Engineering Ethics

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TEXAS A&M INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY


Department of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics








ENGR 2103 – 2L1


Gerardo Pinzon, PE


Spring 2012Carlos Montalvo


Engineering Ethics Assignment


March 22, 2012








I. Introduction
A. Significance of the Study
II. Body
A. Background
1. The 19th century andgrowing concern
2. Turning of the 20th century and turning point
3. Codes of engineering ethics
4. Obligation to society
B. Analysis
1. Whistle-blowing
2. Conduct
a. Relationships with clients, consultants, competitors, and contractors
b. Treatment of confidential orproprietary information
c. Consideration of the employer’s assets
d. Bribery and kickbacks
III. Conclusion
A. Concluding Statement
1. Analytical Summary
B. Recommendations
























Carlos Montalvo
Dr. Pinzon
ENGR 2103 – 2L1
22 March 2012

Engineers and Ethics

The computerage brought about dramatic changes in how we work, think, communicate, and live. We live in an age where we are able to transform, manipulate, and create organisms for any number of productive or creative purposes. It is critical for engineers to maintain an ethical reputation and good moral values within the engineer's career. The main principles that an engineer should work towards and theduties engineers live by are “to hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public, perform services only in areas of their competence, and conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, ethically, and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation, and usefulness of the profession”(NSPE).
The 19th century and growing concern


Starting in the early 19th Century, there was aresurgence of ethics-related activity in the four founding engineering societies: ASCE, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, ASME, and the American Institute of Mining Engineers. These engineering societies were developed by the rise of professionalism in the United States. Back then, engineering ethics were perceived as a personal affair. As the 20th Century began, significant structuralfailures had occurred around the world, most of them being bridge failures, such as the Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster, in which people lost their lives and two of the bridge designers committed suicide. Another disaster, a collapse known as the world's worst bridge construction disaster, the 1907 Collapse of the Quebec Bridge, took the lives of 75 local workers and injured 35 other people. Manyother structures were victims of their creators’ mistakes. The many disasters forced engineers to raise awareness of the engineering practices and ethics in the workplace.


Turning of the 20th century and turning point
The concerns with the accidents made three of the four engineering societies form codes of ethics for engineering practices. The Engineering Ethics have been oriented towardsprotecting the public from professional misconduct by engineers and from the harmful effects of technology. The concern for public safety also gave birth to the requirement of the professional license in the United States for an engineer to have the right to practice the profession the majority of the states in the US. The first requirements were to have an amount of practice in the professionand meeting the required education standards. Over the following years, the United States and Canada required engineers to have the special license to practice the career. Each of the countries had a different way to settle the new rules. The Unites States passed special legislation to reserve the title rights of professional engineers who met the criteria. In Canada, they made rules to require...