Engineering Ethics

Ethics
• Ethics is the study of the characteristics of morals.
• It also deals with the moral choices that are made by each person in
his or her relationship with other persons.
• As engineers, we are concerned with ethics because these definitions
apply to all of the choices an individual makes in life, including those
made while practicing engineering.
Engineering Ethics
• Engineering ethics is the rules and standards governing the conduct of
engineers in their role as professionals.
• It encompasses the more general definition of ethics, but applies it
more specifically to situations involving engineers in their professional
lives.
• Engineering ethics is a body of philosophy indicating the ways that
engineers should conduct themselves in their professional capacity.
Engineering Ethics
• Engineering is the process of developing an efficient mechanism
which quickens and eases the work using limited resources, with the
help of technology.
• Ethics are the principles accepted by the society, which also equate to
the moral standards of human beings.
• An engineer with ethics, can help the society in a better way.
Engineering Ethics
• The study of Engineering ethics, where such ethics are implemented
in engineering by the engineers, is necessary for the good of the
society.
• Engineering Ethics is the study of decisions, policies and values that
are morally desirable in engineering practice and research.
Morals
• The word “Morality” originates from the Latin word “mos” meaning
“custom”.
• Morals are the principles or habits with respect to right or wrong of
one’s own conduct.
• They are not imposed by anyone. Morals are what you think is good
and bad personally.
Morals
• Though morals are not imposed, they can be understood as the
preaching of our inner self.
• Depending on a few factors, our mind filters things as good or bad.
• These are the ideas that help frame our personality so that we can
distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.
Morals
A moral is the code of conduct that you develop over time and set for
yourself to follow, just like
• Being good to everyone
• Speaking only the truth
• Going against what you know is wrong
• Having chastity
• Avoid cheating
• Being a nice human being etc.
Morals
• Morals are always defined by one’s own personality.
• Morals can be changed according to one’s beliefs as they are
completely dependent on one’s perception towards the ethical
values.
Ethics
• The word “Ethics” originates from the Greek word “ethos” meaning
“character”.
• Ethics are a set of rules or principles that are generally considered as
standards or good and bad or right and wrong, which are usually
imposed by an external group or a society or a profession or so.
Ethics
• Ethics can be understood as the rules of conduct proposed by a
society or recognized with respect to a particular class of human
actions or a particular group or culture.
• Ethics are dependent on others definition.
• They may or may not vary from context to context.
Ethics
• A person who strictly follows a set of ethical principles, may not have
any moral at all while a person who violates ethical principles at
times, may maintain a high moral integrity.
• The ethical theories include duty ethics, right ethics, virtue ethics and
so on.
• A best example that can explain ethics is utilitarianism.
Ethics
• Utilitarianism is the philosophy which explains that the happiness or
pleasure of a greatest number of people in the society is considered
as the greatest good.
• According to this philosophy, an action is morally right if its
consequences leads to happiness of the people and wrong if the
action leads to their unhappiness.
• This theory moves beyond the scope of one’s own interests and takes
into account the interests of others.
Ethics in Engineering
• Ethics are principles followed depending upon the moral
responsibility that a person feels.
• The study of related questions about moral ideals, character, policies
and relationships of people and organizations involved in
technological activity, can be termed as Engineering ethics.
Engineering Ethics
• An engineer whether he works individually or works for a company,
has to go through some ethical issues, mostly under the conditions
such as, conceptualization of a product, issues arising in design and
testing departments, or may be on the issues involving the
manufacturing, sales and services.
• Questions related to morality also arise during supervision and team
works.
Engineering Ethics
The ethical decisions and moral values of an engineer need to be
considered because the decisions of an engineer have an impact the
products and services –
• how safe they are to use, the company and its shareholders who
believe in the goodwill of the company, the public and the society
who trusts the company regarding the benefits of the people, the law
which cares about how legislation affects the profession and industry,
the job and his moral responsibilities and about how the environment
gets affected, etc.
Engineering Ethics
Not only an engineer, but everyone has to follow a set of morals in
order to keep away from getting morally degraded.
Our behavior should include the following −
• Respecting others and ourselves.
• Respecting the rights of others.
• Keeping promises.
• Avoiding unnecessary problems to others.
• Avoiding cheating and dishonesty.
• Showing gratitude towards others and encourage them to
work.
Engineering Ethics
• Morality commands respect for persons, both others and ourselves.
• It involves being fair and just, meeting obligations and respecting
rights and not causing unnecessary harm by dishonesty and cruelty or
by hubris.
Steps to Deal with Issues
• Whenever there occurs an issue, one should possess a few skills in
order to sort out the problem.
• The issues that engineers face, have to be dealt with patience and few
moral goals have to be kept in mind while dealing with such issues.
Steps to Deal with Issues
They are as follows −
• Moral Awareness − One should be able to recognize the moral
problems and issues that occur in Engineering. The analysis on the
problem is necessary in order to differentiate and judge according to
ethics or according to the rules to follow.
• Cogent Moral Reasoning − In order to come to a conclusion on an
issue, the argument has to be assessed and comprehended. The
argument on both sides has to be considered with all the probabilities
and the nature of the argument should be logical and moral.
Steps to Deal with Issues
• Moral Imagination − The moral issues and the practical issues have to
be dealt separately. Alternative responses are to be found out for
dealing with moral issues while creative solutions should be found out
for practical difficulties.
• Moral Communication − The language to communicate about one’s
moral views should be so precise and clear, that the expression or
words should not alter the original meaning.
Important Skills for Ethical Reasoning
• Moral Reasonableness − The ability and willingness to be morally
reasonable that one should have while dealing such issues. Unless
one is willing and improve such ability, justice cannot be done.
• Respect for Persons − The persons involved in the issue, should be
treated with genuine concern by one. Such concern should also be
there with oneself along with being there for others.
Important Skills for Ethical Reasoning
• Tolerance of diversity − One should have a broader perspective
towards ethnic and religious differences that the people have. Every
person differs with another when compared on grounds of moral
reasoning. The acceptance of those differences is really important.
• Moral hope − The moral conflicts can be resolved by using better
communication and having rational dialogue which is evident-based
and open-ended which is acceptable and appreciable by both the
parties.
Important Skills for Ethical Reasoning
• Integrity − The moral integrity has to be maintained. Being honest
and having strong moral principles helps one to resolve an issue in an
efficient manner. An individual also needs to consider other’s
professional life and personal convictions while solving a problem.
Why Ethics Are So Important for
Engineers?
• It’s an engineer’s job to build things, make things better, and to come
up with new solutions to complicated problems.
• Engineers have created new forms of transportation, new ways of
generating energy, and built a communications network that spans
the globe, allowing for instantaneous retrieval of information.
Why Ethics Are So Important for
Engineers?
• Engineers are held to high standards with their work, certainly higher
than most other careers.
• But they should also be held to high ethical standards, to ensure all
their work isn’t harming people, or eroding public trust in our
institutions.
Why Ethics Are So Important for
Engineers?
• Engineers are held to high standards with their work, certainly higher
than most other careers.
• But they should also be held to high ethical standards, to ensure all
their work isn’t harming people, or eroding public trust in our
institutions.
• Engineers are now an integral part of how the world functions on a
minute-to-minute level.
Why Ethics Are So Important for
Engineers?
• They build the computers that hold data about our schools, hospitals,
and governments.
• They build the security that keeps that data safe from hackers.
• They build the systems that guide our planes, that schedule our trains,
that keep us safe from harm.
• This is an important undertaking, and because of the profound impact
it has on human society, one that should be approached with ethics in
mind.
Why Engineers Should Learn About
Ethics:
Engineering Projects Can Have A Direct Impact On People’s Safety
• Whether someone works in infrastructure, electrical, or digital
engineering, their work impacts the everyday lives of civilians.
• All engineers know this, and should strive to do their best work,
ensuring nothing but the highest standards.
• An appreciation for ethics would reinforce this, as not only is doing
good work a matter of professionalism, in the content of engineering
it’s also a matter of morality.
• Bad work brings bad results, which could ruin lives.
Why Engineers Should Learn About
Ethics:
It Gives Them Ability to Push Back Against Bad Decisions
• We’re bombarded with news stories about how companies seem to
flout ethical considerations relating to privacy, propriety, or even
safety.
• Ethics are often dropped in the face of increased profits, and this
decision always comes from those at the top, not the engineers who
actually work on the projects.
• Facebook, Google, Volkswagen, and others companies have come
under fire for acting unethically.
Why Engineers Should Learn About
Ethics:
It Gives Them Ability to Push Back Against Bad Decisions
• Since engineers will often be working for large companies (with big
budgets) the questions of ethics should be raised as early on in an
engineer’s career as possible.
• It should form part of the culture of engineering, and be celebrated as
something to be proud of.
• A grounding in ethics empowers engineers to bring concerns forward,
and ensure that the proper level of scrutiny is applied to unsafe or
unethical practices.
Why Engineers Should Learn About
Ethics:
Ethics have to be explained to AI Systems
• We’ve all seen movies and read books about artificial intelligence
systems rising up and turning against humanity.
• While the experts don’t think that will happen, there is a very real
possibility that AI will have a negative impact on certain groups, not
due to malice, but inherent biases encoded into the system by
humans.
• This kind of oversight can and will cause harm if not addressed.
• Engineers who have an ethical framework will already have a solid
foundation from which to fix this problem.
Why Engineers Should Learn About
Ethics:
Ethics have to be explained to AI Systems
• Conscious or unconscious biases can be easily input into a machine
that has no capacity for recognizing them as ‘bad’, because the
machine isn’t aware of any other model of looking at the world.
• This can only be overcome if engineers look inwards to uncover their
own biases, and interrogate themselves as to why those biases exist.
Why Engineers Should Learn About
Ethics:
Ethics have to be explained to AI Systems
• When it comes to programming an AI, all decisions should be subject
to scrutiny, filtered through an ethical lens.
• Engineers have a responsibility to unlearn these biases, to ensure that
any AI they build don't pick them up.
Engineering Ethics
• A more ethical society is a better society, so the more people who
study ethics, the better.
Sources:
• Engineering Ethics: concepts and cases by C. Harris Jr, M.Pritchard and
M. Rabins
• https://www.tutorialspoint.com/engineering_ethics/
engineering_ethics_introduction.htm
Learning Activity/Final Project:
Create a brochure.
• The content of the brochure can be about:
• College of Engineering
• Computer Engineering department
• Computer Engineering as a program
• Computer engineering as a discipline as a course/subject
• Use your creativity to determine what type of brochure you will
create. Don’t be afraid to use your imagination.
Learning Activity/Final Project:
• It will be individual output
• This will also serve as your final project in the course CpE as a
Discipline
• Deadline: January 17, 2022
• Submit hardcopy of the brochure
Learning Activity/Final Project:
Criteria for scoring:
• Attractiveness & Organization 25%
The brochure has exceptionally attractive formatting and well-organized
information.
• Content - Accuracy/ Quantity 25%
Use of facts and the quantity of information is exceptional. Use of facts and
quantity of information is very good.
• Graphics/ Pictures 25%
Graphics go well with the text and there is a good mix of text and graphics.
• Sources/Grammar 25%
Careful and accurate records are kept to document the source of all of the facts and
graphics in the brochure. There are no grammatical mistakes in the brochure.
• Thank you!