EEE3099/3100

Professional Studies A/B

Dr Leah Ridgway
Prof Steve Morgan
Dr Amanda Wright
 Week 34

There are 4 parts to this week:

3 narrated power points:

• Engineering Ethics
• Ethics in public life
• Sustainability

1 case study:
• Case study – discussed in more detail at the lecture engagement
session on Thursday the 13th at 2pm.

This is the last week of taught material for this course.

Engineering Ethics

Dr. Amanda Wright

 Being a responsible engineer

Moving on from building a successful company, developing a new idea, producing a

business plan, negotiating a successful business deal etc.

… to consider what it means to be responsible engineer …

• Ethics
• Sustainability
• Health and Safety
• Legal implications

We will look at a number of case studies to support this topic

 This lecture will focus on ethics in Engineering

 Ethics

Oxford dictionary definition of ‘Ethics’

Moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting

of an activity.

The moral correctness of specified conduct.

‘a code of ethics’
 A code of ethics

In medicine there is the Hippocratic Oath …

…. many medical students today in the UK still swear on the
Hippocratic Oath at their graduation ceremony.

A Greek medical text believed to date back to 275 AD

In Engineering we do not have one such code

of ethics but many engineering professional
societies have prepared their own (similar)
codes of ethics.
 IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers: "We, the members of the IEEE,
… do hereby commit ourselves to the highest
ethical and professional conduct and agree to
accept responsibility in making decisions
consistent with the safety, health and welfare
of the public, and to disclose promptly factors
that might endanger the public or the
environment”
 Royal Academy of Engineering

In the UK most Engineers / Intuitions / Industries look to the Royal

Academy of Engineering's Statement of Ethical Principles

Royal Academy of Engineering was founded in 1976 and it the UK’s

national academy for engineering and technology

https://www.raeng.org.uk/policy
/engineering-ethics/ethics
 RAEng Statement of Ethical Principles

Royal academy of Engineering's statement of Ethical Principles:

‘Engineering professionals work to enhance the wellbeing of society. In

doing so they are required to maintain and promote high ethical
standards and challenge unethical behaviour. There are four
fundamental principles for ethical behaviour and decision-making.’

• Honesty and integrity

• Respect for life, law and the public good
• Accuracy and rigour
• Leadership and communication

I want to take some time now to think about these all in more detail …
 Honesty and integrity

Engineering professionals have a duty to uphold the highest standards of

professional conduct including openness, fairness, honesty and integrity.
They should:

 act in a reliable and trustworthy manner

 be alert to the ways in which their work and behaviour might affect
others and respect the privacy, rights and reputations of other parties
and individuals
 respect confidentiality
 declare conflicts of interest
 avoid deception and take steps to prevent or report corrupt practices or
professional misconduct
 reject bribery and improper influence
 Honesty and integrity cont..

• Different but closely linked – someone who is dishonest is unlikely to be

described as having integrity!

• Honesty is not simply a matter of not lying: an engineer may at times

need to disclose information which has not been requested directly, and
which in some cases people may not want to hear.
This can be harder when confidentiality agreements exists

• Integrity is a more difficult concept to define. It has to do with acting

ethically, even when there is no personal advantage to doing so. People
with integrity are consistent and reliable, and their actions match up to
their words.
 Discussion point - Honesty and integrity

Esther works on military contracts for a company manufacturing

sensors which can detect and warn of the presence of chemical
and biological agents. Esther is proud that her work contributes
to equipment that saves lives. One day, she is asked to begin
working on a new lightweight radar which can sense and display
the movement and location of soldiers and vehicles on the
battlefield. With this information soldiers can quickly call in
mortars and artillery fire to destroy enemy positions. Can Esther
work on the new project and keep her integrity?
 Respect for life, law and the public good

Engineering professionals have a duty to obey all applicable laws and

regulations and give due weight to facts, published standards and
guidance and the wider public interest. They should:

 hold paramount the health and safety of others and draw attention to hazards
 ensure their work is lawful and justified
 recognise the importance of physical and cyber security and data protection
 respect and protect personal information and intellectual property
 protect, and where possible improve, the quality of built and natural environments
 maximise the public good and minimise both actual and potential adverse effects
for their own and succeeding generations
 take due account of the limited availability of natural resources
 uphold the reputation and standing of the profession
 Respect for life, law and the public good cont …

• Clearly something we all have a responsibility here - but an Engineer

has professional responsibilities to respect and uphold this principle.
• Not limited to health and safety but also covers resect for the law,
respect for (and protection of) the natural environment
• Very sensitive to changing social and political standards and
expectations
• The steps engineers are expected to take to protect others have
changed significantly over time and vary across the world
• For example – In the building of Brunel’s Great Western Railway 100
people died blasting one tunnel alone.
 Example - Respect for life, law and the public good

‘You are the European Regional Engineering Director for a

multinational chemical company. After an explosion at a
chemical plant, you have responsibility for preventing similar
accidents at 10 other sites. The inquiry team has been unable to
identify the cause with complete accuracy, and they have
recommended that you initiate discussions with competitor
companies to pool knowledge. This would be unconventional,
and would entail significant commercial risk.’
 Accuracy and rigour

Engineering professionals have a duty to acquire and use wisely the

understanding, knowledge and skills needed to perform their role. They
should:

 always act with care

 perform services only in areas in which they are currently competent or
under competent supervision
 keep their knowledge and skills up to date
 assist the development of engineering knowledge and skills in others
 present and review theory, evidence and interpretation honestly,
accurately, objectively and without bias, while respecting reasoned
alternative views
 identify, evaluate, quantify, mitigate and manage risks
 Accuracy and rigour – cont…

• Professional engineers have a duty to ensure that they acquire and use
wisely and faithfully the knowledge that is relevant to the engineering
skills needed in their work
• Inaccuracies and carelessness in engineering can mean failure of
engineering projects, which can mean financial failures, accidents,
injuries and deaths
• Professionalism involves being honest about level and areas of
competence
• Many engineering projects are novel and will require previously untested
skills and methods ….. here the engineers duty is to ensure risks are
managed and steps taken by the team to acquire the appropriate skills.
• Be aware of the value that is given to your professional opinion –
don’t give it lightly or on the basis of insufficient evidence
 Example – accuracy and rigour

Bill is a software engineer who is asked to give an opinion in

court as to the level of security offered by a company’s data
protection procedures. Bill suspects that the system may not be
completely secure, though he has not had the opportunity to
inspect it as thoroughly as he would like. Should Bill accept the
request to appear as an expert witness? If so, how should he
phrase his testimony?
 Leadership and communication

Engineering professionals have a duty to abide by and promote high

standards of leadership and communication. They should:

 be aware of the issues that engineering and technology raise for

society, and listen to the aspirations and concerns of others
 promote equality, diversity and inclusion
 promote public awareness and understanding of the impact and
benefits of engineering achievements
 be objective and truthful in any statement made in their professional
capacity
 challenge statements or policies that cause them professional concern
 Leadership and communication – cont ..

• The focus up until now has been on scenarios where an engineer has to
make a decision
• Think about the engineering profession as a whole, there are
responsibilities that apply to the profession, without being the
responsibility of any specific individual professional.
• Issues such as climate change, energy security, the protection of
personal data
Examples of policy issues where the engineering profession can
make an important contribution.
• However, it is individual engineers who must make the decision to
follow this principle…..
 If there are no engineers who engage with the wider debates in
society, then the profession as a whole cannot fulfil this responsibility.
 Example - Leadership and communication

More of an example than a case study ….

One concern that some people have about carbon capture

technologies as a response to global warming is that the prospect
of a technical solution to the problem may discourage people from
using energy more responsibly. One way in which the engineering
profession could respond to this concern would be to be active in
explaining all the different implications of implementing the new
technology, encouraging a wide and balanced debate that captures
both the positive and negative aspects.
 Summary – RAEng statement of ethical principles

The primary skills engineers require here are the ability:

• to identify the different, and sometimes competing ethical concerns they face
• to analyse the issues that might underlie those concerns
• to respond effectively to those concerns.

• Many of these situations are complex and there can be a range of possible
outcomes
 Often best discussed with colleagues

“Engineers invent the future and their work affects the lives of millions of
people, for better or worse. That raises enormous ethical issues in every branch
of engineering, from computing through biotechnology and energy to civil and
aeronautical.”
Engineering ethics in practice survey