Moral Dilemma: Ethics Not Often Taught To Professional Engineers

College engineering classes tend to teach a lot about the technical aspects of being an engineer, which is great. Professional engineers need to have the skills to create safe structures, such as bridges, roads, and homes.

However, there is more to being a professional engineer than just learning skills and computer software. School needs to prepare students for the real world, and that includes dealing with ethical issues.

Students often have questions and concerns about controversial topics such as global warming and automation. With artificial intelligence becoming more commonly used, students may have questions about how to use that ethically as well.

These are great opportunities for engineering professors to discuss the social impacts of technology and the professional challenges that engineers have to deal with. However, professors have been mostly silent on these matters. They don’t discuss possible issues such as the pressure for professional engineers to cut corners or hide mistakes. Students are not taught  about the importance of doing the right thing.

This is a serious issue. In the engineering field, if there’s an error, the end result could be a lot of people dying. But there is often a lot of pressure on professional engineers to get the job done quickly, so that’s a dilemma.

Engineering schools should do more to prepare students for the ethical challenges they’ll face. In careers such as law and medicine, licensed professionals swear to uphold a professional code of conduct. Professional engineers should do the same. However, engineering licensure varies widely in the United States. And unless a student is exposed to a broad curriculum of professional ethics at the college or university level, many engineers will get a minimal education in ethics.

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, also known as ABET, Inc., accredits most engineering, computing, and science programs in the country. In recent years, it has begun putting greater emphasis on ethics instruction. ABET requires students to graduate with an understanding of ethics and professional responsibilities. While it is estimated that more than 20 schools offer courses that connect ethics with engineering, most are electives, so they are not required classes. Still,  many schools satisfy the requirement with just one single lecture on ethics.

Universities are doing a better job than they used to, but ethics are not valued as a whole. Students know that they shouldn’t take bribes, but that’s pretty basic. There’s a lot more to ethics than that.

Keep Your License With Help From a Tampa Professional Engineers Licensing Lawyer

Nowadays, professional engineers need to learn ethics. At some point in their career, they will face a situation in which they will need to do the right thing and they will wish they had some education and training in this regard.

If you are dealing with an administrative issue due to an ethical situation, seek legal help from a Tampa professional engineers licensing lawyer from The Law Offices of David P. Rankin, P.A. I have represented more than 100 professional engineers before the Florida Board of Professional Engineers. Fill out the online form or call (813) 968-6633 to schedule a consultation.

Source:

undark.org/2017/01/10/did-the-engineer-learn-ethics/