Importance Of Engineering Ethics

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In our postmodern era, engineering ethics has gained importance in curriculum more than any time in the past. Our research is intended to summarize information about how different institutions offer engineering ethics at the undergraduate level. In their paper - “Ethics Teaching in Undergraduate Engineering Education” – Anne Colby and William Sullivan tell that ethics education is being offered in the following different manners: * “Stand-alone courses”, provided either by the engineering department (engineering ethics courses), or by the philosophy department (ethics and moral philosophy courses). * “Brief discussions” on various ethics topics such as professional responsibility, public safety. These discussions comprise either references to some engineering failures’ cases in classroom, or assignments in which students discuss “trade-offs” between possible “conflicting values” like cost and safety. * “Modules on engineering ethics”, comprising two to three sessions, or included in freshman year introductory courses. There are two main educational means for fostering a sense of professional responsibility: case studies and community-based learning. In case studies, many cases have become classical and familiar, such as the Challenger disaster. It includes “violations of professional standards, human error, and organizational failure”. In community-based learning, students are involved in service activities that have a connection to the theory that they learn in class. Also they reflect on these activities through journal writing and class discussions. An interesting example is that of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at Columbia University, in which all students are expected to be involved in community-based projects in New York City, as part of their engineering curriculum. The projects conducted at the freshman year are of course

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