E 45: Properties of Materials

Laboratory 0: Engineering Ethics

Instructor: Lane W. Martin

Laboratory 0:
Engineering Ethics

Objectives
1.
2.
3.
4.

To understand what is meant by ethics as it pertains to science and engineering.

To define ethics and ethics practice as it pertains to science and engineering.
To explore various ethical arguments and approaches.
To apply ethical arguments and approaches to a case study.

Overview
This laboratory exercise will center around a brief introduction to ethics, ethical codes in engineering, the
skills one requires to be an ethical engineer, various ethical theories, and a few case studies. The goal of
the in-class section is to equip you with some (not all) of the concepts and language you will need to have
to discuss ethical dilemmas and judgments in engineering. You will then be tasked with writing a brief
summary and analysis of an engineering event, disaster, or case where ethics has a key role to play.

Laboratory Report
Building from the discussion you have had in the lab section, please do the following for your Laboratory 0
report:

E 45: Properties of Materials

Laboratory 0: Engineering Ethics

Instructor: Lane W. Martin

Identify an engineering, event, disaster, case, etc. which is worthy of ethical argument. What this
means is that one should find a happening that presents an ethical dilemma and perhaps resulted
in criminal charges, a lawsuit, injuries/death, etc. Examples of cases that are worthy of study
include, but are not limited to:
o Bay Bridge, eastern span
o Solyndra
o Theranos
o Takata airbags
o Human cloning
o Henrik Schon (formerly of Bell Labs/Lucent)
o Hwang Woo-suk (formerly of Seoul National University)
o Haruko Obokata (formerly of RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology)
o Craig Grimes (formerly of Penn State)
o A good case is one where an individual, organization, community failed to apply the various
ethical theories and follow the ethical guidelines presented in your lab.
o Look broadly beyond these cases find one that means something to you or your field of
study.
Read about the case of your choice find references (articles, cases, etc.) to provide you ample
information and understanding of the case.
Write a 2-3 page, single-space, Arial 10 or Times New Roman 11 font, justified laboratory report
that includes the following items:
o Abstract/Executive Summary Briefly summarize the case, major findings, issues.
o Introduction Introduce the case in more detail; Who? What? When? Where? and Why?
o Analysis and Discussion Analyze the case with respect to the NSPE Code and (some or
all) of the ethical theories (select the ones that mean something to you or are well-suited
to the case at hand). What ethics skills were overlooked or ignored by the actors? How or
what could be done to avoid such events in the future?
o Conclusions Summarize the major findings of your case analysis what are the lessons
learned, the major outcomes for the community from this case?