Feb 24 2014
Today’s engineers must not only possess the ability to analyse problems but also the capability to synthesise solutions
An emerging element of this evolving engineering context is open innovation, writes Charles Vest. Open innovators go wherever the solutions are available. They don’t like to be confined in themselves. They like to go beyond the inner means for solving problems. They are not afraid to go out, wherever they think they can find solutions. “Much of what will be exciting and valuable in the 21st century will be the work of engineers who will move tiny systems technology into macro systems applications,” says Vest. As Cherry Murray says, we want engineers who are like “T-shaped” thinkers; deep in one field, but able to work across all fields and communicate well.
We need a different kinds of engineering educators. We need to shift the focus of engineering curricula “from transmission of content to development of skills that support engineering thinking and professional judgment.” The challenge of future engineering education is to weave its various components — engineering profession, the society it serves, educational institutions, educators, and students — into a whole.
The rulebook of engineering ethics includes many things. It includes honesty and integrity in acknowledging un-success and errors. Distorting or altering or omitting the facts that are not in conformity with applicable engineering standards is unethical engineering practice. Engineers are expected to encourage extending public knowledge and appreciation of engineering and its achievements. One of the major obligations of engineering ethics is to bring the guilty to the proper authority. It is the responsibility of the engineers to take care of the proprietary interests of others,and to give credit where it is due. One big responsibilities is to keep oneself updated about professional developments and practices.
Engineers need to ask themselves the most important question — do I take pride in designing a thing and manufacturing it as I take pride in packaging it? Ethics is about moral principles. The simple and easy definition of ethics is “knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is the right thing to do”. Ethics is about what engineers are supposed to do and what they are doing. As Cicero said eons ago “public safety must be pre-eminent in everything engineers do”.
Should ethics be taught to engineering students? Is it feasible to introduce ethics course in the already burdened engineering curriculum? Educators are realising the importance of ethical sensitivity while preparing engineering professionals. Teaching engineering ethics can achieve some desirable outcomes, writes Joseph Herkert. The outcomes are increased ethical sensitivity, increased knowledge of relevant standards of conduct, improved ethical judgment, and improved ethical will-power (that is, a greater ability to act ethically when one wants to). Educators who are involved with teaching engineering ethics say that components of ethics can be introduced into an existing curriculum either by introducing a new course or by keeping provision for ethics in the already existing courses, such as design courses. Design provides a context in which ethical issues typically arise naturally.
It is good to remember that, as someone rightly pointed out, “The teachings of Plato, Mill, Kant, Spinoza, Descartes, Nietzsche, Epicurus, Confucius, and others will indeed provide a very solid foundation for the understanding of ethics. But it is important that ethics courses also deal with the pragmatic issues that confront engineers in the rough-and-tumble, everyday world in which they live and work.” zz
(The writer is a biotechnologist
and ED, Birla Institute of Scientific Research, Jaipur)