Engineering and professional ethics

Engineering Ethics, or Professional Ethics, is at the center of the engineering profession. A social contract exists between the engineer and the general public. In exchange for the freedom to police our own members, the right to formulate technical standards and the benefit of financial support for engineering education, engineers are expected to look out for the welfare of society in technical decisions and behave in an acceptable professional manner.

To give you some experience with Engineering Ethics you will complete two assignments in EE101: an Ethics Code Assignment (Assignment #1) and an analysis of an ethical case(Assignment #2 –given at a latter date). These two experiences are intended to show you some of the decisions that you might have to make and also the resources for making ethical decisions that are available to you.

CODE ASSIGNMENT: (Ethics Assignment #1)

Engineering Codes of Ethics represent formal statements of these obligations. Most professional engineering societies have formulated their own Ethics Code statements. While typically similar from one society to another, they may also reflect particular concerns of a specific technical area. The IEEE Code of Ethics is attached.

You are to locate a published code of ethics for any professional engineering organization besides IEEE and write a typed one-page summary of:

• The key components of your chosen code of ethics (NOT IEEE)
• The primary similarities of your chosen code and the IEEE code, as well as the

  differences

• Your opinions explaining these differences
• Include a link to the your chosen code