ethics violations to a society
A complete chart of ethical standards by topic and discipline is available on the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) website at https://ncees.org/wp-content/uploads/U.S.-Codes-of-Ethics-handout-2019.pdf
The American Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) recognizes that not all the above topics apply to students who are not yet working as professionals. However, ABET does require in its accreditation criteria that students must “recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments,” and “consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts”. (ABET General Engineering Criterion 3. Student Outcome 4.) This applies to situational analysis, academic integrity, projects students do, and prototypes they create.
Activity
Many engineering design problems are narrowly focused with specific business-related objectives; however, there can be significant peripheral or concomitant impacts. Use the following worksheet to identify important ethics considerations related to your design, and describe the ways in which you accommodated that factor in your design, or justify your reasons for ignoring it. (Not all areas of ethics are applicable to a particular project, so be thorough and realistic in your analysis, but don’t go overboard.)
IV.2) Engineering Standards
Information
Engineering standards are design, fabrication, and performance guidelines imposed by national or international organizations for the purpose of ensuring quality and safety of manufactured products and inventions. These include:
- ISO: International Standards Organization
quality management (9000’s), environmental management (14,000’s), health and safety (45,000’s), energy management (50,001), food safety (22,000’s), and IT security standards (27,000’s)
https://www.iso.org/standards.html
- ASTM: American Society for Testing and Materials
materials standards
https://www.astm.org/Standard/standards-and-publications.html
- ANSI: American National Standards Institute
equipment standards
https://ansi.org/search
- NIOSH: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
health and safety research data and standards
https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/index.htm
- OSHA: Occupational Safety and Health Administration
regulations for general industry, construction, maritime, agriculture, recordkeeping, etc.
https://www.osha.gov/index.php/laws-regs
- NHSTA: National Highway Transportation Safety Administration
motor vehicle regulations
https://www.nhtsa.gov/laws-regulations
- IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission
guidelines and ratings for electrical and electronic devices and systems, IP
https://www.iec.ch/understanding-standards
Activity
Which engineering standards are applicable to your project? How will you consider and implement them in your design? Peruse standards from any of the organizations above that are related to your project. Choose at least 3-5 specific standards, list them, and explain how your project will meet them specifically. Add these to the last row of the table from the ABET Design Factors Worksheet in section IV.1 above.
IV.3) Shop and Lab Safety
Information
Workplace safety is one of the most important and highly regulated areas of engineering ethics. A safety mindset and safe practices begin in the home and develop in school lab activities. Each school and program has its own safety guidelines, but the handout below provides basic lab safety information that is widely applicable.
Activity
After reviewing the information in the lab safety guidelines above, take the Lab Safety Quiz.
If you have an industry-sponsored project, then after the initial site tour you have taken at your industry partner’s facility, write an essay identifying potential ethical decisions you may have to navigate throughout your project this semester. Use the following assignment guidelines: Ethics Considerations on Your Capstone Project
IV.4) Case Study: Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
Information
In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated just seconds after launch, destroying all seven crew members on board and causing a three-month excavation effort in the Atlantic Ocean to collect all remains. The cause? O-ring failure. Watch the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: Ethics Case Study No. 1 video by the American Society of Civil Engineers and Allan J. McDonald, former director of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor Project, to learn about ethical issues uncovered in the investigation of this catastrophe.
Activity
Primary Activity: Challenger Investigation. After viewing the video above, write an essay addressing the ethics questions in this assignment sheet: Challenger Ethics Essay Assignment Follow the guidelines for Applying Ethics in Technical Communication by Matt McKinney.
Secondary Activity: Ethics Case Studies Debate. The purpose of the presentation of these engineering ethics case studies is to explore these contemporary issues as a class. Five are available for debate here: Ethics Case Study Debate Topic Choices. Choose one of these to debate along with another team or classmate. Prepare your debate according to these guidelines: Ethics Case Study Debate Guidelines. You will be judged according to this rubric: Ethics Case Study Debate Rubric.
