partnership—an American university and an Indian

Routledge eBooks, 2023

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2005 Annual Conference Proceedings

Borderless ethics and the attempt to develop a global engineering code of ethics have formulated significant driving forces behind trends in engineering ethics education. This is because engineering is no longer limited by borders and therefore the differences in culture and values from one country to another become a significant factor in the outcome of an engineering project, product, or undertaking. There are many sides to the issue of ethics globalization. As educators in this field continuous attempts are made to look at these issues systematically and assess the required modifications for our ethics education to produce engineers that are globally successful. Endeavors by the authors to "internationalize" instruction in engineering ethics include the solicitation of input from engineering and technology students at Lake Superior State University with regard to changes in the ethics component of the engineering curriculum. This past year third-year students were given a survey soliciting their views on what ethical values are "universal" and what values are specific to a given national and/or cultural setting. Additionally, students were asked to suggest contributions that the American engineering professional community can make to the development of a comprehensive international engineering ethics code, and what Americans in turn can learn about ethics and values from their foreign counterparts. This paper includes a discussion of the results of this survey; views differed widely from student to student, as expected, but certain common threads of thought were found throughout the entire surveyed group. The discussion is carried out in light of professional level surveys' results that were published recently by professional societies of engineers.

Science and Engineering Ethics, 2019

Engineers and other technical professionals are increasingly challenged by the impacts of globalization. Further, engineering educators, technical managers, and human resources staff have demonstrated great interest in selecting and training engineers who are capable of working competently, professionally, and ethically in global context. However, working across countries and cultures brings considerable challenges to global engineers, including as related to understanding and navigating local and regional differences in what counts as professional ethics and integrity. In this study, we focus on written responses to 27 assessment scenarios that involve micro-and/or macro-ethical considerations in six national/cultural contexts (China, France, Germany, India, Japan, and Mexico). More specifically, we analyze responses to open-ended versions of the scenarios. Our participants consisted of both experts (e.g., experienced engineers) and novices (e.g., undergraduate students and early career professionals). Comparing and contrasting how experts and novices responded to these ethical problems sheds light on differences in their ethical strategies and approaches. This analysis also allows us to discern what specific cultural knowledge and sensitivity were employed by experts in solving cross-cultural ethical problems, but were largely lacking among novices. Finally, we analyze and discuss challenges faced by experts and novices in responding to cross-cultural ethical situations.

Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, 2009

Already for many years the faculty of Aerospace Engineering includes a compulsory course on ethics in its MSc curriculum. The course aims at introducing the students to ethical decision making in an aerospace engineering context and is traditionally terminated with a role play re-enacting the fatal decision making process around the launch of the Challenger. The authors report on the setup and experiences of a new role game about a risky maiden flight with a newly developed composite airplane and compare experiences with both role games. In the new role game the outcome is not known beforehand and more emphasis is put on the performance and the quality of the social relationships among the actors. It appears, that relationships of loyalty or distrust, friend or foe, manipulation or authenticity affect the moral quality of the final decision making process. In practice decisions are not only determined by competent reflexive reasoning of lonely individuals, but they are much more the outcome of a group process and hence are strongly affected by the quality of communication. In practical decision making processes there is a constant tension between the moral imperative at stake and practical circumstances and the complexities of gaining enough support among the different group members.

A high standard of ethical conduct is a fundamental expectation of all professional engineers. Potentially all design and operational decisions have ethical implications so ethical thinking should be high in the minds of engineers. This is highly relevant in their operational as well as strategic thinking in their individual activities, team working and interactions with outside companies and stakeholders. Today organizations typically have a set standard of professional conduct and values expected of their engineers and many offer forms of ethical training and support as part of their professional development. Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) also have strategies to initiate ethical awareness and professional conduct among undergraduate engineering students through specific training and curriculum interventions. There is however, some lack of clarity on the ethical development of engineering students. Can university curricula and ethics education influence the ethical decision making capabilities of students? Do students address difficult ethical situations with a refined professional approach after undertaking a course or workshop on ethics? This research study aims to address these issues by investigating the key factors that influence decision making competences of engineering students. This study adopts a four component model proposed by Rest [1] as part of the analysis to determine what shapes the decision making capabilities and competences of the participants and whether distinct patterns are followed. Using two focus groups: one with students who have undertaken an ethics based workshop and a second, as a control group, with students who haven't, this study explores the differences in their skills and approaches to decision making. Two key motivation themes emerged from the analysis: external and internal rewards. Participants from the group which had no experience of ethics education showed preference towards external rewards (money, salary and job) in their decision making whereas participants who had undertaken a workshop on ethics sought internal rewards (being happy and guilt-free). The findings contribute to the growing literature of Ethics Education and Curriculum Design by bringing clarity on the factors influencing students' decision making skills. It also reflects on the effectiveness of Ethics Education in HEIs. Educators can use the findings of this study to address and adopt teaching strategies that can effectively build up ethical awareness and professional conduct among students. This study will also benefit students with their career progression and development plan by helping them understand the ethical norms, responsibilities and expectations in a profession like engineering.

Little empirical research has been focused on team based ethical decision making specific to engineering. With ABET's criterion 3-f, engineering educators must now have a sound understanding of students' knowledge about and approaches to solving ethical dilemmas. The research objectives of this funded research are: to investigate how groups of engineering students differ than individual engineering students when resolving problems involving ethical issues, to evaluate and describe approaches to solve problems ethical in nature, and to assess those variables that potentially affect the quality of the resolution and the quality of the decision process.

Science and Engineering Ethics, 2006

This paper outlines the development and implementation of a new course in Engineering Ethics at the University of Tennessee. This is a three-semester-hour course and is jointly taught by an engineering professor and a philosophy professor. While traditional pedagogical techniques such as case studies, position papers, and classroom discussions are used, additional activities such as developing a code of ethics and student-developed scenarios are employed to encourage critical thinking. Among the topics addressed in the course are engineering as a profession and its role in society; ethical successes and failures; risk, safety, and the environment; professional responsibilities; credit and intellectual property; and international concerns. The most significant aspect of the course is that it brings both engineering and non-engineering points of view to the topics at hand. This is accomplished in two ways. First, as mentioned previously, it is team-taught by engineering faculty with an interest in ethical and societal issues, and by philosophy faculty with expertise in the field of professional ethics and an interest in science and technology. Second, the course is offered to both engineers and non-engineers. This mix of students requires that all students must be able to explain their technical and ethical decisions in a non-technical manner. Work teams are structured to maximize interdisciplinary interaction and to foster insights by each student into the professional commitments and attitudes of others.

asee.org

Globalization has affected the very fabric of business and engineering activities. Increasingly, new products are now designed, developed and manufactured through a collaboration of engineering, business, and manufacturing personnel from different parts of the world, many of whom significantly differ from each other in their cultural backgrounds and

Advances in engineering education, 2020

Ethical engineering practice is a global issue. However, cultural norms and social realities may result in differences in ethical behavior. A basic instructional challenge is developing the ability of students to understand ethical practice and to facilitate discussion of ethical issues across regional and cultural boundaries. The present project seeks to facilitate discussion and analysis of ethical practices of undergraduate engineering students at our university, Texas Tech, and peers at universities in Ukraine and India, our partnering countries. An undergraduate ethics course for engineering majors and the website https://EthicalEngineer.ttu.edu are currently the primary channels through which this project is being developed and implemented. The paper describes i) steps in developing the website, which is currently operational, ii) progress developing partnerships and recruiting participants, and iii) results from preliminary tests of machine-assisted methods for analyzing students' submissions to the website. The Ethical Engineer is an emerging web-based innovation for facilitating cross-cultural discourse in engineering ethics.

— The Royal Academy of Engineering, which is Britain's national academy for engineering, identifies and stresses the importance of personal and professional commitments and obligations of professional engineers to enhance the wellbeing of the society. These can be attained by adopting the highest standards of professional conduct and integrity which are now commonly represented as 'Engineering Ethics'. The engineering profession requires the exploitation of knowledge, resources and innovation and in the process; engineers face different complex situations and scenarios that regularly test their ethical judgment and understanding. A lot of emphasis is therefore placed today on familiarizing engineers with the ethical standards and moral codes of conduct involved in an organization as part of their commitment towards their roles. However, there is very little research conducted so far on the influence of Ethics Education on the moral growth of engineering students. Some recent studies suggest a growing concern among universities on the issue of increasing the ethical knowledge among their students and produce ethically responsible engineers or business leaders. Can Engineering Ethics Education reinforce students' inclination to act ethically and give a strong foundation to their ethical decision making skills? Some researchers seem to imply that students who attend an ethics based course or module are more likely to recognize the core of a moral issue in a given complex situation than students who haven't had any such prior experience. Other researchers seem to disagree on that context. There is also a degree of uncertainty and inconsistency as to how Ethics related courses can be incorporated and delivered as part of an Engineering curriculum. It is also not clear at what stage should engineering students be exposed to ethics courses? This study aims to bring clarity in some of these areas by examining the perception and decision making skills among two groups of students: one which has attended a course on ethics and the other which hasn't. It uses the example of the MSc Engineering Management Programme at York where a session on Engineering Ethics is delivered every year. This study will analyze the potential of Ethics Education in boosting a student's ethical responsibility, awareness and decision making skills.