1. Engineering Ethics Engineering Values
Lyle D. Feisel, Dean Emeritus
Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science
State University of New York - Binghamton
Taught and did research for twenty years,
Was the founding dean of engineering at the State University of New York at Binghamton for 18 years,
Active in both ASEE and IEEE

2. The Goal of Engineering Education
To produce graduates who are able to:
Successfully practice the profession of engineering
Continue learning throughout their career
How do we decide if, as engineering educators, we have been successful? If we have fulfilled the goals of Engineering Education?
By producing successful graduates.
It is the success of our students that determines how successful we have been
Successful throughout their careers. That means they must not only do the job they are in but must prepare for the job of the future

3. To do this, engineering educators
Determine what students need to learn
Help them to learn it
(Notice I didn’t use the word teach. All we can really do is help our students to learn)
It is a two step process:
Determine what students should learn and
Then help them to learn it.
To say that we teach puts too much emphasis on what we do.
Better to say that the student learns, reducing our role to helping them to learn.
Our big job is to MANAGE OUR STUDENTS’ LEARNING ACTIVITIES

4. Blooms Taxonomy The Domains of Learning Benjamin Bloom - 1956
Cognitive Domain
Psychomotor Domain
Affective Domain
So how do we determine what our students should learn?
A very helpful tool in doing this is a taxonomy developed by Benjamin Bloom, some sixty years ago.
He divided learning into three domains, Cognitive, Psychomotor and Affective.
Let me define those

5. The Cognitive Domain Evaluate Create Analyze Apply Understand Remember
A lot of what we learn consists of cognitive tasks, i.e. we think about it.
Bloom used these words to further classify learning in the cognitive domain.
These are arranged in the order of decreasing intellectual complexity

6. The Cognitive Domain Evaluate Create Analyze Apply Understand Judge
Remember
Judge
Solve
Explain
Compute
Define
Others have used different words in an effort to better describe cognitive activities as related to technical education.
It’s pretty much a restructuring and renaming.
But it helps in assessment
The only way I can tell if you remember a fact is to have you Define (state) it
The only way I can tell if you understand something is to have you Explain it
As an aside, use active verbs when you write learning objectives

7. The Cognitive Domain Evaluate Create Analyze Apply Understand Judge
Remember
Judge
Solve
Explain
Compute
Define
But all of these things are related to the brain, to reason, to logic, to thinking.
You could call it the “Brain Domain”

8. The Psychomotor Domain
Perform physical tasks
Use sensory cues
Create new movement patterns
The psychomotor domain, in contrast, involves physical activity such as pounding a nail or building a model airplane.
It involves a physical action.
It may involve a physical stimulus such as a smell or feel or sight.

9. The Psychomotor Domain
Perform physical tasks
Use sensory cues
Create new movement pattern
All of these things are related to the body – our ability to sense stimuli and to take physical action.
You could call it the “Hand Domain” although other parts of the body may be involved

10. Affective Domain Attitudes Motivations Values Ethics
The affective domain involves less rational processes.
It has less to do with what you reason or manipulate than with what you feel or what you value.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

11. Affective Domain Attitudes Motivations Values Ethics
You might say that it has to do with the heart or call it the “Heart Domain”
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

12. So what do we do in engineering education?
If we analyze what we specify as the learning objectives of our students, we realize we do something in all three domains

13. So what do we do in engineering education?
Cognitive
We do a LOT in the cognitive domain.
Our students learn to use their brains in performing most of the things we want them to learn:
terminology, theory, problem solving, design, communication.

14. So what do we do in engineering education?
Cognitive
Psychomotor
And we do some in the psychomotor domain:
laboratory exercises,
wire up a circuit,
apply a strain gage,
set up a transit, etc.
But compared to the cognitive domain, we don’t do much.

15. So what do we do in engineering education?
Cognitive
Psychomotor
The affective domain? Not very much,
and that pretty much by accident,
maybe teaching a little teamwork or the like.
But really, not much at all
So our educational program generally involves a lot of brain, a little bit of hand , and just a wee bit of heart
Affective

16. Why should we care? Engineering is a profession
Governed by principles, not by rules
Codes of ethics
Engineers have a responsibility to the public
Health, safety, and welfare
Public policy
Engineers have a responsibility to other engineers
But what difference does it make? If our graduates know the language, understand the theories, and can solve the problems, why does it matter that we don’t try to affect their attitudes and values and ethics.
Well, I think it does make a difference because engineering is not a trade; it is a profession which means that it is governed by principles and not rules.
Rules can be followed, Cognitive domain
Principles can only provide guidance. Affective domain
Also, engineers have a responsibility to the public and to the engineering profession.
This responsibility does not arise by rational thought but by the relationships we develop
“Responsibility” is related to the affective domain
“Engineer” is a class. If AN engineer cheats, it may be interpreted as “Engineers cheat”

17. Why should we care if we neglect the affective domain?
Engineering is a profession
Governed by principles, not by rules
Codes of ethics
Engineers have a responsibility to the public
Health, safety, and welfare
Public policy
Engineers have a responsibility to other engineers
In summary, ALL OF THESE REQUIRE AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT WE MEAN BY ETHICS, VALUES AND ATTITUDES
plus HAVING the VALUES and ATTITUDES that result in a commitment to fulfill these responsibilities.
All of these require an understanding of ethics, values and attitudes

18. Engineering educators have a responsibility
To the public
To the engineering profession
To other engineers
To their students
Engineering educators have a responsibility
So now IN SUMMARY we, as engineering educators, have a responsibility to (the list).
We have a responsibility to help our students understand their ethical responsibility (a cognitive task) and
to inspire them to meet that responsibility (an affective task)
The former is much easier than the latter
To help their students understand their ethical responsibility
To inspire their students to meet that responsibility (Values)

19. Ethics and Values
Ethics are principles that help us determine what is the right thing to do
Our values determine whether or not we will do the right thing
Here are the definitions.
The principles of ethics can be learned.
The case can be made that VALUES ARE ESTABLISHED EARLY IN LIFE.
I believe they can be changed
I believe they can be influenced by example and that they can be clarified by discussion.
Which brings us to the FIRST thing I think you should do

20. So how do we meet this responsibility?
First, know yourself.
Set an example
This above all: to thine own self be true
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
- Shakespeare in Hamlet
Mainly, I will be talking about how to help your students learn the principles of ethics.
Underneath anything you do, however, your attitude, YOUR values will become apparent.
So the first thing you need to do is consider your own values and
how you will communicate them, intentionally or not, to your students.

21. So how do we meet this responsibility?
Second, see that every student receives a copy of an appropriate Code of Ethics
Some Indian engineering societies maintain written codes
Institution of Engineers – India
India Society of Engineers
Most American and international engineering societies maintain codes
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (Great Britain) has an extensive “Rules of Conduct”
Choose a general code or one that is specific to your discipline
Paper or electronic? Why not both?
But lets concentrate on learning the principles of engineering ethics.
The next step is very easy; introduce your students to the idea that there are principles that should guide our behavior and that
A lot of people have given a lot of thought to those principles. Many tens of thousands of hours
They are embodied in Codes of Ethics.
See that your students have one (or more) in their list of favorites and in their notebooks (or whatever your students use)

22. IEEE Code of Ethics
Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public
Avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest
Be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data
Reject bribery in all its forms
Improve the understanding … of the capabilities and societal implications of … technologies
Here is an abbreviated example of a code, that of IEEE.
There are other sections of the code as well but these are some of the most salient.
Chances are that your students have never thought about these things so this can serve as a good discussion starter.

23. So how do we meet this responsibility?
Third: Get students to: Read Think Talk Listen Write about ethics and values
But back to our responsibility to help our students to understand ethics.
Like most any subject, it will help if they read, think, talk, listen and write about the subject.
GREAT. So how do we get them to do that?

24. So how do we do that? (Get students to read, think, talk, listen, write about ethics)
Independent course on engineering ethics
Pros
Faculty responsibility is clear (Instructor assigned)
Materials are readily available
Students concentrate on material (They will be graded)
Can provide depth
Cons
Unless it is required, few students will elect the course
Can be seen as add-on and not integral part of engineering
One possibility is to have an independent course in engineering ethics.
Best taught by engineers to make it more authentic and less theoretical.
Various pros and cons.

25. Another possibility (Get students to read, think, talk, listen, write about ethics)
Integrate into engineering coursework
Pros
Looks like integral part of engineering education
Seems more authentic – involves all engineering faculty
One of the first things students hear (Intro to Engineering)
One of the last things students hear (Capstone Design)
And many times in between
Cons
Takes some time away from technical education
Professors not comfortable with subject
Students may not have incentive (no grade?)
Responsibility may be diffuse (No assigned instructor)
If everyone is in charge, no one is in charge
Assign a coordinator
Another possibility – the one I like - is to
integrate ethics into the engineering course work.
Perhaps have every course have one assignment and one day per semester devoted to ethics.
There are various pros and cons

26. An Integrated Ethics Program
Get faculty buy-in
Assign a coordinator
Every professor do something
Have students read a story (case study) and discuss
Search “Engineering ethics examples”
Look for a story that relates to subject of class
Have students write a story about ethics and discuss
Choose one principle from the code of ethics as a subject
Report to faculty
So lets say you do not have an ethics program and you would like to have one. Where do you start?
The faculty must support this activity because it does have
faculty doing something they are not used to – addressing the affective domain –
so get faculty buy-in.
Second, somebody needs to be in charge.
Department head or assistant head would be good. The more clout, the better.
Then every faculty member do something every semester.
Faculty members should report their activity to the coordinator who should write a summary report
That’s a BIG ORDER and may not be realistic.
But individual faculty members (or two or three) can do the things listed here.

27. Other Possibilities One-day workshop for faculty
Identify issues
Define terms
Analyze ethical complexity
Sensitize faculty to ethical issues
Provide ideas on how to start a discussion
Enlist Liberal Arts faculty
Involve student organizations
At the department or school level, here are some other possibilities.

28. Do it! At a minimum: So get started
Distribute and discuss a code of ethics
Discuss ethics education with faculty
Decide what to do
Do it!
So if you are already doing ethics education, GREAT.
If not, you owe it to your students, to their future employers, and to society to do something.
At a minimum:
FINALLY, if it just YOU, do it in your classes. Distribute a code. Assign a story. Discuss in class

29. Thank you for joining us today and for your kind attention
Lyle D. Feisel, Dean Emeritus
Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science
State University of New York - Binghamton