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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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INFUSING

ETHICS INTO THE

DEVELOPMENT

OF ENGINEERS

Exemplary Education Activities and Programs

Infusing Ethics Selection Committee

Center for Engineering Ethics and Society

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, DC

www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS    500 Fifth Street NW    Washington, DC 20001

This activity was supported by grant No. 1449199 from the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-39085-9
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-39085-0
DOI: 10.17226/21889

Additional copies of this report are available for sale from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; www.nap.edu.

Copyright 2016 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested citation: National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington: National Academies Press.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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images

The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by an Act of Congress, signed by President Lincoln, as a private, nongovernmental institution to advise the nation on issues related to science and technology. Members are elected by their peers for outstanding contributions to research. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences to bring the practices of engineering to advising the nation. Members are elected by their peers for extraordinary contributions to engineering. Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr., is president.

The National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine) was established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences to advise the nation on medical and health issues. Members are elected by their peers for distinguished contributions to medicine and health. Dr. Victor J. Dzau is president.

The three Academies work together as the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation and conduct other activities to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions. The Academies also encourage education and research, recognize outstanding contributions to knowledge, and increase public understanding in matters of science, engineering, and medicine.

Learn more about the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine at www.nationalacademies.org.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Center for Engineering Ethics and Society Advisory Group

National Academy of Engineering

Gerald E. Galloway, Jr. (NAE), Chair
Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering
University of Maryland, College Park

Paul F. Boulos
President, COO and CTO
Innovyze

Thomas Budinger (NAE/IOM)
Professor of the Graduate School
University of California, Berkeley
E. O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Ed Carr
Compliance Officer
Siemens Corporation

Glen Daigger (NAE)
President
One Water Solutions, LLC

Joe Herkert
Visiting Scholar at the Genetic Engineering and Society
Center
North Carolina State University

Sharon Jones
Dean of the School of Engineering
University of Portland

William Kelly
Practitioner Adjunct Faculty in Sustainability
George Mason University

Felice Levine
Executive Director
American Educational Research Association

Indira Nair
Professor and Vice Provost Emeritus
Carnegie Mellon University

Sarah K. A. Pfatteicher
Research Professor & Associate Dean
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Chris Schairbaum
Director of Innovation and Development
Texas Instruments, Inc.

Jen Schneider
Associate Professor
Boise State University

Paul B. Thompson
W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food, and Community
Ethics
Michigan State University

National Academy of Engineering Staff

Rachelle Hollander
Director, Center for Engineering Ethics and Society

Frazier Benya
Program Officer

Elizabeth Cady
Program Officer

Simil Raghavan
Program Officer

Carl Anderson
Program Coordinator

Sherri Hunter
Program Coordinator

Emily Roberts
J. Herbert Hollmon/Mirzayan Science and Technology Fellow

Vivienne Chin
Senior Administrative Assistant

Michael Holzer
Senior Program Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Acknowledgment of Reviewers

The summary of this publication has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments to assist the NAE in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the manuscript meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the project’s charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We thank the following individuals for their review of the manuscript:

Paul Citron, Retired Vice President, Technology Policy and Academic Relations, Medtronic, Inc.

Glenn Daigger, President, One Water Solutions, LLC

Christopher Swan, Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Tufts University

Daniel Vallero, Adjunct Professor, Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University

Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the views expressed in the summary, nor did they see the final draft of the summary before its release. The review of this publication was overseen by Proctor Reid, Director of the Program Office at the NAE. He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this manuscript was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this publication rests entirely with the authors and NAE.

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Preface

Ethical practice in engineering is critical for ensuring public trust in the field and in its practitioners, especially as engineers increasingly tackle international and socially complex problems that combine technical and ethical challenges. This report aims to raise awareness of the variety of exceptional programs and strategies for improving engineers’ understanding of ethical and social issues and provides a resource for those who seek to improve the ethical development of engineers at their own institutions.

Ethics is of crucial importance to the engineering profession, as evidenced both in the codes of ethics published by numerous engineering professional societies and in the requirements for accredited engineering programs maintained by the US Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). According to the ABET criteria, students in accredited programs must demonstrate an understanding of ethics and take it into account when designing a system, component, or process. The ABET requirement applies to both undergraduate and graduate programs in engineering and engineering technology and has spurred schools to provide engineering ethics education for their students in a variety of ways.

A number of these engineering ethics education activities were reviewed for this project, with the goal of selecting and widely disseminating those that may serve as exemplars for broader adoption and adaptation. They were gathered by the advisory group for the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Center for Engineering Ethics and Society (CEES), which invited faculty and administrators at US universities and colleges to submit activities that prepare students for ethical practices, research, or leadership in engineering. Eligible activities were those at the associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s level for engineering or engineering technology. Additional information about and materials from the exemplars in this report will be included in the NAE’s Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science (OEC) collection (onlineethics.org).

Funded by the National Science Foundation, this effort builds on two other NAE reports on engineering ethics education, Practical Guidance on Science and Engineering Ethics Education for Instructors and Administrators (NAE 2013) and Ethics Education and Scientific and Engineering Research: What’s Been Learned? What Should be Done? (NAE 2009). This project also aligns with NAE efforts to improve engineering education,1 prepare engineers for the future, 2 and educate engineers to address far-reaching and fundamental engineering challenges.3

A specially appointed NAE selection committee reviewed the submissions and identified programs that serve as examples for those who wish to prepare engineers to think critically about the ethics of their profession. The following seven members served on the Infusing Ethics Selection Committee:

Stephanie J. Bird, ethics consultant and coeditor of Science and Engineering Ethics

Andrene Bresnan, director, Ethics and Business Conduct, The Boeing Company

Gerald E. Galloway, Jr., Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

Joseph R. Herkert, visiting scholar, Genetic Engineering and Society Center, North Carolina State University

Sharon D. Kenny, civil engineer and project management professional

Indira Nair, professor and vice provost emerita, Carnegie Mellon University

Chris Schairbaum, director, Innovation and Development, Texas Instruments, Inc.

The committee members were impressed by the variety and quality of the submissions and excited to see the creative approaches to infusing ethics into the development of engineers.

The 25 NAE Exemplars in Engineering Ethics Education described in this report serve as a resource for institutions and educators to strengthen and expand their ethics programs and thus improve the capabilities of practicing and future engineers. The NAE is very pleased to acknowledge these efforts and encourages engineering educators and practitioners to consider and incorporate these strategies.

Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr. Dr. Gerald E. Galloway
President Chair
National Academy of Engineering CEES Advisory Group

___________________

1 Frontiers of Engineering Education,www.naefoee.org/

2The Engineer of 2020 (2004); Educating the Engineer of 2020 (2005).

3 Grand Challenge Scholars Program, www.engineeringchallenges.org/GrandChallengeScholarsProgram.aspx

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Table of Contents

Project Summary

Organization of the Publication

Challenges and Suggestions for Infusing Ethics

Follow-on Workshop

Exemplars in Engineering Ethics Education

The program descriptions are organized according to board categories: graduate course, undergraduate course, multiyear program (in which students participate at multiple times during their college education), and other (workshop, extracurricular program, and faculty development program).

Institution: Exemplary Engineering Ethics Education

Graduate Course

Kansas State University: Responsibility of Engineering: Codes and Professionalism (3-hour university course)

University of Pittsburgh: Using Student-Authored Case Studies to Teach Bioengineering Ethics

Undergraduate Course

Virginia Tech: Learning to Listen: A Tool for Morally Engaged Engineering Practice

Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Humanitarian Engineering, Past and Present: A Role-Playing First-Year Course

The University of Virginia: The University of Virginia SEAS Senior Thesis: A Culminating Activity

Georgia Institute of Technology: Problem-based Learning in a Professional Ethics Course for Undergraduate Engineering Students

Northeastern University: Case Studies for Engineering Ethics Across the Product Life Cycle

University of Cincinnati: UnLecture on Software Engineering Ethics

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Ethics and Engineering for Safety

California Polytechnic State University: Ethics as Philosophical History for Engineers

Lafayette College/Rutgers University: Engineering a Catastrophe: Ethics for First-Year STEM

Michigan Technological University: Phenomenological Approach to Engineering Ethics Pedagogy

Colorado School of Mines: Corporate Social Responsibility Course

University of Wisconsin–Madison: Team Ethics Assignment: Based on Engineering Student Co-op Experience

Stanford University: Global Engineers’ Education Course

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Terrascope

Colorado School of Mines: Nature and Human Values Course

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Academy of Engineering. 2016. Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers: Exemplary Education Activities and Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21889.
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Ethical practice in engineering is critical for ensuring public trust in the field and in its practitioners, especially as engineers increasingly tackle international and socially complex problems that combine technical and ethical challenges. This report aims to raise awareness of the variety of exceptional programs and strategies for improving engineers' understanding of ethical and social issues and provides a resource for those who seek to improve ethical development of engineers at their own institutions.

This publication presents 25 activities and programs that are exemplary in their approach to infusing ethics into the development of engineering students. It is intended to serve as a resource for institutions of higher education seeking to enhance their efforts in this area.

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