Ethics in Engineering

This was a webinar panel discussion. Three videos, published by the panelists, to be watched by participants prior to the webinar discussion are located below. The fourth video is the webinar discussion itself.

Can’t access YouTube in your country? E-mail k.hellal@ifees.net.

Introduction

Uriel Cukierman

Vice President for Capacity Building, IFEES

Uriel Cukierman is a professor and researcher at Argentina’s largest engineering school, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional.
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“I believe, indeed, that overemphasis on the purely intellectual attitude, often directed solely to the practical and factual, in our education, has led directly to the impairment of ethical values. I am not thinking so much of the dangers with which technical progress has directly confronted mankind, as of the stifling of mutual human considerations by a “matter-of-fact” habit of thought which has come to lie like a killing frost upon human relations. … The frightful dilemma of the political world situation has much to do with this sin of omission on the part of our civilization. Without “ethical culture,” there is no salvation for humanity.”

This paragraph, extracted from a speech by Albert Einstein, in “The Need for Ethical Culture” celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Ethical Culture Society (5 January 1951), expresses very clear what is in the heart of the relationship between ethics and science.

Technology without ethical behavior would become humankind worst enemy and, for that reason, we should discuss this matter and include it in our engineering curriculums.

Methodology:

In order to promote the interaction among participants, we will previously share some short videos prepared by the invited speakers and we will ask the participants to watch the videos before the webinar. Then the webinar is expected to be an open discussion forum among the participants and the speakers.

Integrating Ethics in Core Engineering Courses

Donna Riley

Head of School of Engineering Education, Purdue University

Dr. Riley’s research interests center on engineering ethics, integration of engineering & liberal arts education, and diversity & inclusion in engineering education.
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How can faculty incorporate ethics in an already crowded engineering curriculum? In this webinar, Dr. Riley will share her experiences as an engineering educator who has taught ethics embedded in core engineering courses like thermodynamics, as well as in stand-alone elective courses. Dr. Riley will cover practical considerations for technically trained engineering faculty seeking to develop or improve their abilities in engineering ethics.

Essential Content for Engineering Ethics, Need to Go Beyond the CODES, Include Ethics in Project Based Courses

Harold Sjursen

Professor Emeritus, New York University

Harold Sjursen is a philosopher of technology and of comparative philosophy of culture. He is Visiting Professor of Engineering Ethics at Beihang University (China).
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In the Webinar I will focus on the crucial need for ethics to be an integral part of the engineering curriculum; how modern technology presents new ethical challenges to engineers requiring a new approach to teaching engineering ethics. I suggest that this new approach encourages close collaboration with scholars from arts and letters as well as the natural and social sciences.

The inextricable link between societal value and engineering – embedding ethical consciousness in practice

Theo Andrew

Executive Dean, Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment at Durban University of Technology

For several decades, Theo Andrew has been an active leader in engineering education in South Africa and globally.
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