Overcoming Challenges to Infusing Ethics into the Development of Engineers

许多学生被工程所吸引，因为他们认为这是一个可以改变社会的职业，但对于工程师来说，要改变世界，服务于社会的需求，他们必须适应他们的工作对社会的影响。因此，他们需要了解他们的道德责任以及复杂工程问题的社会和道德方面。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。该项目召集了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)讨论克服制度和文化挑战的策略；(3)制定计划和合作，以推进将伦理纳入工程学生教育的努力。最近的研究表明，在工程专业学生的教育过程中，他们越来越不关心公共福利问题，这是一个问题，因为工程行为准则规定，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，文化和制度因素导致了社会关注的下降，比如教职员工倾向于无意识地将伦理考虑归类为非工程工作。通过将致力于提高工程师道德发展的教职员工与可以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造一个由美国各地机构的教职员工和管理人员组成的群体，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道德和社会影响。这个项目的目的是为致力于提高工科学生道德发展的伦理学和工程学教员召开一个研讨会。该研讨会旨在培养一批美国教师和管理人员，他们可以作为变革的推动者，在进行制度变革时相互支持，以更好地为工程师们所面临的复杂的伦理和社会工作做好准备。参加研讨会的教师和管理人员(1)分享他们的工作、经验和教训；(2)讨论克服制度和文化挑战的策略；(3)制定计划和合作，推动将伦理学纳入工程学生教育的努力。为了增加与会者对他们所在机构的潜在影响，他们申请并作为包括教师和院长在内的机构团队参加，并且必须从他们的大学获得部分财政支持。与会者在研讨会上有非正式和指导的机会来制定和制定将伦理学纳入工程课程的计划。在工程伦理、克服制度和文化偏见的方法以及伦理教育方面知识渊博的演讲者为与会者提供指导；知识共享、指导和积极参与的方法被用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该地区教育困难的制度和文化挑战。正在制作和广泛传播讲习班会议的录像和活动总结报告，使出席会议的教师以外的人能够从报告和讨论中学习。该项目旨在培养一种关注工程发展中的伦理文化，鼓励在全国范围内的工程项目中纳入伦理和社会考虑，并将聚光灯对准那些成功地为工程师的工作做好伦理准备的机构。

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.