The importance of establishing ethical standards within the profession has been recognized for a long time. In 1947 the Canons of Ethics for Engineers was published in The American Engineer. Over time, these standards were reviewed and updated as the industry grew. In 1964, the NSPE Code of Ethics replaced the earlier canons, and is the basis of the current standards.

The importance of engineering ethics in the modern era faced a renewed focus in 2010. The Deepwater Horizon explosion added to a list of engineering disasters such as the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and the flooding of New Orleans, among others.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster prompted Engineering News-Record (ENR) to write the editorial piece “The Gulf Oil-Spill Disaster Is Engineering’s Shame,” which called out the industry. They wrote, “the very definition of engineering as a profession involves an obligation to the greater good of society. The profession prides itself on civic virtue and requires individuals to have a functioning conscience. The profession’s associations should be willing to boldly speak out.”

The editorial generated widespread discussion and served as a catalyst for some to re-examine the ethical responsibility of engineers. For example, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) released an article “The Ethical Lessons of Deepwater” and Purdue University developed a Deepwater Horizon disaster case study for graduate engineering ethics courses.

The danger of valuing money and production over safety was the tragic lesson of Deepwater Horizon. But our current and approaching engineering ethical quandaries are proving even more complex.

Sustainability is becoming an increasing concern. It encompasses technological challenges and societal challenges. Technically, we need to create long-lived products that account for the entire lifespan of the product. But questions of sustainability also present us with far more challenging societal questions. How is production connected to human exploitation? Is it ethical to use resources to create new technologies when the world’s poorest people lack basic services like water and sanitation?

Engaging in engineering in the modern world means grappling with difficult ethical and societal realities. This can be difficult for new engineering graduates without the accrued experience that comes with having worked professionally in their field. Engineers are expected to have a deep technical understanding, but might generally be less familiar with the social sciences and social science methodology. They may instead rely on their own personal experiences, or stereotypes portrayed in popular media which lack nuance and critical examination.  Ensuring students have a solid grounding in engineering ethics by the time they finish their degree can help ensure they have the foundation to make ethical decisions in their work.

More concerning is a study completed in 2013 that found engineering students are less concerned about public welfare at the end of their degree than they were at the beginning. The study was completed at Rice University but surveyed 300 students across four institutions in the Northeast.

“Issues that are nontechnical in nature are often perceived as irrelevant to the problem-solving process,” Erin Cech, the author of the study explained. “There seems to be very little time or space in engineering curricula for nontechnical conversations about how particular designs may reproduce inequality—for example, debating whether to make a computer faster, more technologically savvy and expensive versus making it less sophisticated and more accessible for customers.”

Engineering education was described as having a culture of disengagement. Cech, who has a degree in electrical engineering, found this alarming. Practicing engineers address social welfare concerns regularly. “If students are not prepared to think through these issues of public welfare, then we might say they are not fully prepared to enter the engineering practice,” Cech said.

Engineering schools have always included ethics courses in their programs, but across the country new or expanded ethics programs are being introduced. Today, we are seeing concentrated efforts to introduce an increasing number of innovative and in-depth ethics courses and programs into engineering education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Creating a sustainable future will require training engineers differently, with ethics as a cornerstone. New programs must go beyond technical problem-solving and focus on navigating the intertwined social and technical elements of the problems that engineers are facing. This requires an understanding of cultures, information and ecosystems, as well as science and technology.

We discuss a few examples of these new programs below.

Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering’s Changemaking Engineers

The Changemaking Engineering program at the University of San Diego takes a holistic engineering approach. The focus of the program goes beyond innovation and encompasses sociotechnical, leadership and professional skills. One way they accomplish this is through their integrated engineering program.

Integrated engineering is a dual bachelor's degree that spans both arts and sciences (BS/BA). The science component gives students a strong technical foundation and the arts component contextualizes engineering to help the student understand the impact engineers have on society.

A sociotechnical approach was also incorporated into the course using the PESTEL framework (political, economic, social, technical, environmental and legal). This framework challenges students to understand the implications of energy beyond technical understanding. The framework helps the students to understand the limitations of technical expertise and emphasizes the importance of collaborating with other experts to solve larger sociotechnical problems. As an example, one topic they covered was energy consumption.

Colorado School of Mines

The Colorado School of Mines offers an engineering degree that promotes sustainability, socially-responsible engineering and justice. The focus of the program is on real-world design that emphasizes the social, economic and environmental context of engineering.

The degree has two focus areas addressing world-wide challenges or finding innovative solutions, with an additional option of an individualized focus. However, students that wish to pursue a more interdisciplinary degree can minor in Engineering for Community Development or Leadership in Social Responsibility. Both minors require courses grounded in the social sciences.

USC Viterbi School of Engineering

The USC Viterbi School of Engineering has recently expanded its Engineering Writing Program into the Engineering in Society Program. The program will aim to address humanistic aspects of engineering by grounding courses in ethics and the liberal arts.

“Today’s engineers require more than technical skills,” USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos said in a news release. “They need to understand and consider the interests of the communities affected by engineering practice; a strong knowledge of ethical responsibilities in view of the rapid and powerful changes in technology; a deep understanding of themselves and their place in society; and they must be able to articulate their ideas to those they impact.”

The school has launched new courses for the program and is expected to launch more courses going forward. One such course is Ethics, Technology and Value. In the course, students will critically explore the relationship between technology and society. The course is designed to give students the foundation to make better ethical decisions in their professional engineering careers.

National Society of Professional Engineers

Naturally, ethics education extends beyond engineering degrees. As technologies change, engineers in the field are faced with novel ethical dilemmas. The PE Institute offers continuing education and conferences to help practicing engineers stay current in the topics that affect their industry.

NSPE members have access to many free courses, including many on ethics in engineering. The courses offered via NSPE also qualify for professional development hours.

Among the course offerings is the Climate Action for Engineers Series, which examines how sociological and cultural understandings influence how climate issues are framed. Another course offered is Ethics in our Changing World. This course explores how ethics are applied in the real world by analyzing case studies.  These are only a couple examples of the courses and topics available.

Life-long learning is an important aspect of the engineering profession. A part of this education is critically analyzing the impacts of engineering and understanding the context of the practice.

In 2010, ENR wrote in their editorial, “The U.S. hasn’t reconciled the idea that engineers can render miracles…with the idea that each fresh miracle hurls us into unfamiliar territory. The key issue isn’t that the Gulf oil spill has violated expectations of a quick technological fix; it’s that engineering by its nature produces new risks.”

The Deepwater Horizon disaster was a strong reminder of the importance of ethics in the profession of engineering. The choices engineers make impact society, the environment and the entire profession of engineering. Emphasizing ethics in engineering courses and providing a holistic engineering education will hopefully help to dismantle the culture of disengagement and create a strong engineering workforce.