Welcome to the course on ethics in engineering
practice, now what is ethics in engineering
practice?
Engineering as a discipline is designed to
be such that it takes care of the current
life whether in terms of technology of efficiency
or availability with less financial efforts,
it teaches you as a discipline which is meant
to be serving for the public and strictly
adhering to the codes of conduct and placing
paramount importance on safety and welfare
of the public.
During undergraduate courses, the students
receive enough training in the basic and of
the engineering services; problem solving
technology and engineering design but generally,
they receive very less amount of exposure
to the whole business practice safety and
ethics.
Let take an example; we all know of the greatest
and the industrial happening of India, where
in terms of the propyl gas tragedy.
It happened when the toxic gas; methyl isocyanate
leaked and spread out throughout the city,
it is a classic case of safety leakage and
failure and it not only affected the near
about area but the gas spread hot in such
a way, the residents of the city woke up seeing
a black cloud all around and it affected the
lungs, it affected their breathlessness and
it affected generation after generations.
So, in this case, it is far beyond; the effect
is far beyond old lack of safety and it takes
a greater like spread when talks of affecting
the public at large and the society at large,
here comes in the question of not only knowing
the design part of it but understanding the
responsibilities of the engineer himself or
herself as what I will should be doing and
what I should not be doing.
The discipline of ethics spreads far beyond
also this concern of only safety.
It starts from very small issues like should
I incorporate this into the design, should
I not, it enlarges into maybe issues of whether
to take bribes, not to take bribes and if
environmental protection fairnessness, honesty
in research and experiments and majorly to
conflicts of interest.
We sometimes wonder like it gives rise to
the question, what makes a good engineer and
good engineering that is a very basic question
that all engineers faced, like in the profession
when they enter into the particular profession.
What values under like engineering practice
today, which of those values, which is specially
called ethical values, what is the experience
of living by those values and working in a
society and in organization that trust you
to practice those values, how do these values
reflect in you as a person that you are and
the person you would become when you practice
them, knowledge of sustainable business practices
and capability of holistic reaction.
And understanding of the situations before
you take a decision in an ethical dilemma
is a very important competency, which is required
for a responsible engineer.
Engineering ethics is the study of moral issues
and decisions confront individuals and organizations
engaged in engineering study and of related
questions about the moral ideas, character,
policies at relationship of people and corporations
involved in the technological activity.
The course content of this particular course
has been designed in such a way specifically
to not just build a base but to faster a holistic
understanding towards the concept, which will
be very useful for engineers when they enter
into the profession.
The course aims to prepare students for their
professional responsibilities as engineers
to help them recognize and think thoroughly
through the ethical significant problem situations
that they are going to face in their life.
And which are very common in engineering and
to evaluate existing ethical dilemmas in the
situation and the standards for engineering
practice and develop as value oriented engineers,
the proposed closed plan details are such
in week 1, we will go for introduction to
ethical reasoning and engineer ethics, week
2; professional practice in engineering, week
3; ethics as design doing justice to moral
problems, week 4; central professional responsibilities
of engineers.
Week 5; computers software and digital information,
week 6; rights and responsibilities regarding
intellectual property, week 7; workplace rights
and responsibilities and week 8; responsibility
for the environment, the course aims to give
you a holistic coverage of the understanding
not only of the ethical values and practices,
it helps to develop yourself as a value oriented
engineer who understands, what the responsibilities
are.
And acts responsibly to all the stakeholders
involved not only to his own organization
but to the society at large and also to the
environment at large.
We hope we will have a nice journey together
where we will be working not only on the theoretical
part but also will try to discuss cases relevant
to the engineering discipline as much as possible
to understand the pockets of dilemma.
And how to deal with those dilemma and which
will help us to emerge as a value oriented
engineer, this course will be helpful for
the students who are currently into the studying
this subjects as engineers and also for practicing
engineers as a hand holding support to understand
when in situations of dilemma and when they
want to find out what to do in this kind of
situations, whom to address to what is the
correct decisions to be taken.
It will be helpful for the practicing engineers
also to find out what to do in a situation
and emerge as a person who is holistic in
nature and balanced in taking his decisions
in situations of dilemma.
Welcome all of you to the course and we will
have a very nice journey together, thank you.
