2. What is engineering
• Engineering is the profession in which knowledge of the
mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience and
practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize,
economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of
mankind. – Accreditation Board for Engineering (ABET)
3. What is a profession?
• Examples of professionals:
• Physician, lawyer, engineer, others?
• Examples of non-professionals:
• Plumber, Barber, sales clerk, others?
What distinguishes profession from other occupations?
4. What are characteristics of professions?
• Special knowledge and intellectual skills
• Formal education, often graduate degree
• Professional authority, judgment, peer review
• Community sanction, accreditation, licensing
• Professional associations; in engineering, AIAA,IEEE, ASCE
5. • Unlike common morality and personal morality, professional ethics is usually
stated in a formal code
• When one is in a professional relationship, professional ethics is supposed to
take precedence over personal morality—at least ordinarily.
• Professional ethics sometimes differs from personal morality in its degree of
restriction of personal conduct.
• Professional ethics, like ethics generally, has a negative and a positive
dimension.
Characteristics of Professional Ethics
6. Technology and Ethics
• Most technology has double implications: As it creates benefits, it raises new
moral challenges.
• Just as exploration of the moon and planets stand as engineering triumphs, so
the explosions of the space shuttles, Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003,
were tragedies that could have been prevented had urgent warnings voiced by
experienced engineers been heeded.
• Ethics involves appreciating the vast positive dimensions of engineering that so
deeply enrich our lives.
7. IMPEDIMENTS TO RESPONSIBLE ACTION
Self-Interest
• Engineers are not simply engineers. They are, like everyone else, people with
personal hopes and ambitions that are not restricted to professional ideals.
Sometimes concern for our own interests tempts us to act contrary to the
interests of others, perhaps even contrary to what others expect from us as
professionals. Sometimes concern for self-interest blocks us from seeing or
fully understanding our professional responsibilities.
8. IMPEDIMENTS TO RESPONSIBLE ACTION
Fear
• Even when we are not tempted to take advantage of others for personal gain,
we may be moved by various kinds of fear—fear of acknowledging our mistakes,
of losing our jobs, or of some sort of punishment or other bad consequences.
Fears of these sorts can make it difficult for us to act responsibly
9. IMPEDIMENTS TO RESPONSIBLE ACTION
Ignorance
• An obvious barrier to responsible action is ignorance of vital information. If an
engineer does not realize that a design poses a safety problem, for example, then
he or she will not be in a position to do anything about it. Sometimes such a lack
of awareness is willful avoidance—a turning away from information in order to
avoid having to deal with the challenges it may pose. However, often it results
from a lack of imagination, from not looking in the right places for necessary
information, from a failure to persist, or from the pressure of deadlines
10. Academic Integrity: Students
Honesty as an engineer begins with honesty in studying to become an engineer.
Studies of colleges and universities reveal alarming statistics about academic
integrity. According to one study, among schools lacking a strong honor code,
three out of four students admitted to having engaged in academic dishonesty at
least once during their college career. Among the schools with an honor code, one
in two students made the same admission. Academic dishonesty among students
takes several forms
11. Academic Integrity: Students
• Cheating: Intentionally violating the rules of fair play in any academic exercise,
for example, by using crib notes or copying from another student during a test.
• Fabrication: Intentionally falsifying or inventing information, for example, by
faking the results of an experiment.
• Plagiarism: Intentionally or negligently submitting others’ work as one’s own, for
example, by quoting the words of others without using quotation marks and
citing the source.
12. Academic Integrity: Students
• Facilitating academic dishonesty: Intentionally helping other students to engage
in academic dishonesty, for example, by loaning them your work.
• Misrepresentation: Intentionally giving false information to an instructor, for
example, by lying about why one missed a test.
• Sabotage: Intentionally preventing others from doing their work, for example, by
disrupting their lab experiment.
• Theft: Stealing, for example, stealing library books or other students’ property.
13. Why do students engage in academic
dishonesty?
Studies reveal a variety of motivations,
• Performance worries
• Fear of low grades and desires for higher grades
• In response to external pressures such as parental pressure, or losing financial aid
• The belief that professors are unfair
• The desire to help a friend;
• The belief that because other students are cheating it is all right for me to do the
same
• The belief that plagiarism is not a big deal, and that it is a “victimless crime” in
which no one really gets hurt
14. Late Confession
• In 1968, Norm Lewis was a 51-year-old doctoral candidate in history at the University of
Washington. While taking his final exam in the program, he excused himself to go to the
bathroom, where he looked at his notes. For the next 32 years, Lewis told no one. At age 83, he
decided to confess, and he wrote to the president of the university admitting that he had
cheated and that he had regretted it ever since. Commenting on the case, Jeanne Wilson,
president of the Center for Academic Integrity remarked, ‘‘I think there is an important lesson
here for students about the costs of cheating. He has felt guilty all these years, and has felt
burdened by this secret, believing that he never really earned the degree he was awarded.’’
Wilson’s position is that the University of Washington should not take action against Lewis, given
his confession, his age, and the fact that, after all, he did complete his coursework and a
dissertation But, she added, ‘‘On the other hand, I think an institution might feel compelled to
revoke the degree if we were talking about a medical or law degree or license, or some other
professional field such as engineering or education, and the individual were younger and still
employed on the basis of that degree or license.’’ Discuss the ethical issues this case raises,
both for Dr. Lewis and for University of Washington officials. Evaluate Jeanne Wilson’s analysis,
especially as it might apply to engineers.
