Ethical Challenges Affecting Engineers and Engineering Education

Abstract

Engineering is a creative field produced by an intelligent mixing of science, practice and policy (or ethics). Engineers design, create and test products and processes to enhance safety, improve health and welfare of the public in performance of their professional duties. We are making these changes to stay on the cutting edge of technologies and markets that are of crucial importance to our stakeholders – engineers, students and industries that support engineering applications. Challenges to ethically drive innovations to produce connectivity between people, systems and their performance in most circumstances have started affecting engineering education. This paper will map future ethical challenges affecting engineering education. The knowledge base, economy and globalization continue to challenge the basic industrial and hi-tech era assumptions upon which most public schools, curricula and evaluation mechanisms are based. After the start of digital divide period, new interactive digital media are diffusing in rapidly, even in low income groups, inculcating a youth-media culture that is gate crashing into schools and educators like a huge tsunami, producing inconsistent student performance across the U.S. making engineering education lag behind those of other countries. On an ethical level an American engineer is intimately involved in growing global US relations – and in reaching agreements between U.S. and other countries producing enormous outsourcing contracts. It is a good question, as to how do one feel that these challenges have to be answered in the right perspective to accomplish amicable results for the society in the time of economic downturn. Though training in ethics, in recent years has achieved widespread and enthusiastic acceptance throughout the engineering community, yet a lot needs to be done to teach ethical principals in every engineering subject. This paper is an introduction to all points of interest in university-industry and student relations to evolve a road map to a rewarding engineering career