Overcoming Challenges to Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers

许多学生被工程吸引，因为他们认为这是一种可以改变社会的职业，但要想让工程师改变世界并服务于社会的需求，他们必须适应自己工作对社会的影响。因此，他们需要了解他们的伦理责任以及复杂工程问题的社会和伦理方面。该项目的目标是举办一个研讨会，支持和鼓励教育工作者和大学培养具有社会和全球意识的工程师，从而更好地为实践安全、道德和社会责任的工程做好准备。该项目召集伦理学和工程学的教职员工(1)分享他们在教授工程伦理学方面的工作、经验和教训；(2)讨论克服体制和文化挑战的策略；以及(3)制定计划和合作，推动将伦理学纳入工科学生教育的努力。最近的研究表明，在工科学生的教育过程中，他们变得不那么关心公益问题，这是一个问题，因为工程学行为准则规定，工程师必须“把公众的安全、健康和福利放在首位”。越来越多的研究发现，导致社会关注度下降的文化和制度因素，例如教职员工下意识地将伦理考虑归类为非工程学工作的倾向。通过将致力于改善工程师道德发展的教职员工和能够指导他们的专家演讲者聚集在一起，这个互动和协作的研讨会正在创建一个由美国各地机构的教职员工和管理人员组成的队列，他们将相互支持，创造制度变革，使工程师更好地准备好适应他们工作的伦理和社会影响。该项目的目的是为致力于改善工程学学生伦理发展的伦理学和工程学教职员工举办一次研讨会。该研讨会旨在培养一批美国教师和管理人员，他们可以充当变革的推动者，并在创造制度转型方面相互支持，以更好地为他们面临的道德和社会复杂工作做好准备。参加研讨会的教职员工和管理人员(1)分享他们的工作、经验和教训；(2)讨论克服体制和文化挑战的策略；(3)制定计划和合作，推动将伦理学纳入工科学生教育的努力。为了增加学员对所在机构的潜在影响，他们以机构团队的形式申请和参加，其中包括教职员工和院长，他们必须从所在大学获得部分资金支持。与会者在研讨会上有非正式和有指导的机会来制定战略和制定计划，将伦理学纳入工程课程。具有工程伦理、克服体制和文化偏见的方法以及伦理教育方面知识的演讲者将作为与会者的导师；并使用知识共享、指导和积极参与的方法来增加专业合作和相互支持的机会。讨论的重点是如何克服使这一领域的教育举步维艰的体制和文化挑战。正在制作和广泛传播研讨会会议的录像带和活动总结报告，以使出席者以外的教职员工能够从演讲和讨论中学习。该项目旨在培养一种关注工程发展伦理的文化，鼓励在全国各地的工程项目中纳入伦理和社会考虑因素，并将聚光灯投向那些成功为工程师提供工作伦理方面培训的机构。

Many students are drawn to engineering because they see it as a career in which they can make a difference in society, but for engineers to change the world and serve the needs of society they must be attuned to the impacts of their work on society. They therefore need to understand their ethical responsibilities and the social and ethical aspects of complex engineering problems. The objective of this project is to hold a workshop that supports and encourages educators and colleges to create socially and globally aware engineers who are thus better prepared to practice safe, ethical, and socially responsible engineering. The project convenes faculty members in ethics and engineering to (1) share their work, experiences, and lessons learned in teaching engineering ethics; (2) discuss strategies for overcoming institutional and cultural challenges; and (3) develop plans and collaborations for advancing efforts to incorporate ethics in the education of engineering students. Recent research shows that during engineering students' education they become less concerned with public welfare issues, which is a problem because engineering codes of conduct state that engineers must "hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public." Increasingly, research is identifying cultural and institutional factors that contribute to a decline in social concern, such as the tendency of faculty members to unconsciously categorize ethics considerations as nonengineering work. By bringing faculty members who are working to improve the ethical development of engineers together with expert speakers that can mentor them, this interactive and collaborative workshop is creating a cohort of faculty and administrators at institutions across the US who will support one another in creating institutional change that will better prepare engineers to be attuned to ethical and social impacts of their work.The aim of this project is to convene a workshop for faculty members in ethics and engineering who are working to improve the ethical development of engineering students. The workshop is designed to create a cohort of US faculty and administrators who can serve as agents of change and support one another in creating institutional transformations to better prepare engineers for the ethically and socially complex work that they face. Faculty and administrators attending the workshop (1) share their work, experiences, and lessons learned; (2) discuss strategies for overcoming institutional and cultural challenges; and (3) develop plans and collaborations for advancing efforts to incorporate ethics into the education of engineering students. To increase attendees' potential impact on their institution, they apply and attend as institutional teams that include faculty and deans and must obtain partial financial support from their university. Attendees have both informal and guided opportunities at the workshop to strategize and develop plans for incorporating ethics in engineering curriculum. Speakers knowledgeable in engineering ethics, ways to overcome institutional and cultural bias, and ethics education serve as mentors for the attendees; and knowledge sharing, mentoring, and active engagement approaches are used to enhance opportunities for professional collaboration and mutual support. Discussion focuses on how to overcome the institutional and cultural challenges that make education in this area difficult. Video recordings of workshop sessions and a summary report on the event are being created and broadly disseminated to enable faculty beyond those in attendance to learn from the presentations and discussions. The project is designed to foster a culture attentive to ethics in engineering development, encourage the inclusion of ethical and social considerations in engineering programs across the country, and shine a spotlight on institutions that are successfully preparing engineers for the ethical aspects of their work.