HOW BEST TO INJECT ETHICS INTO AN ENGINEERING CURRICULUM WITH A
REQUIRED COURSE

International  Journal of Engineering Education.
Vol 21, No. 3, 2005

Stephen H. Unger,
Computer Science Department (and Computer Engineering Program),
Columbia University

ABSTRACT
Engineering students should, in the course of their undergraduate
education, learn about the professional responsibilities associated
with their chosen profession.  They should learn about major
technology-society issues involving such matters as energy, war, the
environment, and privacy.  Ways to accomplish this include the
incorporation of such ideas in regular engineering courses, occasional
colloquium talks, and special courses devoted to this general area.
It is argued that, whatever else is done, at least one such course
should be required for graduation.  Some practical aspects of such a
course are discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION
Given the enormous impact that technology has on our lives, and the
importance of engineers in implementing that technology, it is
scarcely necessary to argue that engineers should be conscious of
their responsibilities, and knowledgeable about the many ways in which
their work impacts the lives of others.

How can engineering students best be educated about ethics in their
chosen profession?  One view is that an understanding of this subject
can be acquired only by actual experience in the field.  Only when
forced to deal with real problems, goes this argument, can people
truly appreciate the difficulties and nuances of professional ethics.
I agree that there is much truth in this assertion.  But one could
make similar statements about any aspect of engineering work.  For
example, one could say that nobody can really understand the
difficulties involved in designing a reliable electrical system for an
automobile, without being involved in such an effort under real world
conditions.  Nevertheless, we teach students all sorts of subjects
that put them in position to deal with the technical problems that
they will face in actual practice.  Precisely the same argument can be
made for teaching about professional ethics.  It is certainly
reasonable to do the best we can to prepare engineering students to
face the ethical, as well as the technical problems that they might
encounter.

There is now a general consensus that engineering curricula should
include substantial education related to professional ethics.  This is
formally embodied in the latest ABET (Accreditation Board for
Engineering and Technology) requirements for the accreditation of
engineering curricula [HERKERT].  These require that students acquire
certain skills in dealing with ethics related issues.  A number of
ways to implement such education are treated below, where it is argued
that an essential ingredient is a required course.  A survey of how US
engineering schools have been dealing with this subject is in [LYNCH]

2. OBJECTIVES OF EDUCATION IN PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
In my judgment, the most important concept that should be conveyed to
prospective engineers (I use this term to include computer and other
applied scientists as well as engineers) is that, as professionals,
engineers are personally responsible for the consequences of their
work.  They cannot properly take the position that they need only
carry out orders issued by their managers, delegating to those
managers responsibility for the larger aspects of the projects they
are involved in.  Not only must they be conscientious in carrying out
specific assignments with diligence and competence, they must also
bear in mind the societal impacts of those projects.  They cannot
properly suspend their moral judgments when they enter the workplace.
Within reasonable limits, there is room for substantial differences of
opinion about whether a particular engineering project is, on balance,
beneficial.  But it is certainly wrong for engineers to work on
projects that conflict with their own moral codes.  For example,
engineers who believe that hard liquor is intrinsically harmful ought
not accept assignments to help design whiskey distilleries.

A basic precept incorporated in all modern engineering ethics codes is
the duty to safeguard the public health, safety, and welfare.  This
must be made clear to all engineering students.

Engineering students should be taught the need to think beyond the
immediate tasks  they are assigned on any project.  They should be
prepared to acquire a general understanding of the larger aspects of
projects so that, among other things, they can recognize and deal with
interface problems.  This is an example of the overlap between good
practice with respect to the technical and the ethical aspects of
engineering.  Another such overlap is the need to convey the
importance of attention to detail in their work, particularly where
safety is a factor.

Treating people fairly is, of course, something every decent person
does as a matter of course.  But the cooperative nature of engineering
makes it particularly important for engineers, and there are specific
aspects of fair play that need to be emphasized in a professional
environment.  These include, for example, properly crediting others
for their work contributions.

Another aspect of general good moral conduct that is especially
important for engineers is honesty.  Technological enterprises cannot
prosper if participants do such things as falsify data, or make
commitments that they know they cannot fulfill.

In addition to teaching students ethical principles as outlined above,
it is important to ensure that they learn about the principal ways
that technology impacts society.  They should be exposed to and
involved in discussions of such matters as risk management,
environmental issues, energy conversion and use, war, transportation,
effects of technology on work, privacy, free expression, legal
liability, and intellectual property.  Students should also learn
about how organizations actually operate, and how to conduct
themselves in situations where they are in conflict with managers.

3. MECHANISMS FOR TEACHING ETHICS
Apart from specific courses devoted to this material, which will be
discussed in later sections, there are a number of ways that
professional ethics topics can be introduced into the engineering
curriculum.  These entail various degrees of participation by
engineering faculty.

A simple, low cost, approach is to distribute to students copies of
appropriate engineering ethics codes, and to post such codes
prominently in hallways, classrooms and laboratories.  A minor
elaboration would be to do the same with short written essays on
various ethics-related topics.  Pointers to websites with more
elaborate items can similarly be posted.

Occasional special colloquia might be held, with invited speakers, or,
where departments have regularly scheduled colloquia open to all
students, topics pertinent to engineering ethics might be included,
perhaps once a semester.  Student branches of engineering societies
might be encouraged to schedule meetings devoted to this subject.
Some engineering departments (or schools) have 0-credit orientation
courses for entering students, that introduce them to the engineering
field.  This is a natural place to include a module on ethics.

Individual faculty members can contribute to ethics education in a
number of ways.  One is to comment on ethical issues in conjunction
with various technical topics.  For example, when discussing
fault-detection techniques in logic circuits, I customarily point out
the need for this and the fact that there are occasions when, due to
the pressure of fixed delivery dates, managers sometimes try to cut
corners on testing.  I suggest that it is sometimes necessary for
engineers to resist such pressure when serious risks are involved.

Some instructors, when teaching courses that inherently involve
important societal issues (for example privacy is often an important
factor in data base systems) devote entire lectures or even sets of
lectures to particular ethical issues.  They sometimes invite people
with special expertise to give one or more of these lectures.

For many years, it has been my practice in all my courses to devote
the last twenty minutes of the final lecture to a survey of ethics in
engineering.  Since some students are exposed to two or more such
mini-lectures, I take care to vary the details treated.

Many engineering departments include in their curricula "capstone"
design project courses for seniors [NICHOLS].  These attempts to
simulate real engineering problems often include, in a very natural
manner, discussions of ethical issues.  A complementary approach,
which merges ethics with a freshman-level programming course is
described in [GUENTHER].

Apart from ideas as above which can be implemented internally by
engineering departments, all engineering curricula include substantial
numbers of nontechnical courses, many of which are electives.  These
are intended to broaden the perspectives of the students.  Many of
these can contribute to ethics education.

4. A SPECIAL COURSE
Another approach, not inconsistent with those sketched above, is to
have one or more courses specifically designed to meet all or most of
the objectives listed in Section 2.  In most schools such courses are
electives, but some schools, or departments, require students to take
at least one such course.  (Arguments on this are presented in Section
5).  These courses are of various types, some focus very precisely on
the subject of engineering ethics, while others are more broadly aimed
at the area of technology and society, with engineering ethics as one
of a number of topics.   It is the latter type that I will treat here.

For over thirty years I taught a course entitled, "Technology and
Society", which covered all the material mentioned in Section 2.  (For
a smaller number of years I taught a more specialized course of the
same type, entitled, "Computers and Society".)  This course was an
elective for all engineering undergraduates.  Most of the course was
about societal issues such as energy, war, privacy, etc., with an
important component being engineering ethics, professionalism, and the
handling of intra-organizational problems.  I made heavy use of real
ethics cases to illustrate graphically the ethical dilemmas sometimes
faced by engineers.

I used, at different times, a variety of books on the societal issues,
along with my own book on engineering ethics [UNGER].  These were
supplemented with (usually current) items placed on reserve in the
library.  A lot of good material is now easily accessible on the
internet.  A particularly valuable Internet resource, which not only
incorporates a good deal of interesting material in its own space, but
which also directs people to other useful sources, is the Online
Center for Ethics in Engineering and Science. (www.onlineethics.org).

My Technology and Society course was deliberately conventional in
form, with written exams and a term paper.  An important concern was
to ensure that students understood that they would have to do the
reading and study if they were to get by.  Given the heavy loads
carried by engineering students, my assumption was that even the most
conscientious students would begin skipping classes and not studying
if they thought they could get away with it.  I found that it was
useful to give two shorter exams in place of one midterm exam (in
addition to a final exam), because the students did not have a good
feel for what exams in such a course would be like.  I included both
short answer questions, usually of a factual nature, and essay
questions on each exam.  My grading for the course was, as is my
grading in other courses, not lenient.

Students were given a list of suggestions for term papers, but had the
option of choosing some other topic.  I had them write one-page
proposals for the term papers, which I reviewed and returned with
suggestions.  While in many such courses, students give presentations
to the class on their term papers, I did not see how I could do this
because of scheduling problems.

There are a number of techniques that are used in such courses, which
I am sure are often valuable, but which, for one reason or another, I
never tried.  One is role playing, which I think may be very useful
when discussing ethical problems.  I also never used visual aids, or
video tapes.  These too may indeed be useful under certain
circumstances.

Class discussion is a vital part of such a course.  (Actually, I feel
that it is very important in ITALICS[all] courses.)  I made every
effort to encourage it, with moderate success.  Of course a key factor
is to treat students with respect and to make it clear that they can
speak frankly despite their viewpoints.

Perhaps the most difficult part of teaching such a course is the need
for great care in handling controversial issues--which includes most
of the material discussed.  College students are adults, they are
eligible to vote, and presumably are able to think for themselves.
Nevertheless, the instructor is an authority figure and has real power
over them.  Since, I had strong opinions on most of the controversial
issues I dealt with, and did not think that it was appropriate to
conceal this, I did the best I could to present opposing arguments
fairly, and strongly encouraged students to make opposing arguments.
In grading essay questions and term papers, and in assigning course
grades, I bent over backwards to favor those whose views conflicted
with mine, in an effort to compensate for subconscious bias.

Almost all the students who elected my course were engineers, but
there were a few liberal arts students, most of whom did quite well.
I think it is important that such classes consist predominantly of
engineers, so that they can be comfortable discussing problems
involving their chosen profession.  It is interesting that there were
two types of students who elected my course.  One consisted of those
with some prior interest in the subject.  The other, probably larger,
group, consisted of those who were looking around for a course that
happened to fit their schedules.  It was particularly satisfying that
many in the latter group developed a real interest in the subject.

Class sizes varied considerably, ranging from roughly 15 to perhaps
45, most often in the low twenties.  I feel that classes in excess of
about forty are too large, because of the burden of grading term
papers and essays questions on exams, and because any particular
student is less likely to participate in class discussion when the
group is larger.

I feel that there is great value in having a course such as the one
described here taught by a regular member of the engineering faculty.
This contributes significantly to the idea that societal concerns and
professional ethics is an integral part of engineering, not some
peripheral topic.  It helps too if the instructor has had some
experience in industry as it again makes the subject more real.
Having said this, I must also add that there are many excellent
courses of this type taught by philosophers or other non-engineering
types.  As in many cases, the quality of the person is more important
than any formal credentials.  There are also schools where such
courses are taught by two people, one an engineer and the other
somebody in the field of liberal arts or a social science.

5. THE IMPORTANCE OF A DEDICATED COURSE
Each of the ideas mentioned in Section 3 can be useful in educating
engineering students about the ethical aspects of their chosen
profession (even those who are pre-law students can benefit).  Those
methods can be used in combination--the more implemented the
better--and there is certainly no conflict between using those methods
and also having available one or more dedicated courses as discussed
in Section 4.  However, I feel strongly that allowing engineering
students to graduate without ever having taken a course in the general
area of technology and society is a mistake.

I can imagine a situation in which all the objectives outlined in
Section 2 could be achieved without a dedicated course being taken.
But, as a practical matter, I doubt that it could be achieved in any
existing situation.  No doubt some of the important topics might be
covered as parts of various regular engineering courses, but many
other topics don't fit into that framework.  One such topic is that of
how to disagree with management and have a hope of prevailing--or at
least surviving.  Basic philosophical issues such as the extent to
which one should risk one's career in order to protest a dishonest act
by one's employer are hard to deal with on the fly.  Handing out
reading material or URL's won't do because participation in real
discussions is an essential part of the learning process.  Any one of
these topics might be the subject of a colloquium talk, but such
events are also not conducive for in-depth discussions.

I believe that relatively few engineering faculty members are
knowledgeable about engineering ethics--a reflection of the poor state
of education in this area in the past.  Most feel hard pressed to
cover the core material in their courses, which is often evolving at a
great rate.  Arguing, as some do, that engineering ethics is "too
important to relegate to a single course--it must be embedded in all
our courses", leads to the "everybody's business is nobody's business"
pitfall.

Elective technology and society, or engineering ethics, courses are
certainly useful, and are, of course, better than nothing.  But, since
only a fraction of the students will elect them, they can't do the
job.  Furthermore, the absence of a required course in this category
delivers a clear message to the student:  "This subject is less
important than any of the required courses or any of the electives
that you may choose to take".

6. CONCLUSIONS
Engineering ethics should be an important part of the undergraduate
engineering curriculum.  It would be very nice if all faculty members
included ethics-related material in their courses, but the likelihood
of anything close to this happening is small.  Furthermore, the
distributed approach is not conducive to in-depth discussions by
students of basic issues.  So, while we should do the best we can to
encourage faculty members to incorporate ethics related concepts in
their courses where appropriate, we should also develop courses
specifically designed for engineering students, and at least one such
course should be required.

REFERENCES
Guenther, Charles J., "Teaching Social Responsibility", Technology and
Society Magazine, Fall, 1997, pp. 15-21

Herkert, Joseph R., "ABET's Engineering Criteria 2000 and Engineering
Ethics: Where Do We Go From Here?"
http://onlineethics.org/essays/education/herkert2.html?text

Lynch, William T., "Teaching Engineering Ethics in the United States",
Technology and Society Magazine, Winter, 1997/1998, pp. 27-36

Nichols, Steven P., "An Approach to Integrating 'Professional
Responsibility' in Engineering into the Capstone Design Experience",
Science and Engineering Ethics, Vol. 6, Issue 3, 2000, pp. 399-412.

Unger, Stephen H., "Controlling Technology: Ethics and the Responsible
Engineer", second edition,  Wiley, 1994.
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